Tasmania 2023
Helen
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| Darwin to Melbourne 2023 | New Zealand North Island 2023 |
We had a good experience at Melbourne airport, we flew with Virgin Australia who have their own terminal. Check in was easy and we were back by the gate with enough time to grab a coffee. The flight to Hobart was great, short and smooth, grabbed our duffle bag from the luggage carousel and headed off to pick up the van. The dealer for Let’s Go Motorhomes in Hobart is Tassie Motor Shacks who we had dealt with back in 2017. Pick up was great, Sarah was awesome and the van was spotless. Even better, our van was much newer with only 30,000kms and the cushions were in great shape.
We headed off to get lunch and some groceries before we settled down at the Big 4 Tourist Park by the airport to unpack and get organized. This van is Skippy PD… or Skippy Part Deux. It was an easy set up since it had the same layout as SOG(Skippy Original) but had a larger fridge and everything worked perfectly.
After a much better sleep, we took off to Huonville, staying at Huon Valley Caravan Park again, where we negotiated a site by the river. The next day we drove out to Hartz Mountains National Park to hike Hartz Peak. The road up to the trailhead was pretty challenging, technical and had some fairly sketchy bits especially with the van, but Paul handled it like a pro. It was a really windy day, but sunny and no pouring rain so we got to go past the lake this time! The trail to the saddle had a steep scramble with large rocks to climb, but we made it up. I stopped once we got a bit higher up from the saddle, but Paul decided to keep going thinking the Peak was close by. It was deceiving because he had to go quite a bit further to get to the top as there was a false peak. He made it all the way up to the actual peak but didn’t spend too long because it was cold and very windy. We had the appropriate gear, especially with our new fleeces, so we were fine but we did see a lot of people in shorts and t-shirts. On the way back down we stopped and walked over to Arve Falls, which was a short 2KM walk along a nice path to a lookout.
In the kitchen that night we met 3 older couples who had been friends for decades. They had all come over from the mainland and were off-roading with trucks and tent trailers. We had a great chat with them and enjoyed the visit. The next day we headed down to check out Hastings Caves. It was a bit rainy and overcast so a perfect cave day. We ended up seeing the 3 couples there… this was a trend for our time in Tasmania as we kept bumping into them. Hastings Cave was busy but the tour was good, especially when the guide sang acapella with the lights out. We decided to check out Tahune Airwalk that afternoon. It was a bit pricey considering how short it was, but the cantilever where you could walk out over the Huon River was cool. This is according to Paul, I can’t confirm, I had a death grip and didn’t look down much. We did a little nature walk down by the river and had the area to ourselves due to the rain. That night we decided to treat ourselves to a meal out and went to Franklin for Osteria @ Petty Sessions. We had a wonderful Italian meal, everything was made from scratch and we really enjoyed the evening. The next day was chores and walking into town for coffee. Paul found an echidna by the river and we spoke to a random guy panning for gold.
We headed over Mt Field National Park… with a stop at Dan Murphy’s in Hobart first. Google maps did its usual thing and took us up a fairly steep hill instead of a normal route but we made it. Last time we stayed in the National Park campground, which was okay but not fantastic. This time, we booked in at Left of Field and are we ever glad we did. We originally booked 2 nights and ended up there for 5. The owners, Adrian and Mel, are wonderful. It’s well laid out with large spots, beautifully landscaped and the river meanders alongside by the old train tracks. The outdoor showers are perfect after a day of hiking. You can walk from the campsite to the visitor center for the Russell or Lady Baron Falls and the Tall Trees walk. When checking in Mel told us they have a communal fire pit area where they serve drinks starting around 4 ish. The fire pit is a large chain link pit that Adrian had made from old shipping chains, so everywhere around it is warm. They took two large shipping containers, joined them together to create a bar that they have stocked with a large selection of different top end beverages… whiskey’s, port, mezcal, tequilas, gins… it’s a library for alcoholics!
We ended up there every night they had it opened getting to know Adrian, Mel and their kids, their friend Rob who helps with some projects, another Paul who sings and has a caravan on site and Mark who lives nearby. We met other campers and had great conversations with some late nights around the fire. Adrian and Mel are very free with the tasting, so oftentimes I’d look for Paul and find him in the bar with Adrian having a sample! We had some great hikes in the area and of course, saw the 3 couples at the Mt. Field visitor center. We drove down to Strathgordon and walked the Gordon Dam. The stairs are a steel grid, but I was able to handle it if I didn’t look down. Paul was peering over edges and even going off in one area that seemed sketchier than it should be. On the way back we did the Creepy Crawly and Twisted Sister trails. We spent several mornings at Fika Time Cafe in Maydena, at the recommendation of Adrian and Mel, where we had amazing breakfast and coffee. It was a close second to our infamous Hi-Way Inn breakies in Daly Waters. We hiked The Needles, which was a steep scramble up to a peak with a beautiful view. It’s not a long hike, but fairly steep and a rugged trail. Paul went all the way up to the top of the Needles, I stayed a bit further down. Adrian took us and another few campers to hike the Growling Swallet, through the forest to a crevice where a river runs through it into a cave. Paul braved the log jam to get into the cave, I stayed on the edge. On the way back we stopped at Junee Cave where they had plate spiders.
Eventually we had to leave Left of Field. We had many discussions around the fire, getting input from locals and other tourists. We decided to head north, skipping Cradle Mountain and going to Stanley, maybe checking out the Tarkine instead. We had an overnight at Mole Creek Caravan Park which was okay but mainly just a stop along the way. It was quite the drive to get there, fairly technical with hairpin turns and 25km speed limits. The next morning we stopped at Mole Creek Caves, which was a great tour. The only downside was hearing people coughing and spluttering at the campground and having a very sick person in the tour group. We did our best to avoid being close to her but it was a bit challenging. We headed off to Apex Beach Holiday Park in Ulverstone for a couple of nights. It was another fairly technical bit of driving on secondary highways that Paul handled like a “boss”. We walked over to the town for some sushi rolls, had a great coffee and went out to see if we could find the penguins. We could hear them, but didn’t have any sightings that night. We had a nice walk on our second day, just down by the shore before the storm blew in. It was pouring rain at night but we could hear the penguins so went out for a look and saw some coming up the beach. Happy to report we had no leaks in SPD! The campground here was really well set up, had a great kitchen and amenities building plus the couple who ran the campsite were really nice.
We did the shore drive to Stanley, through Penguin and stopped along the way in Wynyard for some groceries. We stayed along the beach at the Big 4 Stanley where we were able to see penguins in the rocks at night, they even came into the campsite. An old fella with a flashlight told me to follow him and went into the bushes. I waited for Paul before following because it doesn’t matter where you are, that’s weird! Turns out he wanted to show us the penguins that were nesting under the cabins. It was really windy and rained heavily so not a surprise when Paul woke up a bit under the weather. In Stanley there is a large hill called The Nut, it’s the plug of a volcano. You can hike up the Nut, which is a steep elevation gain or take the chairlift. We opted to walk from the campsite to the base of the Nut and up as it was sunny. It was really steep and there were several viewpoints on the top with signs explaining the history, flora and fauna of the area. Worth a visit! The walk back down felt even steeper and we had to be careful with our knees. We stopped for a well earned coffee on the way back to the van. When we were walking through the park by the campground, we saw the 3 couples having lunch. We stopped and visited, had a nice chat, one couple even gave us their contact info to connect when back on the mainland. Another evening full of penguin viewing and cold winds, had Paul waking up feeling a bit worse the next day.
We decided to head back to Ulverstone on the way down to Port Arthur. Unfortunately, Paul ended up getting quite the cold, so we extended our stay until he felt better. It was actually a good decision since I could walk for groceries, we had a nice spot and the amenities were good. Just as Paul got better, I ended up getting sick. In the end, we decided we weren’t up to the hiking in Port Arthur so headed back to Left of Field to spend our last few nights. It was the right decision and we were glad to be there.
Our last night was back in Hobart, at the Big4 campground by the drop off and airport. We spent the day cleaning, packing and getting everything ready. There is something about Tasmania that just is right for us and we both realized we could live there. We both agreed that we would 100% come back but now it was time for New Zealand!
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