Tasmania 2026
Helen
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| Lipe 2026 | Melbourne to Cairns 2026 |
We know, we know… we said we weren’t going back. Yet here we are, doing exactly that 😁! Long story short, or the TL;DR version: we got a really good deal on a van we couldn’t pass up, used Air Canada mileage rewards for some nice “bidness class” flights which included an A-350 and booked a 3 month roadtrip. Skip the next two paragraphs if you are good with that! The longer version is that I had started following Let’s Go Motorhomes on “the socials” after the 2023’s trip.
When we were in Calgary, a post popped up for a new van that was on sale for $99/day which had me perusing the details. Paul happened to see this and was also curious, so we started looking into it. The van in question is The Tourer. It is a new build on the Renault base with a different layout. The permanent bed set up was a big positive and other than no wet bath, was noted to have the same options as the Escape. Because it was new, there were not a lot of photos and we had to get in touch with Let’s Go who confirmed some of the features. We love Tassie in autumn, so we tried to book a full month there but van availability had us limited to 24 days. No complaints here, though, the deal was so good we figured it justified a trip back to the mainland! We were able to add those remaining 6 days there, bringing our grand total to 90 days. Our thoughts of finishing the “Big Lap” were kiboshed by a quick look at the autumn weather forecast for WA and the NT, sending us back to the East Coast. We were okay with that as we love our beach walks and there is still so much we haven’t seen. To make it feel more like a new adventure we decided to head from south to north, going from Melbourne to Cairns. Paul spent a day or two looking at flights and found some really nice “bidness class” ones that we could book using our mileage rewards. We’d fly KL-SIN-PER-HBA and then CNS-SIN-BKK. We booked everything and started looking forward to another roadtrip.
Everything came to halt when we asked for more photos of the van and found out it didn’t actually have some advertised features, such as a microwave and TV 🤬. Doesn’t sound like a massive deal but we used both daily in our prior roadtrips, the TV as the computer screen and melted cheese people! This started a flurry of back and forth with Let’s Go and us trying to sort out other options. They were all “oops my bad… sooorrry but nothing we can do" and “you can cancel for a full refund if you want, your choice”, which wasn’t really a choice. It was a pisser as we were already looking forward to it and even though our flights were booked using reward points, we’d lose the fees. In the end, we found a work around, we’d bring the monitor from Thailand for the TV and use the camp kitchens when possible, maybe get a cheap microwave. It meant travelling with a duffle, but we could work with that. After a lot of pushing, Let’s Go tossed in free propane refills and a toll pass. Overall not impressed with Let’s Go handling of the issue, especially for repeat customers. Drama over and we were back to looking forward to the trip!
After a busy but productive week in KL, we were on our way. When we checked in for our KL-SIN flight, they let us know that we could get the earlier flight instead of having a 3 hour wait in the lounge. Worked for us since it was also on the A350. We still had time to get a quick stop at the KL lounge, long enough for Paul to scarf down some pasta while I had some snacks. Our flight to Singapore was smooth and short, leaving us plenty of time to head over to the lounge. It was packed, but we managed to grab a couple of seats, have a quick snack, and go for a walk before boarding our flight to Perth. For whatever reason—and there are way too many to list—we (okay, me) tend to eat way more than normal when flying 🤭. This was another good flight and we landed in Perth very early in the morning. We sat in the Virgin lounge for a bit, had some decent coffee and of course took advantage of the fact there was food. Gluten free sausage sandwhich… yes please! We had a few hours before the last flight to Hobart so we set up our Telsim sim cards, sent some emails and probably sat there looking stunned because neither of us had slept that much. The flight to Hobart was smooth and we had a nice meal. The steward at the front of the cabin was extra vigilant about the toilet being for business class use only and kept sending anyone from economy back behind the curtain… “no toilet for you”!! I got a big apology when he told me economy toilets were at the back before recognizing he had recently given me coffee. We landed on time, but had quite the wait for luggage before heading to our hotel for the night. We went for a short walk to get some air, grabbed ourselves some Subway for dinner and went to sleep.
The next morning Rob, from Tassie Motor Shacks which is Let’s Go Tasmania van depot, picked us up and Jo had us on the way within 30 minutes. They had told us about a good breakfast place nearby so we headed over to come up with our plan of attack for stocking up the van. We needed to hit a butcher and grab groceries before making our way to Left of Field. It was a good thing we did, too—not only was the food delicious, but it’s also where we discovered our absolute favorite coffee of the entire trip. We managed to get everything sorted and by late that afternoon we were unpacked, hugs exchanged and enjoying being around the firepit at L.O.F. It was great to be back!
We spent the next few weeks walking around Mt. Field National Park. Some days we did a shorter walk where we went along the Tyenna River, across the bridge and around the front of the park. Other days hitting up the 3 Falls, Tall Trees hike. We finally figured out the short cut that removed about 200 stairs… thanks Mel! 🤗 Adrian, Mel and the kids, Craig, Bill, Nev, Tassie Paul (the singer) and Mark were all there at various times. There was live music with Drew Blundell, which was really good. He even knew some Tragically Hip! Drew played another night with a fiddle player called Pixie Jenkins, who was also awesome. We had a couple of quieter nights with Tassie Paul singing. Our last night was a free concert by 8 Ball Aitkin and Tanya, which was really good. We had various nights of roast lamb, white anchovies and blue cheese, sausages and sushi shared around the firepit. I made Pad Kra Pao for everyone, maybe the start of a traditional Thai night? We had some cool, rainy nights which had us appreciating the remote operated diesel heater in the van. We’d turn it on before getting up in the morning and it kept the van toasty. Paul helped Craig with some wiring on his bike, then Nev with his solar controller and Alan with some wiring. We had lots of interesting, and occasionally weird, conversations around the fire while tasty beverages were consumed. It was really great to just relax with everyone.
We wanted to do some longer hikes so booked a stay at Port Arthur and planned some time in Cradle Mountain. In Port Arthur, we stayed at the NRMA campground and made plans to hike Cape Raoul. We had a hot and sunny day for the hike and it was lovely. The path had changed a bit, not surprising since it’s 9 years since we were first in Tasmania. There are more stairs and switchbacks added along with some benches and marked paths at the top. Apparently, you can now do a 3-night tour with overnight guesthouse stays and boat rides to the next trailhead. The whole area has been upgraded, right down to the parking lot road. It was a nice day and while we were both a bit tired, we really enjoyed the hike. On the way back, we randomly stopped at the store and Paul found Moo Brew, an IPA that he really enjoyed. The next day we were supposed to head to Cradle Mountain, but the weather didn’t co-operate. It was going to be raining heavily for the next 3 days and we wouldn’t be able to hike Marion’s Lookout. It was a 4.5 hour drive to get there, a long way to go just to sit in the van. The fuel price increase also had to be factored in since the drive would mean at least two full tanks. It wasn’t a hard decision to head back to L.O.F. for our last week in Tasmania.
We spent our last night at the Big 4 in Hobart. Our flight to Melbourne was fairly early and we had to clean, fuel up and drop off the van so we figured it was the best option. We managed to get everything done, including a stop at New Norfolk on the way to hit up the White Wallaby for laundry and grab some lunch. This meant we could relax that evening. We dropped off the van bright and early and Rob dropped us at the airport with time to get a coffee. We’ve both already talked about Tassie 2027 and coming back for longer. Hopefully the weather will co-operate and we’ll head to Cradle Mountain and possibly the “Edge of the World” .
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| Lipe 2026 | Melbourne to Cairns 2026 |