We flew to Tasmania from Cairns, so it was a change from tropical climate to more “normal”. Finally some use for the long sleeve shirts! It’s December, and the summer has started. The weather reminds of ours in Finland in summer time, can be warm (here warmer than in Finland), but can be also rainy.

The whole idea of Tasmania is because of Jarrah, the young orienteer, who stayed in our place to train for Junior World Orienteering Championships to be held next year in Tampere. We got the stay at his family in their big house at Kingston beach, near Hobart.

Hobart is a lovely small city, it has everything you need, and easy to go through by feet. We were lucky to be there on Saturday when the Salamanca market takes place.

In the harbor there was the ship of Sea Shepherds. They organized free tours to their brand new and fast ship, it was interesting to visit them and a bit support their good actions.

Hobart otherwise is just compact and nice with pretty old buildings and lovely parks. We sensed hint of Europe, there were more European products in the shops and somehow the atmosphere and people were just different from the ones we have met in Queensland and in New South Wales. Also, maybe as once found by the Dutch as Van Diemen’s land, there were some Dutch habits, like celebration for Sinterklaas!

Mount Wellington is 1271 m above sea level, and can be reached with a 22 km road from the center of Hobart. The views over the city and surrounding national parks are spectacular. 

Jarrah’s father Jemery was very kind and took us to a trip to Mount Field National park meanwhile Jarrah was learning life saving the whole weekend. We did a very long (compared to our experience) hike (“Tarn Shelf Circuit via Lake Newdegate, Twilight Tarn and Lake webster”) at Mt Field, and the scenery was something we have never seen before. There was a bit of Lapland and Norway in it! The forest changed during the walk, and was just impossible beautiful!

Down at the Mt Field there are the Russell Falls, one of the nicest waterfall we have seen. The whole national park was so lovely with the pretty views and happy people.

We made a two day trip to Freycinet National Park. There we had a walk around The Hazards Mountains to see the famous Wineglass Bay. We were on this trip with Jarrah and his girlfriend Francine, and got to stay in such a nice villa in Coles Bay. So relaxing time in perfect sceneries – without internet! Playing UNO as long as Jukka won (many rounds…).

The whole eastern coast line of Tasmania is said to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. And it indeed is! We didn’t go too far, but the sceneries we saw were just wonderful! There are lot of beautiful beaches, so many sheep and plenty of wineries. On the way back we took a dirt road “shortcut” to reach Port Arthur. The 4WD was needed! We also saw the animal called echidna (Finnish: nokkasiili) which was grossing the road (again, no photo…).

In Port Arthur Historic site (http://portarthur.org.au/) you can get the idea how the whole Tasmania basically has begun. The place is such a confusing mixture of natural beauty, and some tragic past. Definitely worth to visit (entrance 38 AUD).

On the way in Tasman National park we saw again great places, unusual geological formations, the Tasman Arch and Devil’s Kitchen, and the formation called Blow Hole. Never seen anything like that!

We didn’t have too much time in Port Arthur (if you go there, reserve at least 3 hours for the site!), as we needed to catch Hobart in time to take part in the local orienteering rehearsal. And yes, in the Queen’s Domain park there was really nice little competition. Marja took the medium track, and spent her time searching for target no 4 (for 8 minutes!!), otherwise she was satisfied. Jarrah naturally won the long distance, Jemery was really fast as well, while Jukka took his time. The results and GPS track are here: https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/ResultList?eventId=3382&groupBy=EventClass. And after all it wasn’t that scary to run in the local forest (it was more like a park), no snakes, no spiders! By the way, the result board was really cute. You get your name and time printed out as a sticker, and you attach the sticker to piece of wooden block and hang it in according to your position.

Our last evening Jemery offered us few great experiences! First, we made vegetarian pizzas with him. How many different things you can combine! Beans, tabasco, nuts… After the lovely pizzas we still went to a park to search for animals in the night. And we saw quite a few: bettong, wallaby, padymelon, possum and a bird tawny frogmouth. That was so great! We would have never gone there on our own (afraid of darks anyway…), and if had, we wouldn’t have noticed the possum in the tree etc.

Our return from this isolated island was with a ferry, Spirit of Tasmania, from Davenport. We needed to catch a bus to reach it, and it took us basically the whole day. The ferry is Finnish made (Kvaerner Masa-Yard), and it reminded us of the ferry we tend to take between Helsinki and Tallinn. No tax free tho.

So, here we come, Melbourne!