Landing In Launceston

On Tuesday 19 December we boarded a Virgin Blue flight with Marce’s mom, Alene, bound for Launceston, Tasmania. Upon arrival we collected our bags and obtained our 12-seat Toyota Hiace minibus. Last year in New Zealand we hired a Toyota Hiace having only seatbelts in the front two seats, which was a bit nerve-wracking on the narrow, windy New Zealand roads. This year however we had a shining new white Hiace with only 10,000 km on it, seatbelts all around, and giant red-letters “Avis” painted in bright red on each side. We all joked when looking for it in a parking lot that we could see it a mile away! On our first day we visited the Cataract Gorge, which is only 5 minutes out of town. The gorge boasts beautiful gardens, hiking trails, colourful peacocks, and a long chairlift which takes you across the gorge. It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time strolling around the gardens and hiking up the gorge. The weather was considerably cooler in Tasmania, with high temperatures rarely breaking 20 degrees Centigrade (70 deg Fahrenheit). On the second day Marce was fighting a cold, so Alene and I took the girls up north to Hillbrook strawberry farm. Unfortunately a recent frost had wiped out their strawberries, so we were unable to pick any. Instead we picked red currants and enjoyed strawberry parfaits out in the garden. We then went to the Swiss-themed town of Grindalwald and played a round of miniature golf. We returned to our villa to eat dinner and pick up Marce so we could drive to Low Head to experience one of the highlights of our trip, a Ferry penguin tour. At 9PM we joined a tour group of 15 people armed with red-flashlights and went out to special locations on the beach where a colony of 3,000 Ferry penguins returns each night. Just like clockwork the penguins started coming out of the water after sunset and walked in groups up various sand pathways through the bushes. If we stood still the penguins would not notice us and almost walk across our feet. We learned that they were returning from fishing at sea all day, and came back to their nest to take micro-naps of 4 minutes long. Apparently they do this at sea as well while floating in the water. It was great to be able to be so close to the penguins as they returned home. On Thursday we went to the Ashgrove Cheese Factory and after snacking on too much cheese, went to see the 190 metre long King Solomon Cave. Unlike last year's wet gloworm caves in New Zealand, this cave was dry and had a tight pathway through the calcite stalagmites and stagmites. On Friday we toured Seahorse World and the Platypus house in Beauty Point, approximately an hour north of Launceston. Here we learned that Australia has many species of sea horses, some right outside of Brisbane. In the Platypus house next door we were able to see and learn about the unique Australia mammal which gives birth to its young via eggs. We also were able to pet two echidnas, another unique Australian monotreme, similar to a cross between a porcupine and ant eater. After all this fun and learning we took a 20 minute hike to the beautiful Alum Cliff Gorge, located about one hour west of Launceston. We all agreed that Launceston was a great town and has much to offer.

Marc