A trip to the South.

Over the long weekend I had the opportunity to go on another trip with the Hingstons. This time it was down south to Snug for Sarah's guides regatta. Snug is just a little bit south of Hobart, it is about 15-20 minutes out of the city. We went down a bit early on the Friday and spent part of the day in Hobart. We went up Mt Wellington, which is a bit of a mountain that is pretty much right in the city. It is a great view from the top. 

The Pinnacle on top of Mt Wellington.

The view from the top.

I don't want to talk about how long it took us both to get on top of that little pillar.

Hobart.

Over the course of the weekend I had the chance to see a bit of Hobart. Fiona took me in on Saturday morning to go to the Salamanca market and have a bit of a look around down at the waterfront. I really liked the market. I am hoping I will be able to go again before I go home. We got there nice and early so we got to see pretty much everything before the crowds showed up and it got crazy busy.

 I also got to in a couple evenings for dinner and drinks. One night we went to this super cool restaurant that is decorated to look just like the inside of a ship. One of Fiona's cousins is a musician and she lives in Hobart. It just so happened that she had a couple of gigs at a couple bars in town. We went in to see her play twice. It was great. She does a lot of folk music and I really enjoyed it. The first night she played with a few other people at a place called the Lark Distillery. It was amazing. It is a whiskey distillery that, along with their whiskey, makes a really nice gin. It was really good. And the music was fantastic. All in all it was a really good evening.

Down at the waterfront.

I stayed the weekend in a tent in the caravan park at Snug. It was quite nice.

Sunrise over the water in Snug.

On Monday when the regatta ended, instead of going home with the droves of other vehicles, we went down to Tahune for the night. None of us had any work or school the next day, so we extended our long weekend even longer.

Tahnune is an aboriginal word that means 'peaceful place by running water.' It was so nice there. The major tourist draw in this park is the airwalk. Which is a giant walkway built up in the tree tops. But there are some other walks you can do as well. There is one walk out to swinging bridges over the river. There is another one we did that takes you to one of the most accessible stands of Huon Pine in all of Tasmania. They also have a hang glider. It is not really a hang glider. I mean, it is, but it is a hang glider that is attached to a zip line. So you do actually get hooked up to the glider, but you just slide along wires. Sarah and I went on it. It was fun. But basically just a zip line. I think advertising it as a hang glider is a bit misleading. We stayed the night at the backpackers lodge right out by the airwalk. One of the perks of staying there is that you can go on the walks in the evening after the visitors centre closes. So we went out and did the airwalk at night in the dark. It was fun. Although a giant tree did fall quite loudly somewhere in the area while we were out on the really high bit that sort of bounces around in the wind. It was a bit startling to say the least.  

One of the swinging bridges.

This stump/tree root looks very much like a horse head. Or maybe a dragon head. 

The airwalk from the ground.

Looking out towards the cantilever.

The "hang glider" with Sarah on it.

My turn.

It did go up pretty high, which was cool. You could see quite a way down the river. 

On the way home we stopped in at Mt Field National Park, which was absolutely beautiful. It is the home of Tasmania's most famous waterfall, Russel Falls. There were a few waterfalls you could walk to. We went to two of them. It was raining pretty hard while we were there so we didn't stay too long. The ferns there were so big, I felt like I was in Jurassic Park. It was so lovely, I liked it a lot. Then we drove home up the middle of Tassie through the lakes. It was a very different landscape than what I have seen so far. They get snow up there, so the trees and bushes are much smaller and scrubbier. It is just generally a lot more barren and rocky. 

See, look at the size of those ferns.

Russel Falls. When it is not the end of a hot summer, the falls have way more water. Unfortunately there has not been much rain lately. 

Horseshoe Falls. When there is more water the falls come down both sides and form a, yep you guessed it, horseshoe.

It was another fantastic trip where I got to see so much that I hadn't seen before. I had an amazing time. I am looking forward to getting to hang out with Fiona and Sarah in Canada when they come in July. Hopefully I will get the chance to pay them back for at least some of the kindness and hospitality they have shown me.