Tasmania

Working in Cradle Mountain

30th October 2017Sarah2 Comments

After being back from Japan for a day, I received a phonecall asking me to go to Cradle Mountain in Tasmania for a couple of weeks work. It’s the kind of place where people pay a lot to travel to and visit so I thought why not. Two weeks was enough for me though, and I’m happy now to be able to spend the next couple of days chilling and watching Netflix as I have not really had much of a day off in the past two months at least.

Work was pretty easy and well paid. During my days off I did some of the bushwalks – one of the walks did get fairly dangerous at one point; you pretty much had to do the walk then climb your way out of it. Probably should have done it either with phone signal or with someone else.

During my time there I managed to cut every fingertip but one on my right hand doing the same bloody thing and it hurts to type, so just going to keep this post short and sweet.

North West Tasmania: a Food Tour

27th November 2016SarahLeave a comment

To clarify, I am not in Australia with Kanye West’s child.

I am stopping in Devonport to go on a food tour with the company Australian Wild Harvest. I had a fantastic day; we stopped off at a salmon farm, Ashgrove Cheese, Anvers Chocolate, a pig farm for lunch (cheese, pork, salad, wine), olive oil tasting, a cider house/distillery and a vineyard.

Launceston

25th November 2016SarahLeave a comment

It took around two and a half hours to reach Launceston, a small city in northern Tasmania. With my stuff in the hostel, I went on a brewery tour in Boag’s which I think will be the last one for a while. The tour in itself was alright, but with it being the fifth or so brewery that I’ve visited in the space of a few days, I am well informed of the process of beer making. After, I went for a walk in the city and bought some dinner.

Wednesday, I went to Cataract Gorge for the morning – it’s more or less a canyon with a few walking paths around, a really nice place for a long walk, though I chose a less strenuous path to begin with. I wanted some lunch after and I remembered an article that I’d read about the best 50 burgers in the world, and there is a burger joint here ranked amongst Fergburger in New Zealand. For those who aren’t familiar, Fergburger are famous for their over-sized, delicious burgers, and when I’m in New Zealand in two years time, it’s one of the places that I want to visit the most. After a quick schooner in a nearby bar, I visited the burger joint which ended up being a disappointment as it was alright at best – I have made a lot better. After, I headed to the city park where they have a monkey enclosure and watched the monkeys sod around for a good half hour or so.

The next day I popped into town, there was blue sky and sun so I went back to Cataract Gorge for a two hour hiking path, then came back to the hostel for a rest.

Earlier today, I went to Cradle Mountain – it seemed as though it’d be a drive there with a stop off, then do your own thing for a few hours, then come back. Instead, it was a shuttle bus to take people to and from a six day hiking path and the people who opted for a day tour did a few bits and pieces to keep the driver busy for a few hours. I feel as though I was ripped off by the company so there is one of my infamous emails coming to them soon.

For me, Launceston has been nice, but it won’t be the thing that jumps out at me when I think of Tasmania. It’d be a bit of a different story if the was no issue about driving, as I would have gone to the Tamar Wine Valley and driven myself to Cradle Mountain as well. I have my last stop in Tasmania tomorrow to go on a food tour on Sunday, then I’ll make a start on the East Coast.

Hobart

21st November 2016Sarah1 Comment

Finally, I have left my job and Melbourne – there were a couple of days between leaving work and flying into Hobart which were spent packing and trying to re-organise my backpack. The last night was spent at a pub quiz, our team The Great Barrier Queef did shockingly bad but the team name made up for it.

On Thursday I flew to Hobart and had to get a taxi with a couple of guys staying up the road to me as the airport bus was full. Thursday evening I did nothing, then Friday morning I went to the top of Mt.Wellington. The views from the top were awesome although it was so windy at the top that I think that if you took a small dog on a lead it’d turn into a kite. After, I went to MONA, having heard great things about it. The gallery lived up to the reputation of being weird and wonderful – it took a good couple of hours to get around the place. It’s one of the best galleries that I’ve been to, and if time permitted I would’ve visited the brewery there too.

On Friday I went out for most of the day with some people in the hostel for literally a piss up in a brewery (or five). It was a good day out, with a stop for some pho in the middle to re-line my stomach.

There was the option in one place to go for some chocolate stout, which I remember from a beer festival in Budapest on my second time there; it wasn’t quite the same but still bloody good. There was also quite a nice English beer named Brexit. In one of the last bars we were given beer jam, so naturally I tried it on a croissant for breakfast on Saturday morning. Not quite a hangover cure, but still good.

Saturday, I went to Salamanca Market – I was expecting more like a farmers market, but it was more like a flea market, not one that I was a fan of either. After, I headed to Cascade Brewery which took around 40 minutes to walk door to door, then went on their tour. It was pretty good for $25, with four tasting drinks at the end. By now, I think that I’ve been to enough breweries to last a few days, and since on Sunday I had a trip to Wineglass Bay, I came back to the hostel to put my feet up.

Today, it’s warm but raining so I had a look round some shops and went to read my book with a coffee. Tomorrow, I’m leaving Hobart to go up north and hopefully heading to Cradle Mountain during the week.

Wineglass Bay

20th November 201620th November 2016SarahLeave a comment

Today, I opted to go on a tour to Wineglass Bay since my driving skills aren’t brilliant. To be fair, I would’ve paid the $90 to not hire a car and spend 7 hours driving anyway. Once we arrived, we walked up to the lookout point, then the group split up. I chose to go to the beach as it’s ranked one of the top in the world, to walk there was good but to get back up was a right pain in the arse.

One Woman, One Backpack

20-Something working her way around the world with one backpack