{11.02.2013, Mon}

Had home cooked breakfast (Maggie Mee for me, beef spaghetti for the rest) before we moved on to the east coast. We arrived at Swansea and I was greeted by the beautiful coastline that made me go wow all the way. We wanted to stop at Swansea for the night but unfortuantely, there isn't much accommodation that can fit the 7 of us. So we head back to Bicheno but before that, we went to Kate's berry farm for a short break.

We had lunch at Pork's Place in Bicheno, where we stuff ourselves with the huge serving of food. Hahahhaha. 

We then sought help from Bicheno Visitor Centre with regards to the accommodation and we are luckily enough to find one - Harvey Farm Lodge. However, since the owner was currently at Hobart at that time, we can only checked in at about 8pm.

With extra time on hand, we drove down to Freycinet National Park. We bought our pass (which is a whole day car park voucher) and headed deep into the park to the wineglass bay trail. The trail was a taxing 1 and a half hour trail which is difficult for my grandma to hike (steep path and tons of staircase) so my dad took her back to rest while the rest hike to the wineglass bay lookout.

I was tired and panting like nobody's business by the time I reached the look out so I had no time and energy to go all the way down to the wineglass bay for a stroll (it will be another hour). The view at the lookout was absolutely stunning and made all the hardship all worthwhile. Hahahah.

We walked back to the carpark where my dad and grandma was and was greeted by wallabies. They are not afraid for human at all! We drove back to Bicheno and unfortunately, we are way pass the closing time so there isn't any shops that are opened. We ended up getting fresh a dozen of oysters from a restaurant.

We were greeted by the owner of the lodge, a lovely Chinese lady. Since she's not done with housekeeping, we took a short drive around and head back to cook dinner. With the oysters and left overs from the previous day, my aunts managed to whipped out an oyster lettuce porridge for dinner. Not my favourite since I'm not a fan of oysters and lettuce but beggers can't be choosers.

It was close to 9pm when we finish our dinner and my parent, aunt and me rushed down to see fairy penguins as introduced by the owner of the lodge. (My aunt, uncle and grandma stayed behind because they were afraid of the cold). As we were kinda lost of what to do, we received a lot of help from the people around. People were so helpful that it makes me so touched. LOL.

Anyways, thanks to the kind passer-bys who helped us by showing us where the penguins is and even helped us to shine the red lights (since normal light will startle the penguins and we only have the normal torch), we managed to catch a glimpse of a couple of penguins (that stood near a rock (their nest) as though they are welcoming us). Though we are unable to stop the magnificent sight of crowds of fairy penguins returning to their nest, we are grateful to spot some from such a near distance.

So we headed back to the car after a glimpse (and also because it stinks lol), we drove around for a while before heading back to the lodge. I took a shower and spent my night reading a novel that I found in the TV console.


{12.02.2013, Tues}

Woke up and continued with my book in the morning before having breakfast (Maggie meeeee again). As we checked in late the previous late, the owner was generous enough to allow us to check out at 12 noon. So we head down to the glass bottom boat where took a short 45 minutes boat ride to see fishes, stingrays (gigantic ones seriously) and squid/calamari.

My aunts bought more oysters and cooked prawns before heading back to the lodge for last minute packing. The nice owner sent us off and introduced us to Aspley River Berry Delights.

We moved on, stopping by Aspley River for their award winning ice-cream which I swear is freaking medal deserving because it's really freaking awesome. Indeed the best ones in Tassie. Anyways, the owner is a cheery, witty and loud spoken man so we had a good laugh and chat with him before heading down to Swansea.

While the rest had oyster and prawns for lunch, my dad and I bought salmon wrap and seafood respectively. After lunch was the start of a freaking long ass road trip.

We went from Triabunna to Orford to Sorell looking for accommodation but no avail so we ended up at Richmond. Fortunately, we are able to find one - Hatcher's Manor. We quickly put down our luggage and head back to town to get our dinner. We managed to take away fried rice, potatoes and salad before cafe closes. With our dinner, we head back to the Manor and microwaved our dinner.

Spent the night watching Masterchef (professional) and NCIS (My favourite quote from the episode 'Gone' that struck on me: "One gets over the loss of a wallet or a watch. But a loved one they never leave you. You never get over; you only get through.")  before heading to bed for the night.


{13.02.2013, Wed}

We had breakfast (wraps, bread with can food bought from supermart) and checked out. We headed straight down to Sorell Fruit Farm where we can picked up fruits of the season all by ourselves. The fruits in the season was strawberries, nashi pears and apples. We had fun picking though and I finally found the huge dandelion that I'm looking for. I had truck lots of fun blowing and flicking them. HAHHAHAHAH.

We moved on around Port Aurthur and we managed to see lots of coast line. We settled lunch (fish and chips) because we were all starving by then. We headed back to Hobart, to City View Motel again to put down our bags. This time round we were given another room (which is not as good as the previous one) but I'm happy enough to have a place to stay. Hahaha.

Racing against time, we headed back down to town to do some last minute shopping. We walked around Elizabeth Street Mall where I spotted a lot of teenagers. With nothing to buy, we went back down to Eastland Shopping Centre and we shopped at Coles, getting souvenirs.

We went back to the city for dinner, Thai food again. Though it's Thai food again, the taste of the food are more towards Chinese style as the owners are from Hong Kong. Hahahha. We went back to the hotel for last minute packing and to rest.


{14.02.2013, Thurs}

It's Valentines' day and also the last day of my Tassie trip. We had breakfast in the motel early in the morning before heading down to Salamanca where my aunts, mom, uncle and grandma did their last minute haul at the local veggie and fruit store. So in the mean time, me and my dad headed towards Jackman and McRoss (a well know bakery in Tassie) with the help of helpful passer-bys.

Bought eclairs and a berry cheese tart. It was not as awesome as I thought perhaps because I'm still too full from breakfast but it's not bad too! I'm gona give it another try if I'm given the chance! Went back to the motel to check out and head straight down to Hobart International Airport.

Turns out that we were way too early so we wasted of time in the Aiport. Check in our bags and soon we were on our way to Melbourne for a stop over. We took Jetstar this time round (for some reason I also have no idea why) and I was assigned with a window seat :)

We reached Melbourne in a couple of hours time and we had lunch (wonton noodles) before checking in again. This time round (second time for me) we manage to experience the awesome Airbus A380! It was so much more comfortable than the flight to Sydney! Hahahha.

Spent my 7 plus hours of flight time watching Oscars winning movies (Atonement, Forrest Gump (wooo I love this classic) and half of La Vie en rose (french movie omg)) and eating non-stop again. HAHHAHAH.

Reached Singapore and again, I have a smooth 'transaction' with my mortal enemy. LOL. And this, marks the end of my Tasmania adventure~


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Personally, I love and miss Tasmania despite the climate is so shit ass dry that I'm peeling and breaking out like nobody business. Yes it's very slow paced and there's not much entertainment in the evening. BUT, I'm greatly drawn to the beauty of this heart-shaped island - regardless of the people or the scenery. I can't stress enough on how helpful the people is. They are so warm hearted that makes Singapore looks pretty heartless LOL. And oh god, the scenery was to die for. It's like living in heaven HAHHAHAHA. Given the chance, I will definitely go back to Tasmania for there are still things I have not visit or do.

I was asked by the officer at the Custom of Sydney on why am I visiting Tasmania. Now, I would like to answer back to the same question:

"Why not Tasmania?"