December 26th - We left the Old Woolstore Hotel (loved it) in Hobart with the intention of spending the day on the Tasman Penninsula. Now, I need a map as the vast majority of you could not find AUSTRALIA on a map much less Tasmania. One moment while I hit Google. Amuse yourselves...
Alright, there we are. Hobart, for the map illiterate, is the "star" at the bottom and the Tasman Peninsula is clearly marked for you. The plan for Day 1 was to drive down and explore this penninsula focusing on Port Arthur, a location that served as a convict prison for many years in the middle 1800s and is a major tourist attraction today (much to the chagrin of the now dead convicts I would imagine).
On the Tasman Penninsula
The entire drive down to Port Arthur would only take 1.5 hours so we planned to make a stop along the way at the Tasmanian Devil Zoo. We know our luck with wildlife in the wild and we are not leaving Tasmania without seeing Devils. They are too cute! Cuddly looking, but they will bite your fingers off if you get too close. We got to watch the keepers feed a male and two females who were penned together and loved watching them “grrrr” and fight over the pieces of rabbit. They ate the bones and all! Apparently, the Tassie Devil has the strongest bite pressure of any mammal on earth. I’d believe it as we could hear bones crunching with every bite.
Another to add to the "Fun Animal Road Sign" Collection
Adorable... from a safe distance
Keeper teasing the hungry devils. Good way to lose an arm!
What you can't see are the 3 other pieces lying a short distance away
Which is more cute and cuddly?
We also visited the other animals in the small zoo, wallabies, kangaroos and birds of all kinds. Our favorite was the Tawny Frogmouth, an owl-looking bird that we both thought looked exactly like a “Furby” – the toy from a few years ago that you could “teach” to talk. Basically balls of fluffy feathers about the size of a 16” softball.
Tell me those aren't just Furbies in a cage!
'Roo with Joey in her pouch
How cool am I?!?!
After leaving the park, we took one more quick detour before getting to Port Arthur. We had seen photos from our friends of Tasman Arch, a natural rock formation just a quick jaunt toward the coast. Pretty cool indeed. There once was another arch in Victoria that led out to a stone pillar in the ocean, but it collaped in the early 1990s stranding a couple of Canadians out on the new pillar! They had to be rescued by a helicopter. No wonder why people are not allowed out on the Tasman Arch.
Alright, that's plenty for today. Tomorrow I'll rock up with the photos of Port Arthur and finish off Day 1 of our Tassie Adventure!
Jon
