This past weekend myself and two of my friends visited the beautiful island state of Tasmania down south. We spent four day’s road-tripping down the east coast of the island from Launceston to Hobart. We ran into a couple of issues along the way, like a flat tire, a potentially haunted hostel, road kill, and rough road conditions, but had a great time nonetheless. A reoccurring struggle I have come across throughout all of Australia has been the lack of wifi and reception, which has been great to disconnect form technology but makes communication with people both back home and here in Australia difficult. However, in order to remember this weekend, I kept a journal to keep track of everything we did. These four days in Tasmania were very action packed, so I will split this trip into two posts. Here’s how we spent the first two days of this Tasmanian road trip:
Day One:
Thursday afternoon, after we all finished our classes for the week, we flew from Sydney to Launceston. The flight was a lot shorter than I expected, only two hours away, so we were there in no time. In our taxi from the airport to the city center, where our hostel was, we met a nice local driver that had lived in Tasmania all his life. With a super heavy accent, he was a little difficult to understand, but provided us with some interesting trivia regarding Tasmania and Launceston.
Before coming to Tasmania, a couple of local Sydney-siders had told us that Tasmania was “unlike anywhere else in Australia” and that it was similar to the deep south of America, in that people generally don’t move from Tasmania and many actually stay on the island all their lives. With a slightly stronger accent and more laid back way of running their businesses, restaurants, and hostels, we noticed the difference immediately. Our taxi driver was amazed to hear that we had traveled all the way from America and England, and was very excited to point out some of the bigger points of interest in Launceston. After a long, chatty ride, he finally dropped us off at our hostel in the “heart” of Laucneston. Launceston was a lot smaller and quieter than we had expected. On a Thursday night, we enjoyed some great Indian food, however we were the only three people in a restaurant. In a place that trip advisor had recommended as the “best atmosphere for a Thursday night”, throughout the course of the night, only three other people showed up. Very different vide to anywhere we had been to in Sydney for sure.
Walking back to our hostel, we passed maybe five or six cars in total. It was a very empty city. That night, we had a hard time falling asleep, as there was some horrible screeching and whistling noise coming from the windows and banging coming from the hallway. Needless to say, we got up at the crack of dawn the next day and continued on our way.
Day Two:
The morning after our scary hostel night we picked up our rental car from down the street. One thing to note with rental cars in Australia is most cars are operated manually. If you are like most typical Americans and don’t know how to drive manual, it is imperative to request an automatic car to rent. Luckily, there was an extra automatic car in the lot for us to take.
On our way to our first destination, Bay of Fires, we made numerous stops to take pictures of the beautiful rolling fields, hills, and valley lookouts. The road was generally empty on this Friday morning, so we were able to take our time and really appreciate the scenery. Once at the Bay of Fires, we walked along the beach and took some more pictures of the bright, orange colored rocks in the bay and grabbed some lunch. After Bay of Fires (and getting slightly lost, relying only on a paper map due to the lack of reception for our GPS), we made our way to our next stop along the coast, Wineglass Bay.
After another three hour drive and hour long hike, we finally made it to the lookout point for sunset. It had a beautiful view of the sweeping, “wineglass rim” shaped beach below, the ocean out to the left, and the mountains surrounding the coast off to the left. After admiring the view, we got back into the car for our last four hour leg of the journey down south to our next and final destination for the day, our hostel in Port Arthur.
Unfortunately, by the time we got back on the road after sunset, a lot of the nearby restaurants and gas stations had closed. Luckily, about an hour into the drive, we came across a pizza joint and 24-hour gas station. After refueling (in more ways than one) we got back on the road. Multiple people at the restaurant had warned us to take caution regarding the “critters” we may encounter on the road. We weren’t exactly sure what to expect with this, but their warning of “a few critters” was a dramatic understatement. With no street lights and no other cars on the road (we only counted ten cars throughout the whole journey), it was impossible to spot these animals until it was nearly too late. Swerving to avoid the countless wallabies, echidnas, wombats, possums, and bunnies, we finally made it to our hostel with only a few casualties. As part of the Northeastern cycle, I had a couple of co-op interviews scheduled for Friday morning EST, so I stayed up late in our hostel with our limited wifi to carry out these phone calls. After a long day, we finally settled in and prepared for day two of driving tomorrow.
The first leg of this journey was composed of lots of wildlife, beautiful views, and tons of driving. Had we had more time, I would have liked to spend more time in the Wineglass Bay area, completing more hikes and getting the chance to walk on the beach below. Additionally, I wouldn’t have spent as much time in Launceston as we did. There is really not a lot to do there and you’d be better off continuing on your way to the coast sooner to avoid wasting time. Most of the action in Tasmania is along the coasts (both the East and the West), so I would recommend maximizing your time in these areas.
For part two of this trip and to hear about our time finishing the road trip and ending in Hobart, be sure to check out my next post!
