In Tasmania

Maria Island

It occurred to me today that I've truly been island hopping... From the North Island of New Zealand, we flew last week to Melbourne on the island continent of Australia, then on to island state of Tasmania, where we then ventured on a day trip to the natural preserve of Maria Island just off the eastern coast. Kind of like the Russian nesting dolls of travel.

Jeannette was invited back to teach a 3 day class in Hobart, Tasmania so I decided to tag along. When we were here a year ago, we couldn't visit the west coast due to vast wildfires and dense smoke, so we thought another visit was in order to allow us to explore the west coast.

Tasmania is an island off the southeast coast of mainland Australia, the smallest of Australia's six states. 45% of the state is in reserves or parks, and contains an amazing array of climate zones in a relatively small land mass. It is the southernmost part of Australia: if we were to head westward from Strahan, the first landmass we would hit would be Argentina, making this the longest uninterrupted expanse of ocean on the globe. If we were to head eastward and manage to skip over the south island of New Zealand, the next land we would reach would be Chile. When the weather hits here, it is coming from a long way off.

When they arrived 200 years ago, early settlers to Tasmania noted : “The swans were black, not white. The trees shed their bark but kept their leaves. The seasons were reversed. They called it ‘The Antipodes’ – the name means ‘direct opposite.”  As we have visited different landscapes here, Jeannette and I will take turns commenting to each other "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore".

Cradle Mountain boardwalk trail

Cradle Mountain

Rainforest

Painted Cliffs

In my favorite book about Australia (In a Sunburned Country), Bill Bryson writes:

“It has more things that will kill you than anywhere else. Of the world's ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of its creatures - the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick, and stonefish - are the most lethal of their type in the world. This is a country where even the fluffiest of caterpillars can lay you out with a toxic nip, where seashells will not just sting you but actually sometimes go for you. ... If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, or left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback. It's a tough place.”

I think he may have been an optimist... I think some of the minerals are probably out to get us as well.   Sadly, we failed to photograph the 6" Huntsman spider that Jeannette found crawling up my arm as I was packing the car to leave... somehow ripping my shirt off as quickly as possible seemed more important than the photographic record of the event at that time.

Maria Island Wombat

But then there is the Wombat. It is not trying to kill anything. It is built like a squat, furry tank. How could you not love a wombat? Jeannette has been wanting to see one in the wild for many years, but we'd only encountered them in the zoo. This time we succeeded in tracking them down during a hike in Cradle Mountain National Park. Well worth the wait. A few days later, after dinner at a friend's house just outside Hobart, we were visited by a group of wallabys (technically they were pademelons), and two different kind of bandicoots. I think I've decided that my future rock star moniker will be 'Billy and the Bandicoots'.

Suburban Pademelons