BE-ing in Tasmania

Tasmania, Tassie, The Apple Isle – this State in Australia might be small but it certainly punches above it’s weight for scenery, wilderness, food and history. A visit has been on my bucket list for years and finally at 65 I can now tick it off the list.

Mike and I spent a delightful three weeks BE-ing together and enjoying BE-ing in Tasmania and discovering it’s treasures. Tassie has it all and you feel like you are in Switzerland with the mountains, English villages, rugged coastlines, wilderness and wildlife. Not to mention the delicious produce – it certainly has become a ‘foodie’ hotspot.

I was so grateful that despite the bad weather and flooding the skies cleared for all of our planned visits and we only had one day where we stayed in. We thought we would have to change our plans and were constantly watching the weather alerts. BE-ing flexbile was certainly required but fortunately our plans didn’t have to be changed.

My heart goes out to all in Tasmania and Victoria who have been devasted by the floods and need to rebuild their lives.

I will be writing specific posts on areas that were extra special over the coming months because I want to share this special place with you and also to keep the memories alive. You know how it is, you travel and have a wonderful time and then you come home to the same routine and the travel memories quickly fade.

We were told that three weeks was ‘overkill’ and we could see Tasmania in two weeks. You can certainly do that as many places of interest are only a short drive from each other. However, we wanted to take our time driving around and soaking in each place we visited.

Our itinerary

6 nights Hobart – Flight from Brisbane to Hobart via Melbourne. We stayed in Hobart and explored the City, visited Mt Wellington and had a day trip to Bruny Island (which is a must do). We visited MONA – Museum of Old and New Art. I was told by several people that ‘you must visit MONA but keep an open mind’. It certainly is different and at times confronting but I’m glad we visited.
2 nights Strahan – We drove from Hobart to Strahan via Queenstown for two nights. Another ‘must do’ is the Gordon River Cruise which takes you through the pristine wilderness of Tasmania’s Western Wilderness. I can see why the protestors were so vocal in stopping the logging of this area.
1 night- Queenstown for one night
3 nights – Cradle Mountain. We stayed in a delightful cottage about 10kms from Cradle Mountain information centre. Another must do is to walk all or part of Dove Lake Circuit. I walked it all which was about 6km and despite showers and the cooler temperatures, I was dressed for it and enjoyed the natural beauty surrounding me.
1 night – Stanley in the North West was a surprise packet and a place I would throughly recommend especially taking the ski lift to the top of The Nut and taking in the 360° views. The Seafood Platter we shared at Hursheys was delicious and one of the best I’ve eaten.
1 night – Launceston was a quick stay to catch up with a good friend.
3 nights – St Helens – the beautiful Bay of Fires is a must see and we took the Bay of Fires Eco Tour Cruise. We also took the opportunity to drive down to the Freychinet Peninsular a day earlier as the weather was perfect. I walked to the top of the Wineglass Bay Lookout and although it is a challenging climb with numerous steps it was so worth it for the view.
3 nights – Swansea – a beachside town. On our second day we drove to the Midlands about 1 hour away to visit Ross an historic village.
1 night – Richmond another historic town which I would totally recommend and wished we could have stayed another few days. We stayed in the Garden Cottage at Mulberry Cottage B&B and I could certainly live there! Maureen our host was so welcoming and the cottage was beautiful – cosy yet so well appointed. A highlight was a visit to the Christmas Shop at LaFayette on Bridge – if you love Christmas you will be in your element as I was.

A quick overview in photos

As I mentioned above, I’ve decided to write a series on some of the more special places we visited. Here are some highlights to start with….

Booking Accommodation

I booked our accommodation through Booking.com which always has options for free cancellations in case plans change. All of the accommodation lived up to expectations except one.

Booking a Hire Car

Hiring a car was the way to go for us. We could take our time and follow our own schedule. We hired a medium sized vehicle which was roomy although hire cars are not permitted on unsealed roads so we couldn’t drive too far ‘off road’. In saying that, we still saw everything we wanted to and the roads were well maintained and easy to drive.

Mobile Phone Reception

The only negative for us was the non-existent mobile phone reception for those of us who are not with Telstra. I hadn’t given this a thought when planning our holiday as we were still in Australia, I assumed our reception would be good. Fortunately, all our accommodation and public places had free wi-fi but we couldn’t make phone calls. I will be checking this in future travels

BE-ing in Tasmania

• quality time with my darling
• experiencing natural beauty, history and wildlife
• eating fresh and delicious food
• grateful that we had no problems and the trip when smoothly.

I would highly recommend a visit to this beautiful State in Australia.

Welcome to the 2022 WOTY Link Party

2022 WORD OF THE YEAR LINK PARTY GUIDELINES

The 2022 WOTY Link Party is a way for us to stay accountable to our WOTY (or Goals or Intentions if you haven’t settled on a particular Word for the Year) and write about how we are tracking each month on the last Thursday PM (Northern Hemisphere)/ Last Friday AM (Southern Hemisphere). We would still encourage everyone to leave a comment or if you have written a post feel free to link up with us.

What: 2022 Word of the Year Link Party (#2022wotylinkpary).
When: Last Thursday PM (Northern Hemisphere)/ Last Friday AM (Southern Hemisphere). The link will be open for 3 days so you’ve got plenty of time to join.
Why: To encourage us all to keep the focus on our chosen WOTY (OR GOAL OR INTENTION)
Where: Link Party, Blog, Blog Comments, Instagram or other Social Media.
Who: This linkup is open to everyone.
How: You can share in the comments, with a blog post, or on other social media of your choice. Include the hashtag #2022wotylinkparty so that we can find you and include your link in our posts.

Be a proud contributor to #2022wotylinkparty

To show our appreciation to all participants, contributors are welcome to display this badge on their blog, website or social media.

Sharing their WOTY progress this month

Take a moment to link through to see what my co-hosts and others have written……

Deb from Deb’s World
Jo from And Anyways
Donna from Retirement Reflections 

Now over to you – how are you living your WOTY, Goal or Intention?

Deb, Donna, Jo and I hope that you will join us each month and share what you’ve been doing to focus on your 2022 WOTY. If you have any questions just ask us. You can also link to any, or all of our posts, with a pingback, that way we get to see your posts quicker!