Melbourne and Tassie

On our first night in Melbourne it was the night markets at the Queen Victoria markets. The markets had a great vibe, it was a beautiful warm evening and everyone had come after work. There's live music, food and drink stalls and a great atmosphere as well as cool stalls. Day 2 we went on a tour of the city run by the tourist information. It was a great way of getting our bearings and seeing the city. On the tour we met a girl(Catherine) from Belgium who was over visiting her sister, we all went to the Queen Victoria markets to see them by day and in search of food! After eating A LOT of water melon! we found some delicious paninis! and did our fruit and veg shopping! That evening we met up with Catherine and her sister Evelyn to get in the Christmas spirit! we spent the evening viewing all of melbourne's christmas lights and decorations! Although it was nothing compared to London at christmas, it was a great evening, we especially enjoyed the displays projected onto the Cathedral and library.

It was then time to fly to Hobart,  we got to our bright green hostel, aptly named 'The Pickled Frog' and went straight to pick up our car, a Susuki Swift(thought about calling her Susie2 but that just didn't seem right!) - a small car at last! We drove down the peninsula to Port Arthur (the famous convict site) stopping en route at a blowhole, actually blowing water (we'd been puzzled up until now that they didn't seem to do much!) and a few other impressive lookouts over the rugged coastline.
Getting up early we got to Hobarts Saturday Salamanca market before it got too busy - great market, we'd be very poor if we lived nearby! Afterwards we drove up to Freycinet National Park on the east coast and walked up to a viewpoint over the beautiful Wineglass Bay - feeling very spoilt for natural beauty this trip, and that evening Tiff went for a gorgeous run along the nearby beach next to stunning blue waters and overlooed by rugged mountains!
Our first stop the next day was to a fantastic animal sanctuary which is leading the breeding program for Tasmanian devils whose numbers are dwindling due to a facial tumour - they are much cuter than I thought they'd be (in fact Tiff didin't realise they weren't mythical!) until they open their mouths and growl - it's a horrible sound!! The sanctuary had a huge open area with kangaroos free to hop around and who come towards you very quickly when they realise you have food for them! Driving on up the coast we stopped up the hills for some great savoury pancakes before reaching a brewery for some Tassie beer tasting, after we carried on up the coast to the Bay of fires - a beautiful unspoilt coastline. Carrying on, the rain started so, stopping only at a dairy farm for cheese tastings and to restock our lunch supplies we reached Bridport on the north coast to find we had the hostel all to ourselves, even vacant of the hostel owner until the late evening. The hostel was on the beach front and we had stunning views!
The next day we drove to Georgetown- not much here but there was a beautiful lookout just out of the town. From there we drove to low head- a beautiful scenic drive along the coast dotted with lighthouses. We drove through the beautiful Tamar valley to get to Lauceston(over the Batman Bridge!! on the way).  At Lauceston we went to the cataract gorge- which wasn't quite as we'd expected, but a great area filled with locals enjoying theirselves and a fairly dramatic view!
After spending a night in Lauceston we drove to cradle mountain via Elizabethtown!! and Redhills! not a lot to see in either of these places but we couldn't resist driving through. We also passed through Sheffield, a very lovely little town famous for the murials covering the buildings, and penguin! yes a place called penguin and yes they had a giant penguin! finally we made it to cradle mountain and had time for a walk around dove lake- it was spectacular! That night we stayed in Strahan, and went on a cruise the next day through McQuarie habour and the Gordon River. The cruise was lots of fun, the scenery gorgeous the whole way, mountains and rainforest lined the river and harbour. We had a couple of stops on the cruise, one being at sarah island which was used for the convicts originally and we had a very dramatic tour around the island! The second stop was for a walk through the rainforest. Our final full day in Tassie we drove back to Hobart. Along the way we stopped at some beautiful lakes and waterfalls, our favourite being Russell falls. On arriving in Hobart we drove to the top of mt Wellington, we had some great views on the way up, but unfortunately found ourselves in cloud at the top!