Tasmania - Wineglass Bay

In an attempt to get out of the city and into some nature, I joined a guided tour to the Freycinet National Park in order to see the iconic Wineglass Bay (which consistently ranks in the top 10 beaches).  The van came to pick me up at the ungodly early hour of 7:00am, we picked up the rest of the travellers, and were off. 

One thing that I really enjoy about these little day tours is that they stop off at places that I normally wouldn’t if I were driving myself.  And you get some local background information.  About an hour outside of Hobart, we stopped at a little roadside rest stop which had a great view of Maria Island.  In its previous life, Maria Island had been a convict settlement, and a cement plant (don’t ask me why they decided a concrete plant on an island is a good thing – particularly since there is no bridge), but now it’s a national park – and biologists and animal scientists are using the island to create separate colonies of healthy populations of animals.  Apparently the goal is to study these populations, and if diseases break out on the mainland, hopefully the animals on the island will be quarantined.  Sadly this plan came to fruition after the Tasmanian Devil populations have been decimated by a contagious cancer.

Maria Island in the distance.

A nice little look out over the countryside - yes those are grape vines.

Back in the van we all went, and onward we drove until we got to the National Park.  The sun finally came out, but let me tell you – I was glad that I’d bought a jacket in Melbourne, as the wind coming off the water was so cold.  Up the “mountain” we hiked, until we got to the lookout.  The view was absolutely stunning – I could see from a distance why the bay ranks in the top 10 consistently.  Time for some pictures, and then the clouds rolled in and the rain came down, ruining any plans to continue down for a swim.

The "mountain" we had to hike to get to the lookout.

Cool Rock formation.

Wineglass Bay.

Not to let a little rain ruin the rest of our trip, we continued on, doing a coastal walk to a special “secret” place that our guide knew about.  Up a hill, down a hill, climb over this rock, now over this rock – by the end of the hour long hike, I was thinking this better be a really good secret place.  Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a cave – one that was discovered by our guide when him and some buddies went “fishing” and were too intoxicated to drive home afterwards.  I don’t know how they found it, but it was a pretty neat experience.

Ocean Scenery on our Hike

Crawling into the cave

And back out again.

Afterwards, it was back into the Van to drive out to the final lookout.  If you squint your eyes, and use a lot of imagination – you can almost see Antarctica.  Almost.  Not really, but it’s nice to imagine.  No wonder it was so bloody cold.

Looking back towards Wineglass Bay.

There are seals on the rocks.

Squint.  Really Really hard.

Megan's Scary Scary Night in Hobart

As my sister Sarah can attest – I don’t do scary.  I don’t like scary movies, and I’m really not a fan of horror books (I read Pet Cemetery and it haunted me for weeks).  So it really didn’t make a lot of sense for me to sign up for the Battery Point Ghost tour in Hobart, but in my quest to step outside my box, I signed up – promising myself that I’d keep an open mind (and telling myself that if it got to scary, I could always leave).  And besides, it’s not like I really believe in ghosts.

I met my group in the evening down in the Salamanca Square at the Salamanca Bakery.  I had been a little pessimistic about the entire evening as it had poured rain for the entire day, but just as I was getting to the bakery, the clouds broke, and a rainbow lit up the sky.  I took it as a good sign.

Let me just say that it was probably one of the best tours I’ve ever been on.  It was a wonderful way to walk about a neighbourhood, and learn the history of the area – particularly the seedy history of an area.  From housemaids impregnated by clergy, to the poltergeist house, to the church tower where a convict was hidden by a cleaning girl, each site that we stopped at had multiple stories to be told.  I don’t want to say too much, because if anyone ever goes, I don’t want to ruin the experience. 

Does it look like the church tower is leaning?  Because it isn't.

It's apparently haunted by a poltergeist.

You'd never know it from looking at it, but apparently this used to be a whorehouse with quite a reputation.

Probably the most terrifying part of the evening was the entrance to the tunnels that run under the Princes Park.  These tunnels were dug when Hobart was settled, and used as the storage areas for the ammunition for the cannons used to protect Hobart from invasion.  Hanging out in a small dark area – not my most favourite thing to do, but it was incredibly interesting to hear about how the soldiers spent their time, and the resident ghost who likes to make his presence known to young girls.  Two of the girls on our tour say they felt something while in the tunnels.  Me, I kept taking pictures of the walls, trying to get some of the centuries old graffiti.

The entrance to the tunnels.

They tell me that the spots are "orbs" or spirit energy.  Hmmm.

While I had a great time on the tour, and I didn’t get that scared at all (basically because I was too interested in the history of the area and the stories that could be told), afterwards, on my walk back to the hostel, by myself, with nothing to distract my mind from what I’d heard, I started to get a little nervous.  And then, as I was making my way through my rambling centuries old hostel back to my room, I started to spook myself.  So maybe, just maybe, I do believe in ghosts after all?