Tasman Peninsula

From Hobart, we headed out to the Tasman Peninsula, where it was hard to tell if the frightening Tasmanian Devil road signs were there to protect the Devils from us or the other way around.

 

In addition to soaking up the peninsula's gorgeous scenery...

...and ridiculous abundance of wallabies and other wildlife....

...we visited the Port Arthur Historical Site, both for a nighttime Ghost Tour and then again the next morning for the introductory tour, a harbor cruise, and some independent wandering among the buildings that composed this brutal penal colony during much of the 19th century, when the British Empire was sending its worst to Tasmania (then Van Dieman's Land) for punishment (and reform?). It was such a beautiful setting it was kind of hard to wrap one's brain around the brutalities endured by those interred here.

On our way off the peninsula, we also stopped at a wildlife refuge center that gave us a chance to get upclose and personal with wallabies, kangaroos...

...and the Devils themselves! I somehow had never heard about the crazy, contagious mouth cancer that is wiping out all the wild Devils. So interesting to learn how captive preservation programs are widespread and will be the key to preventing the species' extinction. Basically, they will have to wait until all wild Devils have died of the cancer (which it looks like they certainly will) and then begin to reintroduce the healthy populations being bred in captivity into the wild to repopulate the island with wild Devils. They aren't too cute, but they're really fascinating!

Hobart

At the end of the wedding festivities, we boarded another plan and jetted away from the mainland...

 

...to the wilds of Tasmania!!
Our first stop was the capitol city of Hobart, with its lovely port, mountainous backdrop...

...and relatively new, world-famous, avant-garde (avant-gaude? maybe) museum-like-no-other, MONA. We took the ferry to the museum from the city center, so that even our approach was artful, you could say.

There were so many interesting and bizarre exhibits--a waterfall of sorts that spelled words:

--and a sculpture made entirely of ash from burned incense, which is slowly disintegrating in front of visitors' eyes:

--and my favorite, the trampoline (maybe I'd be more of a museum-goer if they all had trampolines!):

My father, who usually speed-walks through museums and then waits outside impatiently for the rest of the group, was actually the last one to leave. We had to practically drag him out of there as he was checking to make sure *he hadn't missed anything* (no joke).

This day also happened to be my parents' 40th wedding anniversary AND my dad's birthday. The museum apparently left him in such a great mood that later, walking along the wharf, when I asked to take a picture of him and my mom in honor of their anniversary, he surprised the socks off her and did this:

Held the pose for an impressively long time, too, to make sure I captured the moment on film. Happy anniversary, guys!

Port Stephens

From Melbourne, we flew to Newcastle and spent a few days in the lovely Port Stephens area. Local natural wonder: Worimi Conservation Lands, with 34 uninterrupted kilometers of sand dune system right up on the beach. G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S. place for a walk.

 

But the real reason we made the trip to Port Stephens was for the wedding of the daughter (J) of one of my dad's best and oldest friends. It was a beautiful ceremony, in a grove of gum trees....

...with these old college buddies finding plenty of moments to remember and treasure their shared history.

The park where the ceremony was held overlooked the local docks...

...and everyone involved lived up to the romantic setting, no doubt.

The beachside stroll from the park to the reception at a local restaurant had us gawking at the pelicans that were EVERYWHERE.

Just a bit of trivia to end the post. Can you find this man...

...in this picture?

Wilsons Promontory

Before leaving the Melbourne area (for now; SR and I will be back), we took another daytrip to the southeast of the city: the wilderness area of Wilsons Promontory. Wilsons Prom was recommended to me by multiple people who gave me advice for this trip, and it did not disappoint. Squeaky Beach was gorgeous.

 

The retreating waves were making the most incredible patterns in the sand, including these tree-looking rivulets.

And at the Tidal River campground and café picnic tables, we got our first glimpse of the famed Australian kookaburra (though this one did not happen to be sitting "in the old gum tree")!

The views across the promontory, most of which can only be accessed on its extensive walking trails, made me long for more time for hiking here.

We did take an afternoon hike on Lilly Pilly Gully trail, which was lovely.

We also appreciated some emus who seemed to be residents of an open field alongside the only road into the park; they were there when we arrived and still attracting visitor attention there when we left.

Yet another lovely day in a lovely life.

 

The Great Ocean Road

During our Melbourne time, we took a daytrip along the coast to the west of the city--an incredibly scenic drive known as The Great Ocean Road. Our first stop was probably the most dramatically beautiful: The Twelve Apostles, and Gibson beach in Port Campbell National Park.

 

That was the westernmost point of our drive, and from there we spent the rest of the day meandering our way back toward Melbourne, stopping along the way to see (not at all in this order; for some reason the pictures got all jumbled in uploading) cockatoos in Lorne...

...Bells Beach, famous for its fickle swells (two surfers had died there just the previous week), an annual (? I think) surfing competition held there, and for being (supposedly--it wasn't actually the location of filming) the beach at the end of the movie Point Break where Keanu Reeves finally tracks down Patrick Swayze to arrest him but ends up letting him go out into the deadly, towering waves of a hundred-year storm, knowing "he's not coming back." For some reason I got a huge kick out of this. And the beach was achingly beautiful in the sunset.

We also took a side road to Cape Otway, where we decided not to pay 20 to see the lighthouse, but did not regret the diversion, as instead we saw koalas!:

 

And kangaroos! (Outside of metropolitan areas, kangaroos seem as common as deer are in the States, so this was just the first of a multitude of kangaroo sightings.)

The fun never stops....

Melbourne!

Our drive from Sydney concluded (kind of) at Melbourne, where my Dad arrived from the States to join the travelin' party.

 

We LOVED Melbourne. A walkable city with a great public transportation system, such friendly residents, a fantastic Chinatown...

 

....and more. My fantastic Denver friend J spent February hiking in New Zealand and there met (and subsequently connected me with) a Melbourne native, H, who spent an entire afternoon showing us around the city, helping us navigate the Myki transport card system, and taking us to a thrift store where in less than 10 minutes we outfitted SR from head to toe with the dress clothes he was going to need for a wedding we're attending at our next stop.

SR was duly compensated for the pain of a shopping trip by then having his discontent dulled with lots of beer at a nice local brewery and then a neighborhood pub--also thanks to H, who showed us the best spots in the area.

We also caught an Aussie Rules Football game, which was a great cultural experience.

And remember when I said before that I wasn't going to eat at any restaurants because the food is too expensive? Well, thank goodness that I am still with my very generous parents for this part of the trip, because maybe the most incredible, memorable thing about Melbourne is its food. Cafes and to-die-for restaurants occupy what seems like the majority of the storefronts. Veggie dumplings in Chinatown made my mom and me very happy during our girls' day on the town while the boys drove out of the city to play golf.

And really, then we just walked through the beautiful city and ate more of its delicious food in a never-ending cycle until we had to leave. Which was a sad eventuality. I would definitely return here again sometime.

Animal crossings

Aside from the gorgeous scenery, of course (and the opportunity to catch up on a lot of backlogged NPR podcasts as we went), one of the most fun things about the enormous amount of driving that we did through the states of New South Wales and Victoria during the first week of the trip was all of the road signs we got to see that you would never get to see in North America. In particular, the wildlife awareness signs. We were warned to watch out for...

 

WOMBATS!:

 

EMUS!:

KANGAROOS!:

And, too cute, KOALAS!:

Sadly, during our meandering drive from Sydney to Melbourne, the only specimens of these animals that we saw were kangaroo and wombat road kill. No pictures taken of that, obviously. But just you wait. Live examples of nearly all these and more will be making appearances in the coming posts....