Hobart, Tasmania

I decided to go to Tasmania on a whim, and it was an excellent decision.  My last 3 days in Melbourne saw the temperature soar into the high 90s and 100s, and when I landed in Hobart the temperature was in the low 60s.  In fact, the temperature never saw 80 the entire week I was there.  When I arrived at the Hobart Airport I disembarked the plane onto the tarmac and walked into the airport.  The airport itself was small, I think the Butler County Airport would give the Hobart Airport a run for its money in terms of size.  I arrived to dull, rainy, grey, dreary weather, which suited my mental condition at the time after having spent a sleepless night at the Southern Cross Rail Station waiting to catch a 5.30 am shuttle to the airport.  My first day I wondered in and out of the rain in Hobart familiarizing myself with the town and planning my week.
My first trip took me to the summit of Mt. Wellingtion, which looms over Hobart like a gargoyle.  It was a very nice day hike.  It was fairly moderate with some rather steep sections.  I gained about 2600' while climbing through a thick fern forest before going above treeline.  While in the forest I saw a couple pademelons, which look like tiny kangaroos.  Ravens were calling overhead and little lizards were scurrying about my feet once I reached the treeline.  The summit, at 4170', is in an alpine ecosystem with the temperature about 20 degrees cooler and much windier at the summit than in Hobart.  I was reminded of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire because there is a road one can drive to reach the summit the people who drove were sporting shorts, shirts and sandals while I donned hiking boots and a windbreaker.  The view of Hobart itself was covered due to fog, but I had a spectacular view of nearby Glenorchy.  It was an extreme change of environment for being so close to Hobart.  Interesting side note, Charles Darwin climbed Mt. Wellington when the Beagle landed in Hobart in the 1830s.
Next I went to Mt. Nelson, which is a hill in comparison to Mt. Wellington.  I hiked Mt. Nelson in reverse as the easiest way to get there was to take a bus to the summit and then hike down and back up.  Mt. Nelson offered a nice view of Hobart from its summit.  The trek down was through a dense forest.  Along the way I saw a dead Tasmanian Devil in a creek.  So that's yet another Aussie animal I can cross off my list.

Saturday found me heading to Tasman National Park on the Tasman Pennisula.  When Australia was a penal colony the pennisula was used to house the worst offenders due to the fact that it is connected to the mainlandby a very narrow strip of land.  Dogs were employed to guard this narrow strip, making escape very difficult.  Maingon Bay in the National Park was beautiful.  Sandstone cliffs falling into the sea with the blue-green waters of the ocean crashing against the rocks.  I went on a nice coastal trek to the stunning Crescent Bay.  It is a crescent-shaped bay with white sandy beaches and large sand dunes rise up behind it.  It was very peaceful and relaxing.  Then I climbed Mt. Brown, which again was more like a hill.  But the view from the summit was just as stunning as the bay.  There were wonderful views of Tasman Island and Cape Pillar.  I had the opportunity to cross yet another Aussie animal off my list as I saw a wombat on the trek.
I spent Sunday in town at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.  It is a very nice museum with exhibits and Aboriginal culture, zoology, geology, Aussie's convict history as well as Tasmanian artists.  But the best exhibit was the Antartic exhibit.  That exhibit encompassed nearly every aspect of Antartica, from its climate and environment, to the flora and fauna, to the history of Antartic exploration.  I was surprised to find out I spent five hours in the museum as the museum itself isn't very large.
Monday I took it easy and bummed out in the hostel.  A TV channel carried the Super Bowl, which started at 10.00 am on Monday here.  So I treated myself to a little taste of home.  Though I didn't get to see the Super Bowl commercials because the station aired local commercials instead.
I realized just how small of a world it truly is while in Hobart.  At the hostel I met a mother/daughter couple, Karen and Rachel respectively, who grew up in Zionsville, IN just outside of Indianapolis.  Rachel went to Miami University and worked for five years in outdoor education out West.  Her father lives in Cataract Falls, which is 15 minutes away from DePauw University.  Karen and Rachel are two super nice and chill people.  We chatted for a while about Miami, DePauw, backpacking, and a whole lot more.  Karen said Rachel and I have led yin and yang lives, seeing how we switched locations for college and afterwards Rachel went West for outdoor education and I went East.  And we wound up crossing paths in a hostel in Hobart Tasmania.  Which I suppose is the most likely place for us to have met.
Hobart, and all of Tasmania for that matter, is truly a special place.  It is like Australia's best kept secret.  There are heaps of National Parks to go trekking in and the scenery varies from white sandy beaches, to rain forests, to alpine environments, and then the historic sites are thrown in just for good measure.  It would be very easy to spend six weeks travelling across Tasmania seeing the sights.  All this for an island that can't be much bigger than Ohio.