Thursday December 26, 2024 – Sunday January 5, 2025
(This is part 2 of our 2.5 week Milford Track & Australia trip — for part 1, check out http://exploringduo.com/milford/!)
We combined our Milford Track hike in New Zealand with a trip to Australia because how often do we get to come to this area of the world? The theme here was still hiking and nature, so that’s how Tasmania and Blue Mountains got on the itinerary. Snorkeling/diving in the Great Barrier Reef is on here too because who knows how long it’ll be around? We also watched NYE fireworks from Sydney because on top of how often are we in Australia, how often are we here during NYE? It was a packed agenda with lots of flying, and boat rides!
Tasmania Day 1 – Catch-all day for stuff around Hobart
Since we had an overnight layover in Melbourne we stayed at an airport hotel, unfortunately arriving around 11:30 pm given our delayed flight. Woke up at 4:45 am to take the 6:30 am second leg of the flight to Tasmania. Landed close to 8 am and had a long and packed agenda ahead.
First thing to do was grab food at a fish and chips place, but standout was actually the calamari, so tender. Next was a stop at Tessellated Pavement which are these really unique rock formations formed by salt crystals. I found the naming of the place so apt, exactly as described lol.
Followed by more scenic stops, Devil’s Kitchen and Tasmans Arch. Signage explains how the two are similar formations but one is much farther along in development than the other. As in, Devil’s Kitchen began as an arch but has since collapsed whereas Tasmans Arch is still an arch. They’re cool but being spoilt, these aren’t the first time we’ve seen arches, saw them in the U.S. and in Indonesia too I believe. And lastly a quick stop at Waterfall Bay Lookout, can’t say it was that memorable but we didn’t hike here, opting to see these areas by boat instead.
We’ve checked off a bunch of stuff and it’s only afternoon! At 1:30pm, we went with Tasman Island Cruises to see sea cliffs, sea caves, rock pillars and wildlife at Cape Pillar, Cape Hauy, and near Tasman Island. Those seals were so cute and the albatrosses gliding in the sky so graceful. Seeing these by boat instead of hiking was both a low-effort and probably more beautiful way to do it since you can get real up close.
And we aren’t done yet! One last thing was driving up to Mount Wellington for great views of Tasmania. Super windy but yeah feels like you can see all of Hobart from up here. Dinner was at Landscape Restaurant & Grill, a fine dining restaurant with old money vibes, known for their steak which we agreed was well-executed. Standout was the duck fat potatoes and I also liked the local oysters.
Tasmania Day 2 – Maria Island boat tour and wildlife feeding
We took the Maria Island Circumnavigation Cruise & Walk Day Tour with Maria Island Cruises from 9 am – 4:30 pm. It was windy today! At first it was so windy we weren’t going to be able to circumnavigate Maria Island but later on in our trip the wind changed directions or something and we were able to. Conditions change so quickly! We saw such beautiful rock formations, and it was a fun thrill riding on the top deck with the amount of sea action we were getting, occasionally getting splashed like this was a water park ride. We had breaks for tea time and lunch in calm waters before taking a guided tour of Maria Islands. It’s got history as a prison and a concrete factory but is now a wildlife sanctuary and the real joy we found was in the wombats and other wildlife. Did you know that wombats have hard butts to block burrow intruders? And when intruders have gotten into their burrows, they use their butts to squish them? So great.
Next was Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary where we took a 2.5 hour feeding tour (that we could only stay for 2 hours of). Probably one highlight of the trip given how unique an experience this is from other travels- very educational and I learned that I can find any animal cute once the guide teaches me about them, their preferences, individual personalities, backstories… we saw the blue-tongue lizard, tawny frogmouth, wombat, and got to feed echidnas, Tasmanian devil, and kangaroos. My favorites were the tawnies, echidnas, and wombat. There was this sweet senile tawny named Bart that couldn’t be bothered to do anything, except for try to woo the female tawny by building a nest, except the female only gets cozy with tawny Mario. One echidna Tamagotchi was blind so he used his nose to find food while the other Luigi had a leg amputated and yet he hobbles so fast, feeding them bug soup was fun. The kangaroos were most fun when they relished in neck scratches. The young’un wombat was ultra cute, held in a furry sack imitating mom’s pouch, obsessed with cereal bars, and refusing to get back in the pouch.
For dinner we ate at Aloft. It’s modern, edgy, and food was so good! It showcased Tasmanian ingredients with Asian flavors. Standouts were the slices of eggplant covered in a light crisp tempura batter drizzled with chili syrup, and the bites of crisp lamb rib with gochujang sauce.
Tasmania Day 3 – Salamanca Market & Mount Amos Trail (omg)
We began the day at Salamanca Market which is a large Saturdays farmers market with food, produce and crafts. I loved the variety of crafts including arts, wood, leather, clothes, etc. I actually bought a leather jacket here! There were spices, sauces, fruit, and plenty of ready to eat things too.
After a drive up the east coast of Tasmania, we arrived at the Mount Amos Trail. And man, this was one will be burned into our memories. Mount Amos Trail is a 2.5 mile out-and-back trail with 1300 ft elevation gain. While yes that elevation gain is a lot, the real challenge is that the vast majority of the way up is rock scrambling, with several sections of slick open rock, even when dry. I was already feeling iffy on this, but as we go up, we notice dark clouds coming in the distance…
Maybe 80% of the way up, it’s still steep rock scrambling and the dark clouds have been looking closer and I say this is enough for me, you continue and I’ll wait here. He goes for 5 minutes and in that time, the sun disappears, the wind has become chilly, I hear low rumbles of thunder. My anxiety shoots up and I hope he has turned around. It starts raining. Omg. I wait another 5 or so minutes and he appears— thank goodness! We start lowering ourselves down the mountain one careful step at a time, oftentimes crab walking on all fours. At one point we realize we have lost the yellow markers. At least I have signal so I’m frantically trying to upgrade AllTrails to get GPS navigation but the rain is making it impossible to type and I can’t remember my password, and after it briefly worked and showed us the way (that was some crucial help) somehow the upgrade actually didn’t work and I can’t get it to work so we give up on that and find our way on our own again. As we get nearer to the easier dirt paths, the rain also lets up and stops and we let ourselves relax. By the end of the trail we’re soaking wet. Luckily we were between hotels so had all our stuff, including a change of clothes. For the rest of the day, I felt so grateful just to be in warm, dry clothes, and I’m sure the chances of something happening to us up there were small, especially since I had signal, but a little voice in me kept going hey, I’m grateful to be safe and alive!
For dinner, we ate at Lobster Shack Tasmania. It’s a super hyped place, with food that doesn’t live up to the outsized amount of hype but was not bad. The views were awesome. With that renewed sense of gratitude for our well-being, I relished the views and the food haha. We did a quick stop at Bicheno Blowhole because it was close by, and drove up to that night’s lodging in Saint Helens. Along the way we found nice places to stop for the sunset like Four Mile Creek Beach, so peaceful and seems only enjoyed by locals. We don’t understand how tourism hasn’t overtaken Tasmania by now like in Hawaii. Such lovely beaches.
We checked into our apartment in St Helens where we randomly got upgraded and so we randomly had laundry! So much joy to be able to wash and dry our soaked clothes. And some tea and extra hours in the evening to relax, what a welcome break.
Tasmania Day 4 – Chill day, beaches, and Bay of Fire
I’ve yet to mention that I was sick when we started this trip but was already on the tail end of recovery. But at the end of Milford Track I began slowly and steadily descending back into sickness. All these days now, so much phlegm 🙂 Today we were slated to watch sunrise and would’ve had to get out of bed at 5:30 am. But my generous husband axed it so that I could sleep in and recover after so many busy days. What a glorious beginning to the day to be followed with even more chilling.
We had a long lazy lunch then hit up a bunch of scenic views and beaches. The best of which was Binalong Bay Beach which had this natural lazy river that led back to the ocean, was jealous of the kids who had so much run riding their floaties like an amusement park ride. Other stops included The Gardens, Cosy Corner North, Swimcart Beach, and Bay of Fires Conservation Area. What stood out about these places were the very white sandy beaches and the beautiful red algae covering rocks. Then a long drive to our lodging for the night that would put us closer to Cradle Mountain for the next day.
Tasmania Day 5 – Hiking on Cradle Mountain
After a day off, it’s back to hiking. We drove to Cradle Mountain Visitor Center and used the park shuttle to do three hikes in the park: Overland Track, Dove Lake Circuit, then the Enchanted Walk. Overland Track is actually a multi-day hike but we only did the beginning part that climbed up to a viewpoint. Unfortunately it was cloudy but otherwise the scenery reminded me of Patagonia. The W Trek in Patagonia is our favorite hike of all time, so you can consider this a compliment. Dove Lake Circuit was much of the same scenery with bits of lush forest sprinkled in, and a much flatter and thus relaxing hike around the lake. Lastly, Enchanted Walk was a quick 20 min walk, the most accessible one of all. We drove back to Launceston for dinner and our hotel for the night.
12/31 Launceston & NYE in Sydney
Since there’s not much to do in Launceston especially with lots of things being closed, I slept in to my heart’s content. We ate lunch then flew to Sydney. For dinner, we had Chat Thai in Westfield mall – a satisfying dinner to celebrate NYE! After putting in our order, the waitress upgraded us from a 2 person to 4 person table, presumably so we could fit all the food; we laughed at our gluttony.
Post-dinner we walked along the waterfront. Sydney has a snazzy skyline. It was bustling with party people and families alike, all excited to ring in the new year. At 10:15pm we took a NYE cruise in the Sydney Harbor. Experiencing one of the world’s iconic New Years celebrations is a glamorous concept for sure, but it’s also served with doses of reality. With the cruise experience, it comes in the form of everyone shoving to be the first ones to board, every person us included scrambling to claim an advantageous spot on board, and the ship needing to refuel midway through lmao. The smoke blowing our direction even obscured a good chunk of the fireworks, but for sure the countdown and subsequent explosion of fireworks was awe-inspiring. I have always delighted in these big party atmospheres of a proper NYE event, and now I can say I’ve finally experienced one in person.
Cairns Day 1 – Shopping and doing pretty much nothing
Ever the meticulous trip planners, this day in Cairns was one of the few that was not planned far in advance and we experienced the downside of not doing so. A scenic train ride that we would’ve enjoyed was fully booked, and we were left with not much to do. We spent the day shopping in a mall. It’s hot out and we sought AC. Restaurants today were Hungry Wombat, Skewers Lover, and Imm Thai Cafe, all of which we enjoyed. We chatted about how diverse the food is in Australia and especially how much tasty Asian food there is, we love it.
Cairns Day 2 – Snorkeling/diving in the Great Barrier Reef
From 8:30 am – 4:30 pm, we went with Silverswift boat to check out the Great Barrier Reef, me snorkeling and Victor doing introductory diving— his first time! We stopped at three sites but forgot to ask what they were, guess we’ll never know. He got a lot more comfortable with diving than our previous Snuba experience. Says it’s cool to breath underwater, be able to look in all directions, get up close to the coral and even interact with things, for instance waving a hand over giant clams and seeing them clam up then immediately open again.
For me, I enjoyed snorkeling. Saw really pretty fish, really cool and colorful coral, got to touch sea cucumber and mushroom coral when the tour guide picked them up for us. We both saw a shark during our snorkeling (he got to dive in 2 of the 3 sites and snorkeled the other). And we agree the Barrier Reef is probably the best snorkeling we’ve done. But I would say it’s not magnitudes greater, other spots we’ve done don’t lag that far behind. But he has a point that the better things get, the harder it is for things to improve by magnitudes, it’s more in small increments. Dinner was at Tha Fish, had amazing barramundi fish in the seafood platter that was lightly crisp, pan-seared on the outside but so juicy on the inside.
Cairns Day 3 – More snorkeling/diving in the Great Barrier Reef
We did a second boat tour today because different tour companies stop in different areas and just in case the weather was bad one of the days. This day it was with Passions of Paradise boat. We did two sites with this one, one stop was in Hastings Reef… or was it two sites within Hastings Reef it wasn’t clear. Much of the experience was similar as the day before, except with Silverswift, it felt more like a big, well-oiled machine, whereas this boat was slightly more casual, less concerned about details; like Silverswift had a nature talk and a snorkeling tour which Passions of Paradise did not have, but instead one of the staff randomly did magic tricks lol. Both are good options but we might prefer the Silverswift. On this second day, I saw a lot of the same fish so wasn’t as wowed as the first day, but some new ones too. And the second site was unique in that it had a lot of coral growing at different depths, which was a cool more 3D experience. Dinner was at Tamarind, where the fried barramundi with sweet chili sauce was really good, but we didn’t love the service. I think we just really like barramundi.
Blue Mountains Day 1 – Hiking & sunset
We begin the day with yet *another* ridiculously early morning flight, 6:40am. Land at Sydney, drive to Blue Mountains, and towards the end of the drive, it turns into suburbs that look just like Seattle. It felt comfortable and familiar even though we’re on a totally different continent. Lunch was at 8Things Eatery, where they showcase eight different street foods.
In the afternoon, we spent two hours hiking the Grand Canyon Loop, a wonderful and unique hike. It took us down endless steps just down down down, then into lush forests, under cool rock overhangs, and finally at the bottom of the canyon, it reminded us of The Narrows in Zion but tropical, ending with lots of steps of course back out the canyon.
Following this was a series of stops at several lookouts: Evans Lookout, Perrys Lookout, Anvil Rock Lookout, Govetts Leap Lookout, and Pulpit Rock Lookout. Had dinner then went back out for sunset at Lincoln’s Rock, a nice lookout for sure but clouds blocked the sunset. We stayed the night at Silvermere Guesthouse, a cute B&B with a long history and sweet owners!
Blue Mountains Day 2 – Scenic viewpoints & hiking
After breakfast at the B&B, where Victor had the best raspberries he’s ever had, we go to Echo Point Lookout and Queen Elizabeth Lookout to see the Three Sisters. The rock formation is the most iconic part of Blue Mountains. We hike two trails, to Minehaha Falls and to Empress Falls, both of which required descending a bunch of stairs to the falls then climbing back up. Empress Falls we liked more and there were tour groups rappelling down the waterfall, fun to watch.
The last hike we did was Wentworth Falls Trail which took us to five lookouts: Jamison, Wentworth Falls, Fletcher’s, Rocket Point, and Princes Rock lookouts, all within the span of 2 miles, great bang for your buck. I thought the viewpoints were all unique, the trail and railings sturdily laid down with safety in mind, and overall well worth the effort. For food today, we ate at Mountain High Pies (excellent) and Jannah Chicken Granville (satisfying especially for a lowkey chain restaurant). Today was the last day of our long trip, so we headed to the airport to finally go home!
A very productive, pretty, and tasty first trip to Australia, until next time!