Staggs trip around Tasmania

So I said I'd share pictures and stories about this giant island/small continent of Australia.

Earlier this month I had an opportunity to travel with my beautiful girlfriend Erin, around Tasmania. Starting at our home in Sydney, driving interstate to Melbourne, catching the ferry across the Bass Strait, and driving around all of Tasmania. Bear with me there will be a lot of photos and videos for you all!

DRIVE TO MELBOURNE

On our way down from Sydney to Melbourne, we had a rest stop at Boxers Creek.
https://goo.gl/maps/6hrYZULN5iJ2
Once we were there, we stumbled across thie gem, a little bit of Australia's convict-built history..

Not bad for just stopping for a coffee!

Onward we went to Melbourne. We weren't in town for very long because soon as we pulled into Melbourne, we had a quick early pub dinner in Port Melbourne, and then we drove the car onto the Spirit Of Tasmania, the ferry that crosses the Bass Strait from Melbourne to Devonport.
https://goo.gl/maps/DGyDLN4HBoD2

It was an overnight ferry, which meant that by the time we left, it was already getting dark, and it gets pretty choppy across the Bass Strait. So we took a few photos of Melbourne before heading to bed.

The next morning, we were woken up by an alarm at 6am which was automatically set through all the cabins. The ferry arrived in Devonport at 6am sharp, and we were all herded out of our cabins, and down to the lower decks to the cars. Within about 5 minutes, all cabins were packed up and empty, and within 15 minutes, all the cars and passengers were off the boat.
https://goo.gl/maps/o5w5QYCzD1q

FIRST DAY IN TASMANIA

Fresh off the boat, and with it being a Sunday and nothing being open, we headed west from Devonport, out to Stanley. When we were there, we visited 'the nut'
https://goo.gl/maps/p9vi5ET2SyG2

There was a chairlift which went up the nut, to show the nature reserve atop the cliff. There were rock wallabies all about the reserve!

Of course at the cliffs edge, it was so windy, at one point I fell over trying to walk down a rock!

After our day at Stanley, it was on to Strahan to where we had booked a bed & breakfast for a few nights. We were pretty exhausted after 2 and a half days of driving and over 1000km.
https://goo.gl/maps/55vCcieYZY72

BEING A TOURIST
The next morning, we were booked for a historic railway trip, the West Coast Wilderness Railway.

This is a restored train line, which connected the towns Strahan and Queenstown. When it was completed in 1892, it was the only method of goods transport in and out of Queenstown.

It was also ony of only a few systems which used the 'abt' rail system, a third rail using a rack & pinion, to climb steep hills.

There were four fatalities during the construction of the line as well. One of them was a worker who sadly lost his footing over the king river gorge.

I had a chance to check out inside the cab of the locomotive as well!

The railway had actually been abandoned in 1963 and was supposedly haunted for many years, before in 1999, state government and local private investors restored the railway, at a cost of $36 million.

What's cool about the above picture, you can see the extra two pistons below the boiler... These were the pistons that drove the center cog for the rack & pinion.

After 9 hours of riding the old locomotive up and down the mountain from Strahan to Queenstown and back, we were pretty exhausted, and we were back at our accommodation for the night.

The next morning, we were booked in for a cruise around the Gordon river, out through Hell's gate, and also to one of my highlights of the trip, Sarah Island
https://goo.gl/maps/FLiVM394SMS2

This is where convicts sent to Tasmania (or Van Dieman's land it was called well over a hundred years ago) would go to build boats as a penal colony.

This is what it looked like as a penal colony,

This is all that was left on the island, part of the old court which was later used as the convicts quarters. The rest of the island was completely taken over by growth.

The cruise down the river was quite interesting too, I'd never heard of Huon Pine before heading down the river, but it's an extremewly valuable and sturdy, resilient wood. In fact the Sarah Island penal colony was a booming ship yard, because 'piners' would fell huon pine, and use it to build ships for the british naval fleet.

We headed out to the mouth of Macquarie Bay, infamously known as 'Hell's Gate'
https://goo.gl/maps/kg4caHey2Rs

It was known as Hell's Gate, as the bay was protected from strong winds, however once you exited the bay, you hit was is famously known as the roaring forties. The crosswinds were so bad, there have been dozens of ships wrecked on Bonnet Island, where the original lighthouse still stands to warn ships.

After Strahan, we were off to Hobart, and drove past Queenstown. What was unreal was driving up the Cradle Mountain reserve, we ended up finding snow! It was so much more exciting for Australians I guess than Europe where I hear it snows a lot.

Once we settled in Hobart, after more driving, we rested up at the Beltana Hotel right near the river.
https://goo.gl/maps/EPpVK1hbJn52

The next morning, we had a chance to head out to the Transport Museum. Funnily enough, we managed to see one of the five abt locomotives from the Queenstown rail. The green loco number 4 was donated to the museum in 1963, after the line was closed down.

Can see those rack pistons again there ;)

After a few days in Hobart, we were off to the small town of Deloraine
https://goo.gl/maps/LvYiK3EUNHM2

We then got to head out to Trowunna Wildlife park, where there are a number of conservation programs for all native wildlife around Tasmania.
https://goo.gl/maps/3AfwDzmUSer

There was a decent population of Tasmanian Devils there as well