Tasmania!!!

After four and a half months in Asia we finally landed in the wonderful world of Oz! Australia that is! The Western world has never seemed so fabulous!!! We met Catherine, Jonathan’s mom in the airport in Melbourne and hopped on a plane to head to Tasmania, a little island off the Southern coast of the mainland!
Tasmania was wonderful! Catherine had rented a car so we had freedom to explore and go anywhere on the island. The first day we drove through the Northern part of Tasmania from Launceston to Devonport. We stopped and got fresh cherries, raspberries, went to a cheese factory and a bakery! One of the things we were most excited about in traveling to Australia was that we would have access to dairy and wonderful dairy products. We hadn’t had good quality cheese or milk since we had left the US! Yum!
We continued to travel around the coast taking in the beautiful landscape and keeping our eyes open for any signs of wildlife! We explored parts of Cradle Mountain National Park and walked around Dove Lake in the freezing rain! The night we stayed in Cradle Mountain we got to go to the Tasmanian devil wildlife park and watch their feeding habits and we even got to pet one! It was really neat. After the park we got out our headlamps and while Jonathan drove Catherine and I searched the bush for wildlife. We saw wallabies, pademelons, a spotted-quoll, wombats and possums! It was so wonderful!
We celebrated our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Queenstown Tasmania. We went to mass on Christmas Eve and had a wonderful spaghetti dinner. On Christmas Day Jonathan made his State Fair winning green chili whiskey stew for dinner. He cooked it all day which of course made our little cabin smell delicious. I made chocolate chip cookies for our little something sweet on Christmas! We exchanged gifts and got some special little treats from home. That was really special for both of us! I especially loved getting a photo album that my family had put together for me!
The next day, which was Christmas back home, we got to call friends and family! I called my family who was all at my grandparent’s house from outside a café, while sitting in the car. It was pretty funny but we didn’t have any other way to get internet!
We finished up our trip in Tasmania by going to St. Clair National park to try to find the platypuses, going to Hobart to watch the end of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, exploring wine glass bay and nine mile beach!
On the 29th we headed back to Melbourne to spend a few days there before Catherine headed back to the US. On our first day we explored the Victoria Street market and other parts of the fascinating city. The next day we took a tour and got to experience some bush Billy tea, a ride on Puffing Billy a steam train, we did some wine tasting and got to get up close with some of the wildlife at the animal park! That night we celebrated New Years Eve by going to a wonderful dinner on Victoria Harbor and watching the fireworks off of the Yarra River! Happy 2008! It is going to be a wonderful year! Catherine left the next morning, we had a wonderful visit with her and it was such a treat to have her with us for part of our travels!
We had decided a while back that to explore Australia we were going to buy a campervan and than resell it before we left. And so we did! It is an old Ford Econovan that has been converted into a little camper! It has a stove, a sink, refrigerator and a bed! So now we are busy living, cooking, driving and sleeping in our little van! Mechanically it is a gem; it just isn’t the prettiest to look at…. So Jonathan and I have been busy doing things to spruce it up and coming up with ideas to make the outside more exciting!
We have been traveling in the van for about a week and are having a blast! It has been wonderful and definitely more cost efficient! We have beautiful pictures from the Great Ocean Road and are other travels but we will post those in the next blog since our Tasmania Album is already up!
Something to look forward to right?!
Love,
Tara and Jonathan


Tasmania and Melbourne