Entries about hiking

There's a famous Great Ocean Road in Australia, which I'll talk more about in the next post, but there is also a Great South West Walk which follows the coastline as well. We took an afternoon and walked just a small portion of it, only around 10km. The following are pictures from that, it was gorgeous!

I really was going to try to combine Tasmania into one or maybe even two posts, but here I am on the third post! And the third national park, Mount Fields National Park. A commonly missed national park, it's right outside Hobart and relatively easy to get to. It features waterfalls, giant ancient trees, wildlife, and much more!

Standing inside trees...

We stopped at several different waterfalls, and stayed at one for lunch.


Gourmet lucnh...

These trees were so massive!

I found one that had been hollowed out by a fire, and, after calling out to all the poisonous things not to kill me, promptly climbed inside!

It was hollow as far up as I could see...

We walked around the lake.

And even made friends with an echidna!

And of course, it being Australia...there was an awesome warning sign!

The rest of our time in Tasmania was spend on the East Coast exploring Wineglass Bay and then we headed inland to Mount Fields National Park on our last day. I was going to try to cram two national parks in this entry, but decided to make a third instead...

Wineglass Bay offered the opportunity to hike up to a viewpoint and gaze out at the bay, and then, if you were feeling ambitious (of course we were), to hike down to the bay and relax by the waters.

First we encountered some wildlife in the carpark though!

Then we headed up the trail, and by trail, of course I mean stairs.

Finally we reached Wineglass Bay...

Then we headed down to the water's edge.

While laying on the beach, I kept my eyes on the water and was rewarded in seeing some dolphins swim by!

Wineglass Bay is very popular with tourists, especially the lookout point, but not many venture down to the sands so that was a good escape!

If you're ever planning a trip over to Tasmania and are a fan of national parks and the outdoors, be prepared to spend lots of time here! Over 45% of the island of Tasmania is covered in national parks and reserves. There are 19 (!) national parks here, on an island roughly the size of Scotland, or of West Virginia. The best way to get around is certainly to rent a car, and unless you own one in Australia, it's cheaper to fly (in and out of Launceston) and rent a car within Tasmania instead of taking the ferry.

With only a week in Tasmania, we planned our roadtrip carefully and managed to get to 3 national parks and see a lot. The owner of our hostel the first night helped us plan it and he said 'it's not so much what you can see in Tasmania, it's what you miss out on seeing.' There's so many awesome things to see and explore!

I first explored the town of Launceston and though I wasn't impressed overall, Cataract Gorge Reserve is a gorgeous walk.



I even found Narnia...

We did a (very full) day trip from Launceston over to Cradle Mountain National Park, which was spectacular. The landscape wasn't as green as it normally would be as we'd just arrived at the end of almost 2 months with no rain. It was an overcast and rainy day but the mist made it that much more exciting and it lifted briefly for us to see Cradle Mountain, though it's hidden in the clouds for most of my pictures.

The next day we headed to the east coast of Tasmania for some coastal beaches and views.

Before friends and family begin to wonder just what I'm posting here, I'll clarity, in New Zealand hiking is called 'tramping', as you'll see in the pictures. And Hooker Valley, well, it's an awesome valley in the Mount Cook National Park that has gorgeous views of Mount Cook and Hooker Glacier. Add in some swing bridges, and you've got a popular hiking trail.

We tried to get an early start to drive up to the park and beat the crowds, but there was gorgeous landscapes so we stopped several times!

The parking lot was in the valley and we were absolutely surrounded by mountains and snow...how great to see snow!

Now I'm just going to post a lot of pictures, (I didn't do a good job of picking just a few favorites) it was a gorgeous walk in and over the bridges, though VERY windy!

There were icebergs on the lake and shoreline, that was very cool (no pun intended!).

I took a side hike over to the Tasman Glacier, complements of my friend Dennis recommending I check it out, turns out it's not the prettiest of glaciers, but it had great views of the valley.

Driving back after our walk, we drove along Lake Pukaki, another gorgeous lake.

At the end we headed to Lake Tekapo, and yes, the lake is actually that color. There's 'rock flour' sediments suspended in the glacial fed waters that reflect the light and give it that color.