Tassie! :)

I drove a manual transmission car on the wrong side of the road, at night, through a roundabout, and parallel parked it! I totally rule. I actually did all of the driving since Mikey doesn't know how to drive a stick shift. [he declined my offer to attempt to learn ~ a rental car is the perfect car to teach someone in after all, you don't give a hoot if they grind the gears! :-p]

Mike and I hopped on a quick plane ride from Melbourne to Tasmania, nicknamed Tassie. Everything down under has a nickname by the way. Obviously, all the people have nicknames, but they shorten everything else too. It's quite amusing. Tasmania was a warm 2 degrees Celsius. This flips out the Aussies. They don't like cold weather. Mike and I, on the other hand, adjusted grumpily. Obviously we're both used to weather this temperature since we both lived in Providence last winter, but I am still short on the warmer clothes. I left most of mine in NZ with Paul & Claire who I used to rent from. I'm picking up my things on Friday and then I won't complain about the cold so much. Our hostel is across the street from a thrift store where I paid the outrageous sum of $2 AUD for a brand-new, cute knit hat. It's doing a fab job of keeping my head warm.

We checked into Hobart Hostel and ventured around this little town of Hobart. It's a quaint little town, it sort of reminds Mike and I of NH or somewhere. We saw the waterfront, the battery encampments, and found a little stretch of beach. We scored majorly cool sea glass there. Apparently no one here collects it. Mike and I both filled our pockets to the brim. It was an enjoyable afternoon in this lovely little town. We went to the grocery store and came back to cook dinner. Thus we discovered there is no heat at this hostel, really. There is one tiny space heater for our dorm room that is huge enough for 10 beds. Barrels of fun, I tell you. Mike and I worked on a puzzle for fun last evening and I kept boiling water and putting it in my tea cup to keep my hands warm (there were no gloves/mittens at the thrift store, but I will certainly be on the hunt). When we did amble into bed, I went with all of my layers of clothing possible on my body and threw my towel and sarong wrap on top for extra layers. (I used the towel & sarong for a sheet a time or two in Asia when we weren't given sheets.) Brrrrrrr

This morning, we got up and picked up our rental car. It's a cute little Hyundai. I hadn't planned on driving ~ I admit to being a lazy traveler. I always wait for Mike to scope out the map and read the guidebook and summarize it back to me. When we picked up the car, the manual transmission was a bit cheaper than the automatic. I know how to drive a stick, Mikey doesn't. Thus, I ended up driving all day today and will again tomorrow. Being the lazy traveler, I figured Mike would do all or most of the driving. Booo. I did offer to teach him how to drive a stick after we got out of town, but he's not interested. Ahhh well.

We drove towards Lake St. Clair, part of the Tasmania Outdoor parks. We went for an hour long hike. We took the Aboriginal Trail and did the Platypus Loop. The parks here cost a bit to get in, $20 for a car for 24 hours, but they are superbly maintained. The walkways and trails are great, have super views, and are completely deserted. The guy at the visitor's center was super helpful as well. After we did that trail, we went to another park and saw two waterfalls and a forest of the 2nd tallest trees in the world. (The tallest forest is in Cali ~ the redwoods, but these guys are only a few meters shorter than the redwoods.) The tall trees are from ancient forests, the tallest ones began to grow before Europeans were anywhere near Tasmania and thinking about colonization. Soaking it all up was fantastic ~ despite the rain and cold weather.

Another lovely day in Australia ~ I'm looking forward to tomorrow. We're headed to Port Artur and possibly a hot springs. Port Arthur is where they sent the convicts from the mainland. Sounds a bit sketchy. I'd give you some pics, but this crazy computer hub has no USB connection. Hopefully, in Auckland you'll get to see some more fantastic pics. :)