We almost missed Tasmania.  We had flown from Adelaide to Melbourne for the night, but darn all of the silly time changes, and this one was only 30 minutes!   Staying at the hotel adjacent to the airport almost didn’t even save us.  We arrived completely winded as the counter agent was about ready to go move to the gate to play gate agent for awhile.  That’s right.  There is one agent that does everything, and when it’s time to move on to the next step in the process, well that’s it.  After everyone was safely seated, I’m pretty sure our gate agent also settled into the pilot seat to fly the plane.  Our adventure would now begin.

 

 

  
  
  
 

 

Finding Paradise
As small as Tasmania is, it was impossible for us to see everything on our list in the short about of time we were there. We spent five days exploring the northern and eastern side of the tiny Australian state. The rugged landscapes of Cradle Mountain, Freycinet, and Tasman Peninsula did not disappoint. Driving through Tasmania, you might even find Paradise. No really. On the way to Cradle Mountain from Sheffield, there is a town with two country houses in the shadow of Mount Roland. The name of that town is Paradise. It’s actually not too far from Promised Land.

Considering that our trip to Australia was for nearly three weeks, we were considered to be luggage superheros with a 21” rollaboard and a small tote bag each. This meant that it was pertinent to find accommodations with laundry facilities along the way. The evening we stayed in Tamar Valley, we had a cottage with a washer, but it was customary to not have a dryer and to dry everything on the line. We gave it a shot, and sure enough, in the morning we had a suitcase full of wet clothes. We didn’t have time to wait for them to dry – we had more countryside to explore. So we lined the back of the rental car with our wet clothes and took off to fuel up at the full service gas station. “Doing some touring?” our attendant inquired when he saw our underwear strewn about the car. Between drying our clothes on the line and not being able to pump our own gas, we really felt like we had stepped back in time.

Local Fare
Outside of Outback Steakhouse, how many restaurants can you think of that feature Australian cuisine? In general, we would find a bakery here and there that offered (of course) meat pies. While traveling through the tiny towns along our route, we found it challenging to find things open past 7:00 or 8:00 pm, so we learned to eat early or to go to bed without our dinner.

One morning, we stopped into a bakery to grab some sweet treats for breakfast. I ordered the mud cake. I don’t know if it is customary or an accident, but that thing was full of eggshells. Yum.

On our final day in Tasmania, we planned a visit to the Cadbury plant in Hobart. Our goal was to just visit the gift shop, but they only grant access to people who are taking the tour. So, for the bargain price of $25, we were able to save about $5 off of our purchases. We learned during the tour that recipes are different within local markets. A Cadbury bar that you try from England tastes different than one from Australia. We returned to the airport later that day thinking that we would grab some lunch there. At the time we were passing through, the only food available was from a vending machine. Luckily we had so much chocolate on hand – enough that it was a punishment by the time our hunger was satiated.  Even though I will still take an Australian Cadbury over a British one any day.

Local Brew
The Tamar Valley is the area’s local wine region, sprinkled with wineries along the countryside, reminiscent of Russian River in California, but on a much smaller scale. We dedicated a day of exploration, with the privilege of enjoying a fine lunch at the Roseavers winery. It was “privilege”, I guess, because we walked into an empty restaurant during business hours, and the hostess said she would need to check with a manager to see if there was anything available. Luckily we were deemed servable, when we were led to a table shortly thereafter.

Before leaving Tamar Valley, we had a couple of stops to make. The first was a strawberry patch that also sold strawberry wine. The overly eager attendant poured us a sample of the wine, and then samples of pancake syrup that were so sweet it was too much for even my sweet tooth. Then he insisted we pick some berries from the field “for the experience”. Feeling obligated, we picked about ten berries between the two of us (which he didn’t charge us for) and bought a small bottle of strawberry wine.

Our final Tamar Valley stop was Pipers Brook winery, which makes a fabulous Pinot Noir (9th Island), which we can get back home, at least at the time of our trip. We learned at the winery that Australia imposes a 41% tax on wine, which means it’s cheaper for us to buy it back home. 9th Island had an excellent chardonnay, and I was assured that we should be able to find that somewhere back home, so we ended only buying one bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. We never did find that Chardonnay, and many years later we are hard pressed to find the Pinot Noir.

Tasmania has more than excellent wine. It is home to Australia’s oldest brewery, the Cascade Brewery. We had been enjoying their lager for a majority of our trip, and now we could go to the source. Since we didn’t have enough room in our luggage to bring a lot home, we picked up a homebrew kit from their gift shop so we could make our own batch upon our return.

Facing Your Devil
Growing up with Looney Tunes, who wouldn’t fantasize about meeting the crazy devil that comes from a mysterious land far away? If I had one goal for this trip, it was to see a Tasmanian devil. Upon arriving at Cradle Mountain on the very first afternoon, I did what I always do – head for the gift shop. Meanwhile, my husband is loitering outside because he just hates to shop that much. Just outside the gift shop, he comes face to face with his devil (a rare occurrence in broad daylight). Of course the encounter was brief, and I would have thought he was totally making it up if it didn’t have the picture to prove it. This made my obsession spin out of control (kind of like Taz, I guess). In the end, I gave in our last night on the island and paid for a Devils in the Dark tour. Sometimes facing your devil comes with a price, but with the devils facing the risk of extinction, I’m glad I had the opportunity.

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