Convict Trail, Road signs, and sleepy kids

Port Arthur Penal Colony

 

"Our little felons"

Tasmania Countryside

Tasmania had lots of sheep...but not near as many as New Zealand.

Tasmania

After visiting the rainy Blue Mountains we flew to Tasmania.  We stayed in Hobart the capital.  Tasmania is an Australian state that is and island south of Australia's southeastern coast.  I just say this because I thought at one point Tasmania was its own country.  I never was and still am not very good at geography.  It is about the size of West Virginia.  A lot of people describe it as a miniature New Zealand.  It has similar make up with the ocean and mountains but to a smaller scale.  It was beautiful and again we really enjoyed our time there.  We are very glad that we added it to our list of places to visit.  Hobart is the capitol and half the people in Tasmania live within Hobart and the surrounding areas but it did not have a big city feel to it.  Tasmania is a very historical area (even though its not a pretty history).  More on that later.  Again, we encountered a good bit of rain but that didn't stop us from doing some exploring.  Tasmania's early settlers were primarily convicts and military personnel so one day we explored the Convict Trail and Port Arthur, a penal colony.  The next day we stayed around Hobart and a small town called Sorell right outside of Hobart.  Our last day we drove a couple hours north to Feycinet National Park.  It was a beautiful drive and even more beautiful park.  Again, the weather did not cooperate 100% but enough for us to get in a hike.  Aaron sure did develop a lot of endurance while living in AU and from all our walking.  Pictures to come...

more featherdale park

white peacock...it was beautiful

...and so was this guy who was showing off.

Tasmanian Devil. They are a lot smaller than I thought they would be.

Featherdale Wildlife Park

Not a good family picture but proof we were all there with the Koala.

Up close and personal with a kangaroo.

Way to upclose and personal with an Emu. Aaron and Lydia were really scared by them this time. They were a little agressive especially considering you could "pet" them. But when Aaron talks about one now...he also says, "Uncle Brian was a little scared of the Emu too" (which he was a little timmed trying to feed it!!!).

The Blue Mountains

The Three Sisters.

One thing we did was a Scenic Railway Ride. We were able to walk there from our hotel. We first took a cable car ride across which was really cool as it had a glass bottom. Then we did the railway ride. It is an old miner railway that they converted to a tourist ride. But it was really fun. We waited to be able to ride in the front. It was basically the kids first roller coaster. I thought it was really fun, Caleb was a little freaked out. It went down at a 45% angle. Afterwards Aaron repeated Caleb and kept saying "That freaked me out". Needless to say I was rolling laughing as was everyone around us. Don't worry grandmas we were caged in for safety...we did hold on reaaaaalllly tight to the kids. At the bottom we walked around on a nice boardwalk through the rainforest.

Last Day...

Our last day in Sydney...Sunday started off a little rocky and slow.  Trying to get everything packed up, cleaned (well not totally trashed), pick up a rental car, checked out, and out the door was a little slower than planned.  We planned to go to church on last time.  Like I mentioned before we found a great church...Kirkplace Presbyterian Church and wanted to visit one last time.  We missed half the service but got to say goodbye to some amazing families we met and even had lunch and one of their homes afterwards.  The Lord really blessed us with finding a church family and friends while we were there.  After lunch we headed out on our first leg of our vacation.  We had a little under 2 weeks to travel and were looking forward to exploring Australia.  Our first trip was just a few hours away to the Blue Mountains.  We were hoping to have some relaxing time before getting home so we didn't have to much planned.  This ended up being a good thing as it rained A LOT over our last two weeks.  While in the Blue Mtns we did some hiking and explore as well as just being lazy.  We were just there for 2 days before heading back to Sydney to fly to Tasmania.  On our way back to Sydney we stopped by Featherdale Wildlife Park.  A cool "zoo" where you get to pet and feed the animals.  The kids and I went with my family there and we wanted to go back with Caleb.

Last minute souvenirs

Better late than never to finish posting about our time in Australia. So, here's our last two weeks...

Our last weekend we spend time around Sydney. It was a beautiful spring weekend and we went to some of our favorite spots and got last minute souvenirs. We won't talk about how they cost us 20% more since we got them at the end of our trip instead of the beginning due to the horrible exchange rate though.

Queen Victoria Building. An upscale mall that we love walking through (but never bought anything in). Its an historical building that they renovated beautifully just blocks away from our apartment.

The Rocks Market. We love this market that is open on the weekends. Oh how I love some things we got here and wish we had gotten some more.