yesterday's trip was to the tasman peninsula and port arthur. i wanted to see penguins and the historic penal colony, neither of which i actually saw, so while it wasn't a total waste of a day i wasn't super thrilled about it.
port arthur is also the home of australia's worst mass murder, a guy gunned down 58 people in 1996, killing 35 of them. this led to australia banning semi automatic shotguns and rifles.
the trip began on another van with some random sight seeing. tasmania grows opium poppies. i had no idea. they produce 25% of the world's legal supply for medicine.
most of the trip down the coast was through the recent bush fire areas. they started with a farmer burning a stump on his property, he thought it was extinguished, high winds the next day and weeks later 110,000 hectares (about 275,000 acres) and a couple hundred homes, schools and businesses destroyed. bet he feels like shit.
the landscape was literally black. crews were out removing the larger trees that would probably fall over, people had tents set up next to the remains of their houses and the state was setting up emergency trailers to be used for the elementary school until it could be rebuilt. as we drove we saw perfectly preserved houses and yards with summer flowers blooming, with destruction all around, interesting how small areas escaped the fire. our tour guide was on the wrong side of the fire when they decided to close the roads and he and his group had to spend a week away from home.
our first historical spot was eagle hawk neck, home of the infamous 'dog line'. tasman peninsula held the worst of the criminals from australia and eagle hawk neck is a thin strip of land connecting it to the main land. authorities chained lines of half starved dogs across to prevent escape attempts.
we boarded a large raft to visit the sea cliffs and tasman island. this is the point where i realized i wasn't thinking too clearly before i left and was wishing i had more clothes. and wasn't wearing flipflops. they gave us long water proof jackets but i was freezing, again. people are pulling hats and gloves and scarves out of their bags and what do you think is in mine? a bikini. cuz i'm going on a boat ride. i think that qualifies as irrefutable evidence that i was dropped on my head as a baby.
i was actually wearing my one pair of pants and jacket so it could have been worse.
the boat tour was about 3 hours and went down the tasman peninsula to view the highest sea cliffs in the southern hemisphere, about 300 meters, and finally to see tasman island before heading back. the cliffs were beautiful but nothing compared to amazing na pali at 1200 meters. i need to stop comparing everything to kauai.
i didn't get to see penguins but there were cormorants, and if you squint they really look like penguins. also fur seals, and albatross with 9 foot wing spans.
we were pretty far off the mainland and only 2000 kilometers of open ocean straight to antarctica and i would not have thought twice about clubbing one of those seals for its fur if i had a baseball bat. it started raining and it was like someone throwing thumbtacks at my face. cold.
i did ask the crew for more clothes and eventually ended up wearing 3 coats and 1 wrapped around my feet.
i spent the morning hanging out with steve, a truck driver from the gold coast. he and his girlfriend had booked a tasmanian holiday but they broke up at christmas so he was here by himself. turned out that he and i were surfing snapper rocks on the same days. and as usually happens being the only person with a waterproof camera, i took pictures of him that i was going to email, but he told me he has no email address. what? seriously? i've met people that don't have email before but they tended to live in dirt floor shacks and still make their own clothes. i ended up getting his son's email address instead.
after our sight seeing it was time to zip back and the crew took this time to talk about wildlife. the sea birds migrate and every year there are less and less of them. they find all sorts of plastic junk in the dead ones, and estimate that even if there isn't another piece of plastic added to the ocean all of the birds here will still be extinct in about 20 years. there's a medical waste dump nearby that they haven't been able to contain and is seeping into the water killing the fish. and the phytoplankton, important for creating a huge amount of oxygen, is on a severe decline. i know its important to learn about these things but between half freezing and the depressing information it didn't end up being a cheerful trip.
the harbor we left from is the only harbor in australia that doesn't have limits for amounts of fish caught, so people come here to catch as much as they can. the crew said that the japanese come here alot because they have a 20 year back stock of the local tuna and are trying to catch every last one so they can get hundreds of thousands of dollars per fish when this type is extinct. i don't know how true that is, and if these guys are so conservation minded this seems like an easier thing to fix than plastic or toxic waste.
after lunch we went to a chocolate factory, a cherry farm and 'remarkable cave'. about half way through i realized i had made a mistake and didn't book the port arthur historic sites. crap. the rest of the day was fairly boring and annoying, there was a small group of women from sydney that took about 300 pictures everywhere we went. first the group (4), then in couples, then singles, then do it all over again with each person's camera, squealing the entire time. we literally waited an extra 20 minutes everywhere we went for them to finish their pictures.
today i'm catching up on blogs, doing laundry, and wearing every warm piece of clothing i own while i get ready to leave early tomorrow. i can't wait to be sweaty hot again in cambodia. i also have to finish all of my local chocolates and tasmanian wine, just waiting for noon so i don't feel guilty.
i've become friends with the owner of this hostel, we hang out when i'm here, he's an older guy from portugal who has lived here most of his life. he keeps asking my why i haven't brought home any tasmanian guys yet to sample more of the local flavor (this is one of those 'the odds are good but the goods are odd' kinda places). he even offered his services in case i was feeling like it was something i had to do. but instead i just let him drive me to the store when i'm too lazy to walk.
port arthur is also the home of australia's worst mass murder, a guy gunned down 58 people in 1996, killing 35 of them. this led to australia banning semi automatic shotguns and rifles.
the trip began on another van with some random sight seeing. tasmania grows opium poppies. i had no idea. they produce 25% of the world's legal supply for medicine.
most of the trip down the coast was through the recent bush fire areas. they started with a farmer burning a stump on his property, he thought it was extinguished, high winds the next day and weeks later 110,000 hectares (about 275,000 acres) and a couple hundred homes, schools and businesses destroyed. bet he feels like shit.
the landscape was literally black. crews were out removing the larger trees that would probably fall over, people had tents set up next to the remains of their houses and the state was setting up emergency trailers to be used for the elementary school until it could be rebuilt. as we drove we saw perfectly preserved houses and yards with summer flowers blooming, with destruction all around, interesting how small areas escaped the fire. our tour guide was on the wrong side of the fire when they decided to close the roads and he and his group had to spend a week away from home.
our first historical spot was eagle hawk neck, home of the infamous 'dog line'. tasman peninsula held the worst of the criminals from australia and eagle hawk neck is a thin strip of land connecting it to the main land. authorities chained lines of half starved dogs across to prevent escape attempts.
we boarded a large raft to visit the sea cliffs and tasman island. this is the point where i realized i wasn't thinking too clearly before i left and was wishing i had more clothes. and wasn't wearing flipflops. they gave us long water proof jackets but i was freezing, again. people are pulling hats and gloves and scarves out of their bags and what do you think is in mine? a bikini. cuz i'm going on a boat ride. i think that qualifies as irrefutable evidence that i was dropped on my head as a baby.
i was actually wearing my one pair of pants and jacket so it could have been worse.
the boat tour was about 3 hours and went down the tasman peninsula to view the highest sea cliffs in the southern hemisphere, about 300 meters, and finally to see tasman island before heading back. the cliffs were beautiful but nothing compared to amazing na pali at 1200 meters. i need to stop comparing everything to kauai.
i didn't get to see penguins but there were cormorants, and if you squint they really look like penguins. also fur seals, and albatross with 9 foot wing spans.
we were pretty far off the mainland and only 2000 kilometers of open ocean straight to antarctica and i would not have thought twice about clubbing one of those seals for its fur if i had a baseball bat. it started raining and it was like someone throwing thumbtacks at my face. cold.
i did ask the crew for more clothes and eventually ended up wearing 3 coats and 1 wrapped around my feet.
i spent the morning hanging out with steve, a truck driver from the gold coast. he and his girlfriend had booked a tasmanian holiday but they broke up at christmas so he was here by himself. turned out that he and i were surfing snapper rocks on the same days. and as usually happens being the only person with a waterproof camera, i took pictures of him that i was going to email, but he told me he has no email address. what? seriously? i've met people that don't have email before but they tended to live in dirt floor shacks and still make their own clothes. i ended up getting his son's email address instead.
after our sight seeing it was time to zip back and the crew took this time to talk about wildlife. the sea birds migrate and every year there are less and less of them. they find all sorts of plastic junk in the dead ones, and estimate that even if there isn't another piece of plastic added to the ocean all of the birds here will still be extinct in about 20 years. there's a medical waste dump nearby that they haven't been able to contain and is seeping into the water killing the fish. and the phytoplankton, important for creating a huge amount of oxygen, is on a severe decline. i know its important to learn about these things but between half freezing and the depressing information it didn't end up being a cheerful trip.
the harbor we left from is the only harbor in australia that doesn't have limits for amounts of fish caught, so people come here to catch as much as they can. the crew said that the japanese come here alot because they have a 20 year back stock of the local tuna and are trying to catch every last one so they can get hundreds of thousands of dollars per fish when this type is extinct. i don't know how true that is, and if these guys are so conservation minded this seems like an easier thing to fix than plastic or toxic waste.
after lunch we went to a chocolate factory, a cherry farm and 'remarkable cave'. about half way through i realized i had made a mistake and didn't book the port arthur historic sites. crap. the rest of the day was fairly boring and annoying, there was a small group of women from sydney that took about 300 pictures everywhere we went. first the group (4), then in couples, then singles, then do it all over again with each person's camera, squealing the entire time. we literally waited an extra 20 minutes everywhere we went for them to finish their pictures.
today i'm catching up on blogs, doing laundry, and wearing every warm piece of clothing i own while i get ready to leave early tomorrow. i can't wait to be sweaty hot again in cambodia. i also have to finish all of my local chocolates and tasmanian wine, just waiting for noon so i don't feel guilty.
i've become friends with the owner of this hostel, we hang out when i'm here, he's an older guy from portugal who has lived here most of his life. he keeps asking my why i haven't brought home any tasmanian guys yet to sample more of the local flavor (this is one of those 'the odds are good but the goods are odd' kinda places). he even offered his services in case i was feeling like it was something i had to do. but instead i just let him drive me to the store when i'm too lazy to walk.
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| me and a seal |
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