We were not too impressed with what Launceston had to offer.  We visited the Cataract Gorge, rode the chairlift, and went on a short hike.  It was nice but not worth going out of your way for it.  On our way back to Hobart, we stopped at two of the most adorable historic towns called Ross and Oatlands.  In Ross we stopped at a cute coffee shop and in Oatland we visited the historic windmill.  These stops made the drive to Hobart pleasant.

Oatlands as seen from the windmill

The Rough guide said that entering Hobart from any direction is exhilarating, which it is not.  It is a plain city with a boring skyline.  We went for a walk around 7:00 and it was totally dead, except for a few restaurants around the harbor which appeared to be where people went to have a nice dinner.

We drove to Coles Bay to go on the hike to Wineglass Bay Beach since it is not accessible by car and a small mountain has to be crossed. It was chilly outside so it was good hiking weather but not so good swimming weather.  We wanted to go swimming anyway, to say we did in Tazzie, but the water was freezing and we could only stay in for a few minutes.

Wineglass Bay

After experiencing the views from the hike and the beach we did not want an experience of hunting for accommodation so we thought we better reserve something.  We found a pay phone in Coles Bay and I was parking when I backed right into a pole next to the road which had been in my blind spot.  Ironically it was the sign with parking rules.  It felt like a tiny bump so I didn’t think much of it, but when we looked at the back of the car, there was a gapeing hole right next to the bumper because with my luck I had pushed the plastic which was right next to the bumper and the bumper split the plastic.  The pole was fine.  We called Cosy Cabins and got a spa room.

My parking job

Unfortunately, when we arrived in Launceston, the Cosy Cabins were rather dumpy cabins instead.  We were disappointed by the second half of our day and went out in search for an internet cafe.  We had forgotten that everything closed super early here, and so it was 7:00 and everything was closed.  At least there was a Coles supermarket which was open until midnight so we were able to buy some food for dinner.

The following day we went to explore Port Arthur during the day.  We went on the tour, saw a short play, and wandered around the ruins.  It is a very interesting historical site, and it is pretty amazing to learn about the unique convict history of Australia.

Port Arthur

We spent about half a day there and then went to see the rock formations around Doo Town.  Doo Town is unique because every one of the houses has to be named and have the word “doo” in its name.  I found it amusing and made a nice collection of the names but that was the point – anything for tourism.

We went to see the sights such as, the  Remarkable cave (which was closed) Devil’s Kitchen and the Arch, but the most fascinating thing was the live echidna which was shuffling along the walking track.  We had only seen it in the animal parks before so it was a real treat to see it in real life.  The views were nice too but nothing that we thought was too spectacular.

I just wanted to pet it.

We wanted to spend that night in Cole’s Bay so we could hike to the wineglass bay the next day but when we called the campsite, it already closed.  We decided to go to Bicheno instead, since it looked like a bigger town and we figured we’d have a better chance finding some place to stay there.  As we drove around the 3 streets of Bicheno we saw plenty of hotels and campsites but each one had a “no vacancy” sign.  We were getting worried, especially since we saw cars doing the same thing we were doing – going in and out of accommodation places.  We drove by one house, which was a bit out of town, (We were driving down every road imaginable) and it had a sign which said “vacancy.”  There was no one there, but there was a phone number.  Since it was literally our last hope we drove back to town to use a payphone, since we did not have any cell phone reception.  A lady did indeed say she had room and that she would meet us there ASAP.  We were relieved and raced back to the house which was called Harvey Farm Lodge.  The room was huge there was a kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a living room.  We couldn’t believe that in a town with literally no more places for people to sleep there was suddenly too much places for people to sleep.  The lady locked the other 2 bedrooms and the other bathrooms.  There was also Port, chocolates, and cookies which we could help ourselves to.  The lady then told us that if we were hungry and wanted dinner we better go ASAP since the one pub in town stopped serving food at 8 and all the stores had long closed.  We were confused at how a town overflowing with tourists had only one pub which stopped serving at 8 but we went ASAP and were able to order with 4 minutes to spare.  It was not even overly crowded as we had expected it to be so we had no idea where all these tourists were.

Every house in Doo Town, Tasmania, has the word “doo” in it. We took pictures of every sign we could see.

Road sign	Thistle Doo Me	Xana Do
Doo Mee	Wee Doo - Very Rarely	Doo Mix
Mal's Dooghouse	Yabba Dabba "Doo"	Wattle-I-Doo
Gunnadoo	Gunnadoo	Nickle Doo
Doo-Little	Dr. Doolittle	Doodle-Doo
Doo-Drop-Inn	Love Me Doo	Doo-ALL
AF-2-Doo	Much-A-Doo	Just Doo It
Doo F#@k All	Doo Love It	Sheil-Doo
Didgeri-Doo	Doo-N-Time	Doo Us
Make Doo	Rum Doo

We flew to Tasmania on one of the world’s worst Airlines, Tiger Airways, which seem to be in direct competition with Ryan Air for the worst service award in air service.  In Melbourne they have a separate terminal just for them, which is definitely no frills.  It’s an old hangar that was probably retired from housing planes so of course it is fit to be a terminal.  Everyone was doing the “Tiger Shuffle” which means that they unpacked all their bags and re-shuffled belongings in hopes they would pass the weight test.  Luckily, we were successful in our shuffle.  At least the plane brought us to Hobart in one piece.

We rented a car and drove to Richmond right away.  It is famous for housing Australia’s oldest bridge which is still in use, so of course it was a great thrill to drive over it (twice) and also for the oldest Roman Catholic Church, St. John, still in use.  It was a very cute town and both the church and bridge were very picturesque.  There we also visited Old Hobart Town, which is a model village of Hobart from 1820s.  It is fun because you can play a scavenger game in the village looking for certain things.

Then we drove to Port Arthur and on the way stopped to see the tessellated pavement at Eaglehawk Neck lookout.  It is pretty cool considering it is not man made.  We stayed in Stewarts Bay Lodge, which was very spacious and had a great view of the bay.  We wanted to make dinner, but the nearest grocery store was quite a drive away and did not have much food anyway.   Nevertheless, we scraped something together.

tessellated pavement

That night we went on the Port Arthur Ghost Tour.  The stories were entertaining and our guide was good, it just would have been better if the groups were half the size and if no flash photography was allowed.  We had one very avid photographer who kept flashing at everything, blinding us.  The tour is lead by candlelight so it was pretty dark and flashing was incredibly annoying.

Port Arthur by night (No, I did not use flash).