ROAD TRIP!

On April 6th 2007, Dionne, Jaret, Adam and I piled into a hired Hyundi Getz and headed out of Canberra for a two week road trip to Tasmania and Byron Bay. Our First stop was Melbourne and the Point Nepean music festival on the Mornington Peninsula (just outside of Melbourne).

The Getz was packed full...

It was surprisingly more difficult to get to Melbourne then anticipated... We got a little lost on the way and didn't end up in Melbourne till 11 or 12. The funniest part was Carlos and Jake were waiting since 6pm for us to pick them up at the train station. Initially we had planned to drive to the campsite and drop some people off before picking up the guys but.... it was way to late and the guys had already been waiting for way to long, so we decided to pile everyone in instead. We had no idea where the train station was and by some grace of god we finally found them, patiently waiting outside the train station... It was very exciting. However, we did have one small problem... there where six of us, with six backpacker backpacks and ONE very small, two door Hyundi Getz...hmmm... Jake was not impressed! HAHA It was so hilarious, all of us piled in there... We didn't really know where our campsite was but after numerous u-turns and advice from a friendly taxi driver we eventually made it to Rosebud and set up camp.

Point Nepean
The festival was awesome. There were two stages with all kinds of bands and the main stage was directly beside the ocean, it was great fun.

The music was amazing...

Amos Lee

John Mayer

Eugene HideawayBridges

Missy Higgins

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

"Future man" -Invented the Drumitar. Its played like a guitar but replicates sounds of an entire drum set... Very Cool!

The gang

Next stop was back to Melbourne to catch the ferry. All six of us, piled back into the Getz and headed off to the train station to drop off Carlos and Jake and send them on their way. We boarded the Spirit of Tasmania early Monday morning and road for ten hours across the Bass Strait to Devonport.

The ferry ride was awesome! Even though I was so drugged up on gravol and slept through most of it...it was still cool!

We arrived in Devonport around 7:00pm and drove to find a campsite. I woke up that morning to an old women complaining about a Dingo... (Mike I thought you might appreciate that). I thought it was hilarious anyway. We started off our day driving to Launceston and the famous Cataract Gorge. We took a very cool chairlift to the top. It was said to have the greatest single span of any chairlift in the world (308 metres).

Next we headed to the town of Ross. It wasn't to exciting, reminded me of every other small town I've ever been too. So, we carried onto Fingal. I drove up this stupid curvy gravel road to Evercreech where we walked through these massive White Gum trees. The tallest of their type in Australia.

I loved them! Massive!

It was getting late and by the time we arrived in Bicheno we had a hard time finding a place to camp, so we made the best out of a crappy situation and slept in the car outside the visitors center...

HAHA...

That morning we headed to Frycinet National park to hike up Mount Amos! The hike was great... some areas made me a little nervous but after Canyoning in Bungonia it was a piece a cake. The best part.... obviously was the absolutely gorgeous view from the top.

View of Wineglass Bay from the top of Mt. Amos

The climb up...

After Mt. Amos we headed to Port Arthur. Port Arthur was a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies. Convicts, soldiers and their families all lived in the community and it became a major industrial settlement that produced ships, shoes, clothing, bricks, furniture, etc.
For some crazy reason I had the brilliant idea to take a ghost tour around the old ruins... yeah... it sounded like a good at the time. What a freaky experience. The tour guide was great... a little creepy himself but told the cooliest stories. Apparently, they are only allowed to tell stories that have been crossed referenced three times. Meaning three different people have to see relatively the same "thing." I thought that was pretty cool. My favorite story was of a ghost called the Lady in Blue. She was the wife of a commanding officer and she claimed to be a prisoner herself. During one of the tours a little girl went running across the deck of the house with her arms raised in the air as if she wanted to get picked up. When her mother asked her what she was doing she said she wanted to play with the nice lady... there was no one standing in front of her.... very creepy. They asked the little girl what she saw and the little girl responded... "a lady in a pretty blue dress." hmmmmmmm......

Our tour guide Creepy...

The next day we took a tour around Port Arthur... in the daylight which was nice. We filled our brains with loads of historic facts and also took a ferry ride around the tiny harbor... it was pretty neat.

Next, we piled back in the Getz and drove down to Hobart (the biggest city in Tas). We were all very excited because we were going to spend the night in a hostel! It was very cold during the nights and we all needed to recharge our batteries and our bodies!

Our Hostel!

I wish we would have had another day to spend in Hobart because it looked like a really cool town. But unfortunately, we arrived in the early evening and all we had time for was some groceries and a beer in a cool little pub downtown.
The next day was amazing. First we drove to Mount Field National Park and walked to beautiful Russell Falls.

Then we drove to Lake St. Clair and did an aboriginal culture walk.

Then we drove to Donaghys Hill and hiked up to the lookout point where we had a beautiful view of the Franklin Valley and surrounding mountain ranges just as the sun was setting.

Next we drove into Queenstown, an old mining town, where we pitched our tent and suffered through another freezing cold night.

The next morning we drove to the visitors center in Strahan and decided to check out the Sand Dunes. We drove through dense forests all the way to the parking lot of the dunes. Through the trees you see this wall of sand and once you climb up, all you see is miles and miles of sand... it was so random... where the heck did it all come from?
We decided to hike it to the ocean which took a little longer than expected. But it was still worth it! (Dad, I thought of you when I saw these people ripping around on ATVs and dirt bikes... how fun would that be??).

Next stop was Montezuma Falls (104metres high). It was an hour walk along an old tramway to the old mine shaft next to the falls. Amazing! The coolest part was this sketchy bridge across the front of the falls where the tram bridge used to be. The view was beautiful!

After the walk back we drove to Tullah where our beautiful lakeside chalet was waiting for us.

The beds were fantastic and the food was amazing! I can't explain how excited I was to sleep in a nice warm bed... Good times.
That morning we drove to Cradle Mountain National park where we attempted the five hour summit hike. After the first hour I thought I wasn't going to make it... my legs were burning, the sun was so hot and I knew we had like four hours ahead of us. But eventually the wind picked up, my legs became numb and we made it to the top! The view literally took your breath away... it was amazing.

View from the bottom!

View from the top!

After Cradle Mountain we piled back into the Getz and back to Devonport to catch the ferry. It was defiantly an experience driving around Tasmania, and I highly reccommend it. But with a small car and plenty of gravol...

Note the 30km!!

Once we arrived back in Mebourne we didn't waste anytime and started the 20 hour drive to Joe's farm. Yes... I said 20 hours. My favorite part of the drive was a lady at a gas station that really did not believe us that we where driving to Kampsy from Melbourne... and I kept having to say... ummm yep we are... hahaha. That kinda put the whole thing in perspective. But 20 hours later we finally arrived at Kampsy (around 4am). Joe came to pick us up on the outskirts of town and we followed him and Maki back to his farm.

Later that morning we got up and drove to a really cool beach. Then drove back to Joe's for a massive BBQ! Oh my god was it good...

Next we headed off to Byron Bay, about four hours from Joe's farm. Maki made some fabulous sandwiches with the leftovers from the BBQ for a nice little picnic.

All we wanted to do was lay on the beach and a little bit of shopping. It was really nice to relax for the last three days of our trip. The sun was hot and the water was amazing. It was an awesome ending to our very long, and very eventful journey.

On Friday around 4:00pm we headed back to Canberra. It was nice to get back to my regular routine and see everyone again. Most importantly though I was excited to go back to school and study, study study... hehehe (Dad thats for you...)
Stayed tuned for my next exciting post on Jarvis Bay... Bye for now!