Melbourne to Tasmania

Welcome to Melbourne. We were very happy to get to Greg and Marilyn's house so we could relax before our trip to Tasmania. I was going to be driving and was a bit tense about that. I practised a bit because I followed Greg to the rental company to drop off our rental. He said that I was always a bit to the left as I drove. How did he know my political beliefs?
It was very hot in Melbourne. It was going to be almost 40 degrees the next day (Feb. 7) so we planned to stay inside out of the heat for the whole day. Their son, Heath, was coming over that evening for a BBQ. We put on some old videos and did some computer stuff. We closed the drapes and exterior awnings to try and keep it cool in the house. When Heath arrived, he said there were some fires very close by. We went outside and saw a lot of smoke. There were fires within 1 and a 1/2 kilometers of the house over the hill. We could see the helicopters flying back and forth dropping water on the fires. Greg decided that we had better get ready to evacuate. I was going to have to drive his Mustang, Jannose would drive the Subaru, Marilyn the Ute, and Greg the truck with his equipment loaded on it. We repacked our suitcases, Marilyn grabbed papers and photos and everything was at the front door. The winds reversed the fire upon itself and we were safe. We then had supper(tea) and then I let the boys know that we were okay. I didn't take into account the media portrayal of the fire, the thirsty koala and bodies in the street. They contacted External Affairs to find out where we were and if they could collect the insurance money already. We were already in Tasmania by that time, a long way from the fires. We did travel by that area 9 days later and saw the destruction.

This is the view from the back yard and if you look closely, you
can see the helicopter directly in the middle, just above the tree, in all the smoke.
It was a scary time for all of us.

On Sunday, we took the train into Melbourne and met Shaun and
Rebecca, two transplanted Brits that we had met last year
in Bangkok. They met us in Federation Square in downtown
Melbourne. We went to an artist market and then walked
around the area before taking a boat trip down the river.

An interesting bridge.

Do we have clearance, Clarence?

Melbourne also has a super-size Ferris Wheel. Unfortunately,
the architects didn't take into account the extreme heat and some
of the steel has warped. Not being used now for a while or perhaps
forever. The locals joke about it as a circular mass of scrap metal.

A couple of very interesting bridges.

This is the entry to the downtown Casino. Honest, the
walkway is flat.

This is the home of Aussie Rules Football in Melbourne.
Unfortunately, the grass doesn't get enough natural light to
grow so they have to use these artificial lights to encourage
growth. Greg's favourite team plays out of here. They have tailgate
parties just like we do in Western Canada.

A picture taken as we are driving for the first time in Tasmania.
Jannose took this picture as I am driving. Do you see the
large shoulder for each lane? Me neither. Sometimes, I even drove
on roads that had no center line. After three days of driving
like this, Jannose ended up needing some chiropractic care.

Our first stop in Tasmania was a town called Bicheno.
We went down to the ocean to check out this blowhole and it was there we saw our
first penguin(below). this baby had been abandoned by
its parents and had spent the day on the beach access. We hoped that it would be gone by the
next day.

Bicheno was a whaling town and we climbed this small mountain
called Whaler's Lookout for views of the area.

The next day, we headed to a National Park. While walking to
the beach, we passed these pine trees. We thought that the
water on the needles looked kind of neat.

You won't see these signs in Canada.

Three views of the ocean area from the Coles Bay Lighthouse.

We found a few wallabies in the parking lot.

Then, we climbed up and over a mountain in order to see
Wineglass Bay. We could have walked another 2km to get to
the beach. Didn't.

This is the viewpoint of Wineglass Bay. Check out the size of these
rocks. It was a great climb to get up there and the views
were worth it.

It seemed that we saw fantastic things around every corner in Tasmania. We spent one week here but it wasn't nearly enough. Next time, we spend two weeks here.