Easter Weekend

An Easter like I've never had before! So when my flatmates mentioned going out to the country to camp for the holiday weekend I knew I was in! I had just gotten back from Tasmania and had a few days before returning back to work. We drove out to New Gambie, A little place out in the middle of nowhere. It turned out that we didn't even need to camp out because one of the guys had just bought a house out there. When we drove up the driveway we were welcomed with motorbikes riding up on one side of the car and a 4wheeler on the other side!

We soon jumped right on the bikes and 4wheeler ourselves. First I met the owner of the house, Deaven and his brother Boa. I also met their other brother and his girlfriend. I had met Ben, my flatmate's best mate, once before but I got to know him much better this weekend. I first tried out the 4wheeler, something I felt more comfortable with. I drove all over the land until I ran into the wire fence that I didn't happen to see. Boa had to run over and help get the 4-wheeler unstuck. I ended up having a huge bruise on my calf for weeks from this. I wasn't done yet though. Deaven offer to take me on a ride on his motorbike. I have to admit I am a complete chicken. Everytime he got "too fast" for me I started screaming and pleading for him to slow down lol! It was so much fun though. Next he tried to teach me to do it on my own. I did pretty good with him behind me on the bike. I got all the way down the drive and turned around. As soon as he let me do it on my own though, it was a different story. I ended up driving the bike right into a ditch, letting go of it right before hitting the ditch. Luckily the bike and I were ok. Deaven then drove us both back on the bike up to the house.

The guys were now ready to do a little drive. However these boys decided to drive through the bush up hills and between trees, definitely in parts where cars were not meant to go. It was a very adventurous drive! Ben got his car stuck in a ditch and we had to do a photo-op before the boys worked on getting it out of the ditch. We got back to the house just in time to make some dinner. We all ate and drank around the bomb fire and had an awesome night!

The next morning was Easter. I had talked Ben the night before into going to church with me on Easter because to me it wouldn't be Easter without church. Hince the meaning behind Easter in the first place! So we looked up a few places close by but it seemed soon forgotten and I thought I wasn't going to get to go. We went into town for some groceries and resources and luckily I spotted a church starting a service right next door. Ben and I went and I really enjoyed having some God time on this very special day! The serrvice was nice and it made it feel a little more like Easter should be =) Ben and I then headed back to the house and met up with everyone else. They were discussing who was going to get to go on the boat for the day. So Deaven and his buddy took my flatmates and I out for a ride on the boat. It was awesome! I learned how to knee board!!! I had so much fun and enjoyed my time in the sun! It is a tradition in my family that I get steak for Easter because I don't like ham.

I told everyone that at the store and we all got steaks to grill out. Ben took the role as cook and made some awesome BBQ for us all. It was a really great Easter!

April: Tasmania

Tasmania had to be one of my favorite trips so far in Australia! I had very low expectations because I knew it was going to be cold. Tasmania is a island below Melbourne. It's distance from the equator and the sea breeze keeps Tasmania pretty chilly most of the time. However I had heard it was beautiful and a must see. So I talked a few of my friends into going and we had a blast.

The crew: Jen, a friend of mine through the teacher agency, and I had talked about wanting to do something over the school holidays. We had both agreed we needed to see Tasmania before we left the continent. A bit later I was having lunch with Teresa, one of the Germans I traveled with in Western Australia. I told her about the upcoming trip and she decided to come too. Lastly Sally joined. I met Sally through Jen a few times before and knew she was awesome so I was stoked she was coming.

We flew into Hobart on a Wednesday night. We got there late so we expected to check in, get dinner and stay in. When we checked in though we found out that it was "uni" night so if we wanted to hit the town it would actually be hopping. When I was packing I completely threw out the idea of going out because it was Tasmania! but I was wrong. We got dressed and headed out to the places the receptionist had suggested. We went to a place called Barcelona. It was a cool bar with drinks in stines!

We got a little food in a bakery, that ended up being a place we visited a lot on our trip. Then went out dancing. It was a fun night especially since it was so unexpected.

The next morning we got up early to drive from Hobart to Bicheno. Along the way we saw the beautiful countryside and the peaceful coastline. We stopped and took pictures at all the nice sites.

When we got to Bicheno we struggled a bit to find accommodation but finally got into a hostel and were ready to go see some penguins. We took a tour to the beach to see the fairy penguins as they came up to their burrows. The were so cute and little! You can't however take photos of them because they do not have eyelids and when people use their flash they permanently blind them. Afterwards we were ready for some food. Since Tasmania is an island and along the coast, it is known for it's seafood so we went to a nice little seafood restaurant. We ate some good food and a yummy dessert! We got back to the hostel and passed out!

The day before was a bit rainy so we decided to wait to see wineglass bay with some better weather. Lucky enough for us the next day was better! We drove to the cliffs where Coles bay and Wineglass bay was and did the big hike to see the sites. I must say with the elevation being up higher and me being out of shape, the hike was a bit hard. Of course though it was worth it!

After the hike it was time to drive to Launceston. On the way to no surprise we found a few wineries to check out. Wineries are everywhere in Tasmania!

The wine was good and totally worth the price....free! We got to Launceston later that arvo and found the coolest hostel. Our room was adorable. It was extremely long and the best part...no bunk beds!(price you normally pay for being a budget travel, most hostels are all bunk beds.) It was then time to check out the awesome gorge.

It was really cool! That night we went out since it was a Friday and had a blast!

On Saturday we got up early and started driving to Cradle Mountain. The roads were crazy windy, plus we were driving on the opposite side of the road! When we finally reached the National Park we hiked around Dove Lake.

Dove Lakee was like a postcard all 360* of it. It was a beautiful hike and we even treked through a rainforest for some of it.

After that we were wore out. We stopped in a small town for a quick bite to eat and then we headed back to Hobart. In Hobart we had a nice dinner out and then hit the town. We went to one bar that I really wanted to go to and it turned out that it was a crazy young bogan crowd! It was funny but we soon left because we were so exhausted from our big day.

The next day we decided to check out some waterfalls and wineries. The wineries had a beautiful views of the fields and vineyards. It was such a beautiful day which made for a very scenic view. I love waterfalls so I was so happy to get to see a few more while in Australia. We also stopped at a little animal place were we got to see many Aussie animals but most importatnly, a Tasmanian Devil! On the way back to Hobart we stopped at the MONA museum that we had heard so much about. It is a collectors museum of all the works he had collected through the years. Well it sounded like it would be this small thing but no! We got there and there were multiple buildings including restrauants and hotels. The building with the muesum part was 3 stories tall and to our surprise his collections we all very vulgar. I couldn't believe that the majority of the pieces in this museum had to do with some sort of disturbing images. Some of the pieces literally made me feel sick. We left not knowing why so many people had raved about it. It was quickly obvious that the collector was disturbed himself. All four of us girls were in utter shock that it was so popular. The buildings had some amazing articheture to them and the voice tour that you could purchase was on ipads so the guy had put a lot of money into showing this to the public. I not one to critize art but I am one to say a person who can only appreciate disgusting artwork is not much of art enthusist himself. That night we were tuckered out. It was our last night in Hobart and we decided to watch the movie the beach in the hostel.

our last day in Tasmania was spent on Bruny Island. We caught an early ferry to the Island, saw the beautiful sites, drank some wine from the winery there, ate some cheese from the cheese tasting place and bought some amazing fudge from the fudge factory. This little island had quite a few little interesting places for such a small place. We enjoyed our last day together on the trip then caught our flight back to Melbourne. I had so much fun with these lovely girls!