Tasmania - Northern and East Coast

We spent a night in Launceston and walked along Cataract Gorge.  This was a lovely walk and when we got in we caught another chairlift over the gorge itself.  The children were more comfortable on the chairlifts than I was!

We did the Duck Reach short walk and it was late when we finished.  We had headlamps but the children were tired by the time we made it out.  It was worth it to see the power station lit up on dusk up the gorge.  This walk was listed on the short walk guide published by the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife service, I had the app and used it a lot.

The next day we visited the Launceston Wetlands (another top short walk).  I thought the children may find this dull but we saw snakes, birds, bird hides and the boardwalk which made it quite fun for everyone.

I did not enjoy finding myself up close to the snakes but the rest of the wetlands were very picturesque.

The Bay of Fires was a Tassie highlight for the whole family.  This is where we found a great campsite on Swimcart beach and pitched the tents.  We watched the waves crash, relaxed and played in the sand.  We didn't get to do as much camping as we would have liked so this was a cherished part of our holiday.

The rocks were so red.  It was the most amazingly beautiful place.  I think it was about this time I started to picture myself living in Tasmania in the not to distant future.  Not a practical daydream but fun while it lasted!

I made DH pull up so I could take a photo of the cattle grazing with the beach behind them.  I loved this!  So very different to our few cattle in our small creek paddock.

A little down the road I had to get DH to stop again for the same photo but with sheep.  He was a bit bemused by my insistence that this was a must have holiday snapshot.

We spent a day in Freycinet National Park.  This was such a beautiful place.  We did an 11km hike here which was a giant test on the children.  They were little troopers!  We hiked up to the lookout to see Wineglass Bay.  Then we hiked straight down to the bay itself.  We had a brief picnic by the beach then hiked across the isthmus to Hazard Beach.

From Hazard beach we skirted around Great Oyster Bay and back to the carpark.  My two children were the youngest we saw during this hike walking under their own steam carrying their own packs.  They were fantastic and the main reason I enjoyed this day so much.

We also made it down through the Midlands and around the Great Lake area.  It snowed as we drove through the Lakes so I jumped out of the car long enough to snap a photo.  

The Midlands were wonderful.  Great grazing areas and history made for a very pleasant drive.  We did this bit as a loop; south down Highway 1 to Hobart and then north through the Great Western Tiers on A5.