Alum Cliffs and Pine Lake Walk

Sarah had to go back to Chicago but Hannah was still here for 10 days and we had lots more Tasmania to show her.  We did a couple of fun walks we hadn't done before, Alum Cliffs and Pine Lake Walk.  The Alum Cliffs walk took us to a wooden platform overlooking huge rock cliffs and the Mersey River.  We brought lunch and sat on the platform to eat.

We were driving to our next walk and stopped to take a picture of the big Tasmanian Devil sculpture.  There are all sorts of these big sculptures all over Australia.  Here is a link to a list of all the big things: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia's_big_things

So far we have seen the big Penguin, platypus, cassowary, and Tasmanian Devil. 

The Pine Lake walk was a short walk on a wooden boardwalk with gorgeous views and the plant life was unique for the harsh conditions of this area where it can get quite cold and windy.

Launceston with the girls

Ben had to go back to work so Sarah, Hannah, and I did some stuff around Launceston.  We went shopping downtown.  There are lots of shops and cafes and it is quite easy to walk there from our place.  We also went for a run one day and on a walk through the Cataract Gorge.  Sarah and Hannah couldn't believe we had such an impressive nature area like the gorge right in the middle of the city.  Hannah liked seeing the outdoor pool that is at the gorge and we tried to go back so she could swim after Sarah left, but the pool was completely flooded over.  You couldn't even tell that there was a pool there!  We had recently gotten quite a bit of rain and the gorge was raging rapids.  It was pretty neat to see.  Unfortunately Hannah never got to swim in the pool but we did go to the Launceston Aquatic Center one Sunday afternoon.  I had never been there and it is a really neat facility with multiple indoor and outdoor pools, diving boards, kids areas, and a waterslide.  It was fun to show Launceston to Sarah and Hannah.

Tasmania Zoo Redux

Ben and I went to the Tasmania Zoo early on upon our arrival in Tasmania and were excited to go again.  We got there in time to see the penguin feeding and the Tasmanian Devil feeding. 

The yawning actually isn't a sign of aggression, but of fear or uncertainty.

Hannah even petted a baby Tasmanian Devil.

Ben actually had to go back to work this day.  He had a shift at 2 pm but we were able to squeeze in the trip to the zoo before he left for work.



Archer's Knob Hike

Ben and I had been to Narwantapu National Park before but wanted to go for a hike there again with Sarah and Hannah.  We love this park because it is only about an hour's drive away and both times we have been there we have seen lots of wildlife-pademelons, wallabies, kangaroos, and my personal favorite-wombats.  It was rainy the day of our hike, but we still had a great time hiking the 6 miles up to Archer's Knob and back.  Here's the view from the top:

We stopped at Baker's Beach on the way back down.

We hiked back along the opposite side of Springlawn Lagoon than we did on the way up and saw these kangaroos:

Here's the Garmin map and stats from the hike:

Cadbury Half Marathon

We spent one night at our place in Launceston before driving to Hobart for the half marathon.  It was rainy the night before the race but we found an Italian place for dinner and were up early for the race on Sunday.  800 people particpated in the race.  There was a half marathon, marathon, and 2.5K.  The race was sponsored by Cadbury and started and finished at the Cadbury chocolate factory.

I really enjoyed this race!  I ended up finishing in about 2 hours 25 minutes.  It was a nice course, a little hilly though.  It was along the water for a while which was nice.  I got to see my cheering section (Ben, Sarah, and Hannah) 4 different times.  There was a big hill at the end of the course that was killer.  I wasn't sore at all the next day so maybe I could have pushed myself a little harder, but I was quite pleased with how it went.  Afterwards we showered at the hotel and had brunch at a little cafe in the Salamanca area of Hobart which has tons of cute restaurants and shops.  We did a little shopping and walked down by the harbor before driving back to Launceston.  We had dinner at Hallam's where Ben and I went for my birthday.  It was such a fun meal.  We shared a platter of oysters and all ordered a different seafood dish for our mains. 

Where are the Cassowaries?

Before I talk about the search to see a cassowary, I wanted to mention Yasi, the cyclone that hit up near Cairns last night.  The two major towns in the area, Cairns and Townsville, were spared major damage, but it sounds like Mission Beach, the town where we stayed with Sarah and Hannah, had severe damage.  We hope the fabulous little hotel where we stayed is okay. 

When we first got to the Mission Beach area we saw so many signs warning cars to be careful not to hit cassowaries.

Cassowaries are a large flightless bird third in size only to the ostrich and emu.  They are an important species in the rainforests because they eat fallen fruit whole and distribute the seeds.  Here is a picture of one Ben and I saw at Sydney Wildlife World.



We were excited to get into the rainforest and see one, but unfortunatley we never saw one.  We did stop for pictures in front of the big cassowary sculpture.

 
When we went to the waterfalls we saw a sign for tree kangaroos.

We didn't see a tree kangaroo either.  We have had pretty good luck spotting wildlife so I guess it is to be expected to not always be so lucky.  Mission Beach was great.  We loved having the pool and beach right there.  I ran on the beach a couple of times.  There were miles of hard packed sand that were great to run on.  Sarah and Hannah even walked down to the stinger net to swim.  It is stinger (jellyfish) season so it was only safe to swim in the areas of the beach with a stinger net.  Time to show the girls Tasmania!  

Tropical Tablelands

This day we drove to the Atherton Tablelands region to see some waterfalls.  We saw three near a town called Millaa Millaa. 

Ellinjaa Falls

Zillie Falls
We saw a beautiful blue Ulysses butterfly here.

Millaa Millaa Falls

We drove over to Malanda and had a nice little lunch at a cafe there.  Ben and Sarah had meat pies which are a common lunch here, kind of like a pot pie you eat out of your hand.  Hannah and I had sandwiches and we had delicious pastries for dessert before going to see one more waterfall.

Malanda Falls

We did a couple of short hikes near these falls that were quite muddy.  On tap for tomorrow's posts are one last post about Mission Beach and a post about our trip to Hobart.