Friendly Beaches and Wineglass Bay

The day after the surf lesson and penguin tour we drove over to the Friendly Beaches and Wineglass Bay.  The Friendly Beaches were one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen with huge crashing waves.

We drove over to Freycinet National Park and hiked up to the Wineglass Bay lookout.

We hiked down to the Wineglass Bay beach and then over to Hazards Beach to eat our packed lunch.

We then hiked back up to the car park and saw these huge rocks on the way.

Glad we got to show Hannah this part of Tasmania.

Bicheno Blowhole and Fairy Penguins

We spent the night in Bicheno after the surfing lesson.  We went to dinner that night and then over to see the Bicheno Blowhole.  It is an area along the water where the waves come into the rocks just right to cause a blowhole of water.  It was really cool.

We went to see the fairy penguins come in fromt the ocean after this.  We went on a tour where they took us in a bus out to where the penguins come in and a guide took us around the rookery.  Typically this time of year upwards of 100 penguins come in from the ocean each night to feed their young after feeding out in the ocean all day.  Because of the recent floods, the numbers were way down.  Some of the chicks who weren't quite ready to go out to the ocean and feed for themselves were forced to go because their parents weren't able to get back to them.  We saw around 30 penguins on the tour.  We even saw a couple of furry chicks in one of the burrows.  The fairy penguins come in as a group as protection against predators.  Of the 17 species of penguins fairy penguins are the smallest.  They are about a foot tall and weigh 2 pounds.  Do you know why penguins waddle?  It is because they don't have any knees. These penguins are also called little penguins or blue penguins because their feathers are slate blue.

Surfing!

Ben and Hannah had talked about wanting to take surf lessons so I found a place near Bicheno that gave lessons and signed them up.  We met the instructor at Scamander Beach, but then drove to Falmouth Beach for their lesson.  They both did so well and really enjoyed it.  Hannah got up on the board more times than Ben but Ben stayed on for the longest ride.  

Platypus House and Seahorse World

Hannah, Ben, and I drove about 45 minutes over to Beauty Point to go to Playpus House and Seahorse World.  They are right next to each other at a great location on the water.  We did the tour at Playtpus House first where we saw some platypi swimming in tanks and feeding.  The best part of this tour was actually seeing the echnidnas.  They had two echidnas in a room with rocks and plants and they could just wander around freely.  We all sat on the floor and watched them eat.  They were so cute just waddling around amongst us. 

Next we went and had the Seahorse World tour.  We got to see all different types of seahorses in tanks and even got to see the nursery where they raise the baby seahorses.  They had tanks with seahorses of various ages from youngest to oldest.  We learned about the Big Bellied Seahorse.  The male inflates his pouch with water to court the female.  The male incubates the eggs in his pouch.  We also saw weedy sea dragons.

I've always been fascinated by seahorses and look forward to getting to see one in the wild on a dive sometime. 

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.