A Quick Tour of Eastern Tasmania – Day 1

If you had asked me a few years ago about whether or not I had any desire to travel to Tasmania, my answer probably would have been no.  But after hearing about it from my cousin as well as some other people who have been there claiming that it is one of their favourite places in Australia, I thought I’d better go and see for myself.

I soon discovered that it would be quite difficult to travel around Tasmania without a car, so instead, I booked myself a 4 day tour with FunTassie Tours, which turned out to be amazing.  The full tour is actually 6 days long, and would take you on a loop from Hobart, up the east coast, through Lauceston, down the west coast and then back to Hobart.  Due to time constraints, I only took the 4 day tour and left the group once we reached Lauceston.

FunTassie Tours is run by a father and son team, who alternate taking the tours out on a weekly basis.  For my week, I had the pleasure of having Morgan (the son) as my guide.  For the end of October, we actually had a full tour of 15 people, which was quite surprising to me.  What was even more surprising though was that of the 15 people, we had 9 Australians on the tour.  In my mind, if I was traveling within my own country, it would be quite easy to rent a car and travel around at my own pace, especially since the cost of the tour wasn’t cheap at all.  But I guess some people prefer the convenience of a tour.

Immediately after we were all picked up from our hotels, we made a brief stop at Constitutional Dock in Hobart for a few quick stories before we drove up to Mt. Wellington.  At this point, it was a bit chilly while we were walking around Constitutional Dock, but nothing too crazy yet.  However, this all changed when we reached the top of Mt. Wellington.  It was around 2 degrees, but with the wind chill, it felt much colder.  I was extremely under prepared for the weather on this trip, and none of the clothing that I had would have helped in any way. 

The views at the top of Mt. Wellington were very nice, but due to how cold it was up at the peak, we weren’t able to stay up there for very long to enjoy them.

We proceeded back down the mountain and made our way towards the Cascade Brewery.  Enroute, Morgan pointed out a few houses that we passed that looked very unique in that there didn’t appear to be able windows in the houses.  Morgan explained that this is because of the Window Tax that was in place in the past, where you had to pay taxes based on the number of windows you have in your home.  Apparently the same tax existed in England in the past.

The Cascade Brewery is the oldest operating brewery in Australia.  We heard a few interesting stories there about the employees of the past.  The brewery had a giant bell, which would ring every couple of hours and all the employees can take a 10 minute break and drink as much as they wanted to when the bell rung.  At first, this might sound strange to allow employees to drink on the job, but apparently, the rule was put into place to counter all of the excessive drinking that was taking place inside.  Finally in 1996, they put a ban on drinking within the brewery, which seems unimaginable that people were drinking frequently on the job up until 1996.

Prior to lunch, we made a quick stop at Frogmore Creek Winery.  The biggest attraction of the winery is located upstairs, where a local artist was paid to create a beautiful story to line the walls and the floor of the entire second floor.  It was quite the sight to see.

My image of Tasmania has always been that it’s a rural, laid back, close knit place, and this was definitely proven to be true when we stopped for lunch.  The gentleman who served us was telling us that his family runs the restaurant and his relatives run some other businesses, all within a 5-10 minute drive away.  Lunch was light and delicious, with a sample of local cheeses, meats and seafood.  While you had the option to sample some wine, I chose to have coffee instead and am so glad I did, as it was one of the best cups of coffee I’d ever had.

After lunch, we made our way to the Richmond Bridge, a beautiful stone bridge, that is said to be the oldest in Australia.  Surrounding the bridge is a small green area with lots of birds that people seem to like to feed.

After a quick stop at the bridge, we made our way to the Tessellated Pavement and after walking down a short pathway, we got to the water and saw the unique rectangular shaped rock surface. 

We had been driving for awhile, so Morgan decided that it was time for an afternoon tea break and we took a few minutes near Pirates Bay to take in the views and have some refreshments.

Our last stop of the day was at the Tasmans Arch.  After a short walk, we reached the Devil’s Kitchen, which is carved by the Tasman Sea after millions of years. We continued walking and soon reached the Tasmans Arch, which is a natural bridge that is another example of incredible water erosion.

It was well after 6pm by the time we reached our accommodations for the night.  The first day of touring Tasmania was incredible and I was very much looking forward to the next day.