So when we planned to go to Tasmania, we focused on four different aspects, Port Arthur, the Muesum of Old and New Art (MONA), a hike along the eastern coast, and hopefully the Aurora Australis (southern lights). As you saw in our other post the Aurora Australis was a once in a lifetime event and the MONA was not. We went to the Tasman Peninsula to see Port Arthur and go on a hike.
The area was called the Tasman Peninsula to honor the western explorer Abel Tasman when the country was called Van Diemen’s land – eventually the whole country was named after Tasman.
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The Three Capes
Supposedly the best hike in all of Australia is The Three Capes hike on the Tasman Peninsula. In investigating the YouTube videos, they said it’s either three to four days depending on your fitness level so clearly that was not on tap for us. I then found a hike to one of the capes and it was a six hour return and based our prior hikes, we were usually about 25% longer – plus there is a 4,000 foot elevation change. As I was getting depressed the guy on the YouTube video added that they took a boat ride the next day and saw two of the three capes in a 2 hour boat ride so that was the home run for us. A foggy morning turned into a spectacular day on the boat ride – pictures attached. With a bonus that the boat ride drop off point was right next to Port Arthur.
Port Arthur
Port Arthur was the largest convict port in Australia and was developed after the mainland of Australia got tired of hosting convicts in mid-1850s. It is estimated that over 70% of the Tasmania population is descended from the convicts (compared to 20% for the whole country). We continued to have a gorgeous day and wandered the grounds and took a few tour and also did the night ghost tour. We didn’t see any ghosts but a spooky place to walk around. Supposedly a couple months ago they had a sighting and our guide had a picture of a light area but nothing on our visit.
But with a clear night the big thing we’re looking forward to was another night of Aurora Australis as the Kp index was still relatively high. We did see some faint lights in the distance using the camera but in general it was just really dark but would have been a great location as we had a clear shot to Antarctica in our first stop. In our second stop looking over a bay, we did get some pictures of the Milky Way with one person a couple miles away having a flashlight in the forest looking back at us – it’s that dark. We then took our time driving back to Hobart – between stopping to look for the Aurora and kamikaze wallabies running in front of the car – it was a late night.
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