Today we left with some new friends and amazing memories made in beautiful Tasmania. Our tour was an incredible adventure, and the state was so much more than I knew or expected. If hiking, beaches and rugged nature are your thing, this is a most excellent place to be.

Rob Takes FOMO to the Next Level

We finished our tour of Tassie with Under Down Under on Monday evening, picked up our rental car, and had planned to use Tuesday as our last full day in Tasmania to go see places we missed on our tour and still wanted to see. Our possible top activities list include the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, Bruny Island, or Port Arthur. What our list did NOT include (not even in 150,000th place): the Emergency Dentist. Yep, that’s right. For the SECOND time this trip, the LeBeaus were back at an emergency dentist, only this time it was Rob’s turn. Evidently his FOMO was bad enough to prompt a severe toothache Tuesday morning that necessitated a dentist hunt and emergency appointment. Poor guy- at least my swallowed tooth didn’t hurt! We were once again lucky that when a dental emergency occurred, we happened to be in big, modern city with good medical resources. Rob had his appointment and may need some follow up dental, but for now they evaluated him, gave him some meds, and he knows what to look for in the coming days, and most importantly he is hurting less. Fingers crossed that this goes away on its own (which they said is a possibility), but if it doesn’t we can reroute our plans next week to get him seen by a dentist in Melbourne. Thus, our Tuesday ended up being dentists, waiting, and soft foods. But we got our guy back on the right path, and that’s what matters.

Tasman Fountain

Here are a few of our final pictures from around Hobart while we walked to get Rob some soup for dinner. We stopped by to check out the Tasman Fountain. According to the Hobart website, the Tasman Fountain was unveiled by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1988 and features the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water, with water flowing around three historic sail ships. The work of local sculptor Stephen Walker, on one side of the prominent landmark is a life-size bronze statue of a mustachioed Abel Tasman (1603-1659), holding a globe and contemplating his explorations. He was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant who was the first known European explorer to reach land here in 1642. Never encountering any of the original aboriginal residents, he initially named it Van Diemen’s Land after his sponsor, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies, but it was renamed in his own honor when it became self-governing in 1856.

Opposite Tasman, a plinth of white rock showing the four Southern Cross stars—and featuring four flying seagulls—is partially surrounded by a sweeping white concrete fountain that has three surprisingly detailed bronze ships in full sail. 

Melbourne, Here We Come!

Wednesday morning Rob was feeling okay with the meds he was given, so we checked out of our Air BnB and headed to breakfast nearby. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare and return rental car, which sadly we had used so little we didn’t even have to put gas in it to top it off 😢. Rob has continued his 100% perfect streak of having his bags flagged by airport security. So far he has only lost two pairs of cuticle scissors, a corkscrew, and about 20 minutes. I think he just looks sus. What do you think? I am strangely delighted to have such a sketchy husband.

Slight delayed flight (flying Jetstar again- the Australian version of Spirit Air, which so far has run somewhat late on all our flights with them), but after our short (1.5 hours) and sweet flight, we made it safely to Melbourne by about 3:00 p.m.

Melbourne… and Beyond!

We grabbed our bags and our rental car at the Melbourne airport, eager to start our nine day, driving road trip that will take us through the mountains to Adelaide, and back to Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road. Rob is a complete pro at right-side-of-the-car-but-left-side-of-the-road driving by now. Me… not as much. I haven’t had much practice since Rob likes to drive anyways, and when I tried to city drive in Hobart yesterday on the way to the dentist, I felt a bit panicky with all the cars and traffic, and I kept hitting the wipers instead of my turn signal (cuz’ it’s in the “wrong” side)! 😄😂

We stopped in a cute town called Ballarat (pop. 121,050 and I know, I know… Ball of Rats doesn’t SOUND cute, but it was), a town with a gold rush history and the site of the Eureka Stockade Rebellion that was important in establishing Australia’s democracy. Rob’s tooth is still better with soft foods, so we got some takeout pasta and finished up our drive to Halls Gap (pop. 495).

Halls Gap

Halls Gap is a little village located within the mountainous Grampians National Park, about 3 hours from Melbourne. This seemed like a great place to start our road trip, especially when we read they have free roaming kangaroos and emus all over the town. Arriving at dusk, the kangaroos were all out grazing, and our highlight was having one hop along keeping pace next to the car for a short distance down the road!

When we arrived at our little hotel (booked on Booking.com- there are not a lot of places to stay up here!), I was delighted to find out the booking was for a “tiny house”! It was basically just a little trailer with a bathroom, but one whole side is windows that overlook the pastures around here. And bonus: the pastures are filled with cows, llamas, kangaroos, and peacocks! There were also tons of cockatoos buzzing around, and a few kookaburras cackling about, so it is an animal lovers’ paradise here. We wandered a bit after checking in and took some pictures of all the animals peacefully grazing as the sun set. So pretty! The peacocks and cockatoos made sure, however, that it isn’t TOO quiet! 😂

Off to sleep before tomorrow’s hiking and other fun. Thanks for adventuring with us!