Hi everyone! For this blog, we go to the amazing land of Tasmania. The first stop on our Tasmanian tour was the town of Strahan to see the infamous Sarah Island which was a prison for British convicts over 150 years ago. We went over to the island on a boat trip and saw all of the ruins of the old buildings. While looking at the buildings we saw things like the old commondant's (or leader's) cabin, the shipyard, and the solitary prison. Although Sarah Island used to be a place you definitely didn't want to be, now it's a pretty island. The surrounding areas of Macquire Bay and the Gordon River lead to World Heritage listed nature areas, so we also got off the boat and took a cool walk through the rain forest with trees that are hundreds of years old. One was even over 200 years old!
After Strahan, we went a small beach town called Bicheno for Christmas. When we got there we were really surprised to find that we were in an actual house, which was a lot different than the "beach shack" we were expecting. We were really excited to be in a house for Christmas and not a hotel room. Anyway, on Christmas Eve things started to feel a little more like Christmas when we went to see penguins come in from their day of fishing. It was actually quite cold even though it is the middle of summer there (now if that's not Christmas, nothing is!). On Christmas Day we did what the Aussies do--go to the beach!
After Strahan, we went a small beach town called Bicheno for Christmas. When we got there we were really surprised to find that we were in an actual house, which was a lot different than the "beach shack" we were expecting. We were really excited to be in a house for Christmas and not a hotel room. Anyway, on Christmas Eve things started to feel a little more like Christmas when we went to see penguins come in from their day of fishing. It was actually quite cold even though it is the middle of summer there (now if that's not Christmas, nothing is!). On Christmas Day we did what the Aussies do--go to the beach!
Now it's time to talk about the one thing that is only found
in Australia, or Tasmania to be exact ... the Tasmanian devil! The
Tasmanian (or "Tassie") devil is an animal that grows to be about two
feet long and stands about a foot high and has a distinctive black coat
of fur with a white strip under its neck and across its back. One day,
we went to a small zoo called East Coast Nature World. They had tons of
Tassies, including some wild ones that had been rescued. They looked
like they wanted to eat us, as they were running around their pens like
crazy. Some of the others had been raised at the zoo since they were
babies, and were much calmer.
After Bicheno, we went to Port Arthur, which was another convict prison that came around during the times of Sarah Island, but unlike Sarah Island which had only about 100 prisoners, Port Arthur held up to 1,600 prisoners. The thing that was really surprising to us is that they took kids as young as nine years old! Since there were so many young prisoners, they started a special prison for juveniles and that boosted up the population to nearly 2,500. After spending the afternoon at Port Arthur we went back one more time, but this time at night for the ghost tour of the grounds. We learned about the sad past of Port Arthur and how some of those sad souls still haunt the grounds. This would be a really scary place to come on Halloween!
After Port Arthur, we went to the city of Hobart, where something special was going on. They were having the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, which is a really famous sailing race here. We actually met the skipper and owner of the winning boat, "Wild Oats," and we got to go on the boat too! Yacht races weren't the only thing going on in Hobart when we were there--they were also having the "Taste of Hobart Festival," which was a food festival with tons of great stuff to eat. The festival also had street performers (buskers), like a comedian who went around teasing people, which was probably not very funny for the person being picked on, but hilarious for the audience. We had a really fun time visiting Hobart.
I will leave you with a cool picture of me feeding a kangaroo!
Anyway, that's all for now.
After Bicheno, we went to Port Arthur, which was another convict prison that came around during the times of Sarah Island, but unlike Sarah Island which had only about 100 prisoners, Port Arthur held up to 1,600 prisoners. The thing that was really surprising to us is that they took kids as young as nine years old! Since there were so many young prisoners, they started a special prison for juveniles and that boosted up the population to nearly 2,500. After spending the afternoon at Port Arthur we went back one more time, but this time at night for the ghost tour of the grounds. We learned about the sad past of Port Arthur and how some of those sad souls still haunt the grounds. This would be a really scary place to come on Halloween!
After Port Arthur, we went to the city of Hobart, where something special was going on. They were having the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, which is a really famous sailing race here. We actually met the skipper and owner of the winning boat, "Wild Oats," and we got to go on the boat too! Yacht races weren't the only thing going on in Hobart when we were there--they were also having the "Taste of Hobart Festival," which was a food festival with tons of great stuff to eat. The festival also had street performers (buskers), like a comedian who went around teasing people, which was probably not very funny for the person being picked on, but hilarious for the audience. We had a really fun time visiting Hobart.
I will leave you with a cool picture of me feeding a kangaroo!
Anyway, that's all for now.
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