A Quick Visit to Tassie
Melbourne, Australia

We're now in Melbourne, hanging out with my friend Annie from Girls Brigade back in my days in Kota Kinabalu. It sure has been fun catching up since the last time we saw each other was in 1987. We've been hanging out at their house (Annie and her husband Chiang from Penang), playing Playstation games, building jigsaw puzzles, and enjoying their high speed ADSL internet connection. We went to the Melbourne Zoo yesterday and spent over 5 hours with the animals. We spent a lot of time viewing the Aussie animals since they are not as common back home. Of course, we can't skip the big cats even if we've seen them in the wild. They are such beautiful creatures.

We left Sydney last Saturday, on the 27th. Just before that, we got to meet up with our friends Steve and Kathy whom we met while travelling in China in 2002. It was wonderful catching up at lunch, then on the lawn of Hyde Park during the beautiful sunny afternoon. In the evening, we went to the Roosters vs Bulldogs rugby league game with Jackie and Justin. Wow! There was so much energy throughout the game, though the Roosters did beat Bulldogs 35-0. Somewhere near the second half of the game, things got rough and some of the viewers got into fights. Winston saw a guy with blood on his face, while many of us saw people up on the balcony hurl down their cups of beer. It was an interesting night, but great fun.

We flew to Hobart, Tasmania and rented a car for three days. We decided to spend our first night in Port Arthur. It turns out that we were visiting during high season (plus it's a weekend) so many hotels/b&bs were booked up already. We did end up getting a comfy room with a river view, and a pub that served great food. Before settling in, we drove to the end of Port Arthur, and watched the great ocean waves crash against the cliffs down the bellow. It was very windy and noisy there, but a spectacular sight!

The next morning, we visited Port Arthur Historic Site, home of convicts and 'free men' in the 1830s to 1870s. They have preserved the land, and some of the buildings. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we had to let our imagination run wild back to the middle of the 19th century, in convict land. The next stop was the Tasmanian Devil Park. We had a great time here, getting to see the little Tasmanian devils in action. They sure look quite different than the Warner Brothers creature, maybe except for the nose. These guys are black, and have bodies like a little bear. They looked so cute sprawled out on the ground when they napped in the warm sun. It was especially funny when we watched them during the feeding. One devil would run off with a piece of meat in its mouth, while a second would run along it the entire time even if there were extra food laying around the ground. Round and round they went, the crowd laughing the whole time.

We also enjoyed visiting the kangaroos and wallabies in their open area. Quite friendly, they approached humans and let us touch their fur. During a session with a keeper, we got to see a 1 year old wombat who was rescued when she was 6 months old (her mom was killed by a car and she was in the pouch). She is currently 7kg, but will grow up to 35kg soon. Quite big! She was drinking milk out of a bottle, and proceeded to fall asleep as soon as she finished. Just like a baby!

That afternoon, we spent the whole time driving, past Hobart and up towards the Cradle Mountain Lake Sinclair National Park. By evening, we arrived at Lake Sinclair and got a cabin for the night. Lake Sinclair is the deepest lake in Australia, with a depth of 167m. In the morning, we woke up at 6am, and went for a morning walk. The weather was cool, but not frigid. We enjoyed walking through the different vegetations, and looking for platypuses at the bay (no luck there). We left in the morning and drove towards the westcoast.

Arriving at Strahan, we got lunch and hung out at the esplanade where we were surrounded by seagulls. Since we were on the very west of the island, we decided to go check out the ocean waves. Boy, the wind was very strong out here. My hair was blowing at 60 degrees or so from the strong gust when we stepped outside at the beach. I don't think we saw any birds out there; it was also very cold since the breeze came from the ocean.

We drove along the old mining area of the island till we reached Tullah (near Cradle Mountain) and spent the night there at a lakeside chalet. Again, we had a very early morning the next day. At 6am, we were up and lugging a canoe down to the lake. We spent a couple of hours on the lake, sometimes paddling sometimes just floating as I read my book. It was crystal glass clear on the water; we could see reflections of trees, clouds and sun. It was very beautiful indeed.

After leaving Tullah, we had planned to visit Cradle Mountain. However, it was very grey and wet, so we gave it a past, knowing that we would be unable to get any view at the lookout site. Instead, we drove north towards the water where it was sunny and warm! At Burnie, we got lunch and walked around the town. Then we drove around the north coast of the island. It truly was beautiful and we stopped often for pictures. One of these small towns was called Penguins, and not only was there a 3m tall penguin statue in the middle of town, all their garbage bins were also shaped like penguins, and shops were penguin this or penguin that. It was a bit weird.

We left Devonport and got to Melbourne on the 30th of March. We caught a cab to their house in Kensington, and settled in quite quickly. The first night here, we enjoyed Penang food in a restaurant. Annie cooked us dinner the second night and last night, we ate at an interesting restaurant named 'Blackout', aptly named since it's pitch black inside. The concept of this restaurant is to experience food through your other senses, and getting a feel for how the blind eat. It was actually quite fun, and it truly was pitch black. More than once, we've had to use our hands to find our food on our plate, or to see if it's actually empty. It was quite funny.

We're off to see a bit of the city now. Winston and I are on dinner duty tonight so we'll have to brainstorm what to cook. It's been 9 months after all, and my brain is really quite rusty in thinking up something I can make. Help!

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