Living and Learning in Sweden: Tassie

I'm embarrassed to admit that until coming to Australia I thought Tasmania was its own country south of Australia. Really, it's a state of Australia and quite a state at that. I got to Australia at the beginning of July and took an intensive class at the University of Melbourne. While in class I met and made friends with incredibly friendly, intelligent and thoughtful Australians (and some international students too!). One such Australian grew up in Tasmania and after regaling another friend and I with tales of the place, convinced us we had to take a trip. So, I bought a plane ticket for next to nothing, flew an hour south and fell in love with the great state of Tasmania, or Tassie as the locals call it.

As I have a tendency to do with islands, I completely utterly underestimated the depths and lengths of this "small" island. Three days was not enough to explore the diverse regions. But with my three days, I packed as much of the South, East Coast, Port Arthur and capital Hobart, in as I could.

The South: forested

Went on a platypus walk and tried SO HARD to see one but didn't

Forded some mighty rivers with on a ridiculously narrow swinging bridge

Walked on top of the forest on that plank

Saw so many rainbows - at least 100 during our 3 days in Tassie

The East Coast: the landscape is so different from the South - more coastal, savannahish and full of wildlife.

See the joey in her pouch?!

Beautiful beaches with perfectly white sand

A wombat!

An unexpected blow-hole

Driving on the left side. Good thing there were no other cars to get confused by ;)

Port Arthur: a formal colonial penal colony, the most notorious in the Southern Hemisphere. They say it's the 3rd most popular tourist prision after Alcatraz and Robben Island.