Ginger Without Borders

The All Blacks of New Zealand finally met a better team in England, as England won in the Rugby World Cup semi-final Saturday night. So we were up late watching the game before we started packing for our tour of the national parks of Tasmania. First up is Freycient National Park. Founded in 1916, it is the oldest national park in Tasmania. It occupies most of the peninsula named after the French explorer who published the first full map of the coastline of Australia. Apparently, the Australian pronunciation of this very French name is something close to “Fresh-i-nase”.

The route north to this park is mostly the Tasman Highway, or A3, which is one of the longest in Tasmania. Only the part near Hobart would be recognized as a major highway in the US. Most of the A3 is a lovely byway through farmland, bush and along the Tasman Sea. If you could drive due east, you would arrive at the southern island (closest to Antartica) of New Zealand, which explains the colder weather. And there was the occasional rain shower for our two hour journey on the A3.

We are staying inside the National Park at an ecolodge built on the site of a home known as the “Chateau.” The adjacent long sandy beach is named for the owner of the home, the Richardsons. The views of Promise Bay are spectacular, as is the site of the Lodge. We are staying in a cabin and were greeted just outside the cabin door by a pair of green, yellow and blue parrots named green rosellas. The rain that had fallen off and on during our drive finally cleared away for us to take a walk on the beach.

Dawn elected to stay in the cabiin to watch the other semi-final World Cup Rugby game but I went into town to eat and this was my view.

As I returned to the cabin after dinner, the rain began to fall softly with the sun peeking out of the clouds and a double rainbow formed over the parking lot.

As I said in my post from Hobart, we consider rainbows a good omen and the weather on Monday was just perfect, light clouds, almost no wind and temperatures in the high 60s. So we had an early breakfast and drove to the Cape Tourville lighthouse in the hope of catching sight of some wildlife at the park around the lighthouse. Other than a small lizard, we had no luck with any wildlife but we did get a marvelous view of Thouin Bay, which is a maritime national park. We did not see any whales even though the Bay is a spawning area for right whales.

One of the world’s 10 best beaches, Wineglass, is visible from this walkway that goes competely around the Cape. The only way to get to Wineglass Beach is by boat or a 2 hour one way footpath over those mountains. The parking lot for that trail was full of tourists, so we elected to head to another beach, Hazards, which was on the same side of the peninsula as the Lodge. No luck with wildlife after an hour of walking, so we returned to the cabin. Dawn changed shoes and we took a short walk to Honeymoon beach adjacent to the Lodge. We probably spent an hour exploring the rocks, lichens and shellfish that reside along this bay.

Then on our way back to the cabin, there noticed some folks using the electric barbeque at the parking lot for the beach (remember, Australia provides free public barbecues). Their cooking apparently attracted a Benhetts Wallaby (the Tasmanian version) who was so used to foks that I was able to get a really closeup photo.

Since there was no rugby tonight (the final game is Saturday), Dawn and I had dinner together at the Lodge’s fine restaurant. After dinner, we struck up a conversation with a couple from Sydney waiting for the sunset (and who, like us, rarely see a sunset into the ocean). And Mother Nature did not dissappoint us.

PS., Lena we spent more of your inheritance on a really nice meal. Dawn’s vegetarian dish was so good she said she may become a vegetarian (if she can figure out how to prepare food like that). My fish was the best since we got to Australia. So Mom is happy and I am good until we have to drive on the left side of the road again tomorrow.