Days 17-20: Tasmania-- Hobart, Cape Hauy Track, Maria Island, Freycinet & Wineglass Bay

The Skinny if you're just here for the highlights: Tasmania for us was the land of strange little delights. We fell in love with the Museum of New and Old Art (MONA) which felt like a rich guy’s very well executed fever dream come to life, hiked dramatic sea cliffs at Cape Hauy, survived one intense bike rental orientation before biking all over wildlife-filled Maria Island, chased rainbows across the east coast, sampled a fresh smorgasbord of seafood in what may have been the best meal of the trip, and Sean squeezed in a surf sesh before heading to Melbourne. Tasmania felt a bit rougher around the edges than New Zealand, but in a way that made the whole experience feel quirky, relaxed, and memorable.

Scroll down for pictures.

Hobart

MONA (Museum of Old and New Art)

After a late night arrival to Tasmania (due to a delayed connecting flight in Melbourne) we woke up in Hobart and, at the recommendation of the women we met in the Queenstown sauna, set out to squeeze in a morning at the MONA (Museum of Old and New Art). We had to literally run about a mile to catch the first ferry to the museum, and while it is not located on an island, the museum property sits upriver from Hobart on a dramatic stretch of waterfront cliffs and is designed in such a way that arriving by ferry feels transporting to another world. Furthermore, the ferry itself is delightfully strange: adorned with sculptural animal motifs and flashes of neon green and even offering a “Posh” section serving champagne and oysters, all for a twenty-minute cruise to the museum. By the time we docked, it already felt like we had entered MONA’s world. Which, as it turns out, was exactly the point.

Every detail in this world feels intentional. Upon arrival, we were instructed to climb 99 steps to the central square of the property, the idea being that approaching the museum from the water moving through the ascent and descent on foot echoes the experience of entering ancient temples in the classical world.

David, the owner of the museum to whom staff members constantly referred simply by his first name, is a Hobart native who briefly studied mathematics and computer science at the local university before dropping out and making a fortune as a professional gambler using statistical betting systems, particularly in horse racing. With his winnings, David (admirably, in my opinion) built this sprawling complex akin to an adult playground.

At its center is MONA itself-- a largely subterranean museum carved into the sandstone cliffs housing David’s personal collection of ancient, modern, and contemporary art, much of it provocative and irreverent. While the museum is often described as revolving around themes of sex, death, religion, and what it means to be human, that characterization is far too neat. The collection resisted summary. The works danced bewtween catagories such as funny, beautiful, unsettling, absurd, and moving. Rather than telling a particular story, it seemed designed to provoke curiosity and create unexpected conversations between things that, at first glance, had no business speaking to one another.

And even so, the museum itself is only part of the experience. The property also includes a boutique luxury hotel, multiple restaurants and bars, a cellar door supplied by the on-property vineyard, live performance spaces, a daily 4 PM performance of newly composed music, a giant fiberglass “Gin Bug,” on wheels, a tennis court, and even a trampoline.

Salamanca Market

After such an exciting morning exploring MONA, we departed on the return ferry and stepped right into the adjacent Salamanca Market, an open-air market held every Saturday along Hobart’s historic sandstone waterfront and packed with local food vendors, craftspeople, artists, and enough small treasures to justify wandering for far longer than intended. We sampled an array of tasty bites including spiral potato sticks, local lobster rolls, lamb shawarma and homemade bratwurst. With full bellies and slightly behind schedule, we set out in our new rental car to the Cape Hauy Track.

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Cape Hauy Track

With several planned stops to what are considered national park areas on Tasmania, it made the most sense to purchase a 2-month visitor national parks pass, which we were able to do right at the Cape Hauy Track visitor center before beginning the hike. Cape Hauy track is about 6.25 miles roundtrip with roughly 2,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain (broken up with about half of the climb on the way there and the other half on the return). Very up and down. The first 2/3 of the outbound walk winds through wooded terrain. We spotted some gorgeous parrots that looked to my ignorant eyes like they had escaped a pet store. The last 1/3 opened up to spectacular views of the dramatic, jagged coastline marked by crazy rock column formations dropping 300-400 feet to the sea's surface. At the end of the track stood "Candlestick Column" which is apparently a daring rock climbing spot. Our timing afforded us the most beautiful golden hour and sunset views from this lookout point, and just enough dusk-light to get us back to our cars without having to turn on our headlamps. The roundtrip took us about 2 hours.

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Eagle Neck Hawk

It was a 40 minute drive to the Lufra Beachside Hotel in Eagle Neck Hawk, the first half of which was on a slow moving dirt road through the various campsites. With that, we spotted tons of weird little creatures that we could not quite identify. They resembled Tasmanian devils but were more likely to be sorts of possums. This funny little hotel had the most comfortable, plush room and we slept like babies. To contrast the room, the "restaurant" was a hilarious rundown banquet hall that reminded me of something you might find in the basement of a 70s restaurant in Utica NY, but, also like Utica, the food was great, particularly the Tasmanian Salmon-- who knew!

Maria Island

The next morning we headed to Triabunna to catch the first ferry of the day over to Maria (pronounced 'Mariah' like Carry) Island, which during these winter months is 10 AM. Still in recovery mode from our very late arrival to Hobart the night before, we hit the road a little late. We still made it to the ferry port 10 minutes before departure, but that did not leave us much time buy food and water-- the island itself does not sell any provisions and in fact does not even offer 'rubbish' bins, so it is important to come prepared. We were able to grab halfway decent (and I mean halfway) breakfast and snacks at the onboard cafe, and considered ourselves lucky...

Renting Bikes

The Maria Island Ferry operator also offers a bike rental service on island that you can purchase as an add-on to your ferry ticket (not to be confused with the add-on for bringing your own bike on the ferry-- a mistake I surprisingly managed to avoid but could easily have made, so be warned). If you buy your ticket 5 minutes before departure and they don't have time to process add-ons like we did, you will most likely be able to process the rental on-location. Since we did not have pre-reserved bikes, we raced off the 30 minute ferry to be the first arrivals at the bike shop, about 500 meters from the ferry port-- and a whole lotta good that did us. The guy running the operation was… intense. He made us all wait, in a very specific but arbitrary spot, until every bike renter arrived, and then began a belabored process of making us all run through one step at a time.

For example, every single person had to pick out and have a helmet on their head before we were allowed to check our names off the sheet of paper. He told Sean and I that we couldn't have the hoods of our quarter zips on (which were evidently using as a barrier between our heads and the grimy helmets) because it "impedes our hearing." This went on and on. It didn't help that his instructions seemed intentionally confusing-- like he wanted us all to screw the same shit up so he could have a reason to be frustrated. And I am sure the guy has dealt with a lot of nonsense in his... line of work, but this was all too much. I felt like I was participating in a first grade field trip at an all boys elementary school. One guy, for some unidentifiable but almost certainly harmless reason, had picked up a stick from the ground that he was holding, and Mr. Thing stopped the instructions he was giving to tell the guy he had to put the stick down, and waited for him to do it before he continued.

We originally planned to take the 2:15 return ferry, but after this setback we decided to switch to the 4:15 PM final boat of the day...

Relaxed biking route adventure

There is some great hiking on the Island but with Nepal inching closer, we really wanted to begin tapering our activity so we opted for the full on bike tour of the island. Our first stop was Fossil Cliffs, which afforded us a pretty but relatively crowded lookout point. From here, we headed to the painted cliffs where we began a longer out-and-back route, on which we quickly shook off the masses. Painted cliffs sat at the end of a beautiful, very white sanded beach. We were able to climb out onto the rock formations for some alternative views. As we left other people behind us, we began to see more and more wallabies (cousins of kangaroos). This quiet, wooded gravel road provided the most peaceful setting for a bike ride. We each took responsibility for scanning our side of the road for wildlife, and mostly saw more wallabies, and by the end of our day we were lucky enough to spot a couple of wombats.

Eventually we came across French's Farm, and took a few minutes to check out the old wool house and farm house, neither of which look like they have been touched since their owner vacated them, leaving behind some furniture and tools. Finally, we arrived at our turn-around point-- encampment cove, where we had great views of the gorgeous narrow sandy neck that connects the northern and southern sections of Maria Island, McRaes Isthmus. On our way back, we detoured to Return Point for some last views, and then to Four Mile Beach for a quick crisp swim (or cold plunge, depending on how you look at things).

Time was again on our side today as we benefitted from great weather all day until the very moment we boarded our ferry and the skies burst open to gift Triabunna with some much needed rain).

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Swansea

Halfway through our 45 minute drive to Swansea, the sky cleared again, and the mist that remained mixed with the golden setting sun to project the most complete, impossibly expansive rainbow we had ever seen-- and it was a double. The colors were piercingly vibrant and the shape looked more like a half-oval. As the sun sank within the hazy yellow sky, we witnessed a spectacular sunset before pulling into our next hotel, the Waterloo. We had a fine meal at the only open restaurant in town, the Bark Mill Tavern. The next morning, we took a brief walk out our sliding doors to the beach before hitting the road again to Freycinet for a relaxed, iconic hike on Wineglass Bay.

Freycinet and Wineglass Bay

There are several hiking routes available from the park's parking lot, which is separated from the bay itself by a wooded hill. Options include circumnavigating the hill, climbing up the hill and then back down, ultimately reaching the beach itself, or hiking to two small peaks in the area. We had set out to hike to the beach, but once we got to the top of the hill, our bodies were telling us that the smart thing to do before heading to the Himalayas in a few days was to take a break. Plus the hike was really crowded and we were sick of the people. So we scrambled up onto some nearby boulders to get some peaceful views before turning around. Sean did not think the bay resembled a wineglass.

We hit a quick cold plunge at a nearby beach before heading to what turned out to be the main event of the day-- Freycinet Marine Farm. While they offer an extensive oyster farm tour, we were "just" there for lunch, and I can say with a great deal of confidence that, as well as we have eaten so far, this was my favorite meal of the trip. We got oysters, the sweetest tiger prawns, scallops with buttery garlic toast, mussels, and finally had the opportunity to try abalone-- it did not disappoint. Everything was unbelievably fresh.

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Surfing Near Hobart

On our way back into Hobart, we detoured to the South Arm and stopped at pretty much the only surfboard rental "shop" around-- Coast Rider Surf Academy; otherwise identifiable as some guy's house by Clifton Beach. He had everything though and rented Sean a board and thick wetsuit, and we took some time to check out the various waves along the South Arm.

The next morning, before our flight, Sean got a finicky surf sesh in with some fickle waves while I went for a quick swim and cold beach walk. By the time we were finishing up, there were about 30 kids doing a surf lesson at the end of the beach with good ole Coast Rider Surf Academy, which was confusing considering it was 10 AM on a Tuesday, and not summer break. Apparently this is part of their PE and there are usually 5-6 groups this size that come through daily as a period in their school schedule. And older kids that want to go into the outdoor world professionally intern as trainee coaches and lesson planners. The whole thing was so cool and otherworldly-- not to mention this guy has guaranteed customers, free or at least cheap labor, and lives and works at the beach. Pretty cool. On our way to the airport we had a great breakfast at Cafe Angie Sue Lauderdale. The Hobart airport was nice and a breeze to get through.

Overall thoughts on Tasmania... we had a great time, thought Tasmania was super cool. However, its hard to go somewhere like Tasmania after spending two weeks in New Zealand. The two are, as expected, pretty similar, but New Zealand’s scale of scenery is difficult to compete with. I will say though, if you couldn't tell from how enthusiastically I wrote about it, I absolutely fell in love with the MONA, and would honestly fly all the way to Tassie just to spend time on David's property. That will remain a trip highlight for me.