In early January, as Kingsley was walking home from work, he heard this very loud meowing coming from a tree about 1/2 a block from our condo. As he got closer he discovered a tiny kitten was stuck up in the tree. The Kingsley I knew prior to fostering almost 100 kittens, would have probably walked on assuming someone else would know what to do. But after years of fostering, Kingsley knew a distressed kitten when he saw one and climbed up to rescue the little guy. Instead of being afraid, our little Tarzan nestled himself into Kingsley's arms for the rest of the walk home as if he knew he had finally found his way home.
I am likely one of the only people on the planet who has enough kitten supplies to be able to take on a foster kitten at a moments notice. So we got him all set up, fed him some dinner, and he instantly became a member of the family. Tarzan was so playful and cleaver and vocal, it was very hard to say goodbye to him several weeks later when he officially went up for adoption at the SPCA to find his forever home.
We spent our last night in the camper van at Barilla Holiday Park which is located about 15 minutes outside of Hobart. The Holiday Park offered a shuttle to and from the city center for New Years Eve which was exactly what we wanted after driving 3.5 hours from Cradle Mountain to Hobart earlier in the day. So we set up our campsite for the night and then caught the 6pm shuttle bus into the city to enjoy the New Year's Eve festivities.
On New Years day we explored the Taste of Tasmania which is the largest food and wine festival and operates from Dec 28- Jan 3. They say over 500,000 people visit during this one week window every year.
Ordering a glass of delicious Tasmanian wine and an oyster shooter to start off our evening!
We arrived back in Hobart just in time for New Years Eve. The drive from Cradle Mountain to Hobart doesn't appear that far on thump but many of the roads were winding mountain roads so the drive took a little over 4 hours.
The Sydney to Hobart boat race had just arrived a few days earlier and the city was buzzing with people from all over the world. We were lucky enough to find a table at a seafood restaurant called Fish Frenzy near the waterfront and had an awesome New Years Eve dinner of Oysters, Calamari, Blue eyed fish and of course some delicious Tasmanian wine. The lines for everything were so insane that Kingsley wisely ordered us two sets of drinks and we had a nice leisurely dinner looking out over the harbor watching the sun slowly set. A few hours later we were one of the first in the world to ring in the New Year 2016.
Our next stop was the West Coast of the island, Cradle Mountain National Park which is a ruggedly beautiful world heritage site. We spent two nights at the Big4 Caravan park located just outside of the National Park. We had big plans to do some serious hiking throughout Cradle Mountain National Park. Unfortunately, a few days earlier, I was getting our lunch out of the back of the camper van while Kingsley was paragliding and as I climbed out of the van I stepped into a...dried cow patty?...dont ask...and somehow twisted my left ankle as I fell to the ground and our hummus and (gf) bread went flying. As we reached Cradle Mountain, my dreams of hiking around the world famous Dove Lake were dashed. However, with a tightly wrapped ace bandage I was able to hobble along part of the path and we made it as far as the famous boathouse on the lake where we sat and enjoyed our picnic lunch.
Later we made our way back to our campsite and Kingsley, after a long nap, made us dinner under my guidance and even carried me on his back to the restroom facilities which were a good 1/4 mile away.
After a long day of paragliding we needed a place to camp overnight. As this was the section of our trip devoted to flying I did not make any pre-arranged overnight bookings as the paragliding sites change with wind and I had no clue where on the island we might end up! On this particular occasion it landed us in Ulverstone which is situated along the North West Coast on the banks of the Leven River. We checked out a few Caravan parks and found a few with vacancies but none of the ones in town really "felt" right to me so we drove a bit out of town and found this gem:
A beautiful Caravan park located on beach with its own population of fairy Penguin’s that come out to nest just as the sun sets. Can you imagine how happy and excited this animal lover was to find out we would be sharing our campsite with FAIRY PENGUINS! We quickly got ourselves organized and enjoyed one of my attempts at a gourmet camp stove dinner. Which was followed by our new Tasmania favorite dessert of fresh strawberries drizzled...ok drenched in Baileys cream liquor. We enjoyed a stunning sunset walk along the beach and just as it got dark we could hear well before we saw our little fairy penguins. They nested overnight in some bushes at the edge of the beach a few feet from our campervan. Now this may sound incredibly idyllic, but despite their cute size these little guys are the noisiest things I have ever heard!! It wasn't the best night sleep we have ever had but to be able to shine a flashlight out the back window and see six or seven little guys scurry deeper into the brush was one of the highlights of the trip!
No crazy Kingsley and Lynn trip would be complete without a bit of paragliding mixed in. So Kingsley and I headed to Devonport in North Tassie to meet up with the six other resident paragliders and to learn the lay of the land. The Don is an ocean cliff soaring site, similar to what we have flown in Bali. The actual launch site is incredibly tricky to find as its located on someones private farmland. We eventually found our way there by pulling up to random farm houses and asking if they had seen any crazy looking wings in the skies. Everyone we encountered were so friendly and easy going, a far cry from the litigious US paragliding scene. Eventually we found our way to an unlocked farm gate and just kinda let ourselves in. From there we met some of the lovely local pilots and Kingsley was able to pull out his wing and fly. Happy husband!
The Tamar Valley is the oldest and perhaps most developed wine region in Tasmania and is located in the north part of the island. In the small valley there are more than 30 wineries within driving distance of each other, coupled with some spectacular scenery along the way. Had I had my way, I potentially might just have tried to visit every single winery in the Tamar Valley. I have to admit that somewhere along our Tasmania journey I fell in love with their distinguished mineral flavored cool climate Sav Blancs. Which are in some ways so similar to my all time favorite Marlborough NZ Sav Blancs but also have a unique taste all their own. Thankfully Kingsley was level headed enough to limit us to a few of the best wineries in the area and we had a lovely afternoon sipping wine and eating (gf) crackers with local artisan cheeses and terrines. We bought a few of our favorite bottles to take home and I plan to save them for a special occasion to remind us of our amazing Tasmanian holiday.
Kingsley giving me the "this is the LAST winery" look.
