Christmas and beyond!

Brett and i declined to trade gifts this year. Instead we decided that our presents to each other would be our trip to Tasmania, and the exorbitant amount of money we paid for our campervan rental. Being that Christmas and New years is the middle of summer, and therefore high seanson for campervan rentals, and we waiting until 3 days before xmas to inquire as to rentals (i was actually laughed at by one employee) they pretty much charged whatever they wanted. We flew in on xmas day, and immediatly drove down to the tasman Penisula, and the historic town of port arthur. Our christmas dinner was pasta, complete with santa hats! it may be my new favorite way to spend christmas! As we were paying so much for our rental, we refused to pay for campsites. Just outside Port Arthur we found a youth hostel. We stopped to stretch our legs and take a look around. As it turns out it was abandoned. It couldnt have been abandoned for very long though. There were still dishes in the drying rack, new garbage bags in the bathrooms (which were open, working and full of hot water) and even a washing machine hooked up. We obviously hit the goldmine on this one, and set up shop for the night. While this was all very cool, the whole "abandoned hostel" thing was fairly eerie. Sort of like the setting of a slasher movie.

Next day we drove up the East Coast to Wineglass Bay, which is a famous scenic lookout and hiking area. We hiked up to the lookout, and then down to the actual beach (shaped oddly like the edge of a wineglass..) which was beautiful. We stopped to make dinner in a place called Bicheno. Its sort of a blah town, except for the magic that happens at dusk. Around 10pm everynight hundreds and hundred of fairy penguins come out of the water, up onto the rocks, and into the fields. im not really sure what they DO in the fields, i mean theyre penguins, but it is a magical experience. Obviously flash photography freaks them out, so my pictures arent great, but they were so cute. Theres nothing quite like sitting on a rock, perfectly still and bein swarmed by a group of tiny, tiny penguins. The strange part is, we were walking back to the car, and there were about 20 of them scattered all over the path. Then, as we pull out of the parking lot, our headlights catch a whole other group! in the parking lot!

The next couple days, we went to various national parks and did hikes with amazing scenery. One night, we stumbled upon lake Barrington, which is, by and large one of the most beautiful lakes ive ever seen. Camping there is technically not allowed, but the gates are closed at 9, so basically if you dont get found out before then, youre good to go! We parked right beside the lake, ate dinner, and watched the sunset. It was amazing. Brett woke me up at the ungodly hour of 645 the next morning, but more than made up for it by cooking me breakfast. We, reluctantly, left lake barrington and moved onto our next hiking spot.

On the 29th we headed back to Hobart, returned the campervan and spent a couple days there. We were lucky enough to be there during the taste of hobart festival, which is like the tast to saskatchewan, but there are no perogies, and its more expensive. But very delicious. There was also the "Sydney to Hobart" boat race, which is a big deal, so there was a mini-fair on the peir as well. Very cool.

Back to Melbourne on New Years eve. It was 42C all day. god only knows what the temperature was come the evening, but it was really hot. A large group of us from the hostel went to federation Square to watch the fireworks, which was very cool. New years day, we were all fairly under the weather, and it was 42 again, which made the hostel VERY uncomfortable. So the best thing we could do was go to the beach!

brett left on the 3rd to do the great ocean road, and now im in sydney staying with some friends. on friday i leave for thailand! Wow... that came fast!

more pictures soon!