Cockle Creek

The drive down the Huon Valley to Cockle Creek was just beautiful and Cockle Creek gorgeous! We had heard a lot about it and weren't disappointed. The sand was so incredibly white, the water so aqua blue and the tidal creek crystal clear, Tassie just keeps getting better! We spent four very relaxing days fishing, walking and catching crabs. The area has an interesting history and were all amazed to read we were closer to Antarctica than Cairns, South Cape being the most southern point of Australia (not including Macquarie Island) we could reach without walking for a couple of days.

Hobart

Reluctantly we left the tranquility of Mt Field and headed to Hobart Town. We decided to stay twenty kilometres out of Hobart at Seven Mile Beach because most of the parks in Hobart weren't that appealing and Seven Mile Beach is beautiful. We spent four days exploring the city, including Salamanca Markets and the waterside area, the Cadbury Factory and the outstanding MONA (Museum of Old and New Art). The MONA really blew our minds, it is such an incredible building and an amazing collection of artworks ranging from incredible to bizarre.
There was no way we were going to see everything we wanted to so decided to come back to Hobart and do some work after the Huon Valley, Cockle Creek and Bruny Island.

Mt Field National Park

Due to the Australia Day long weekend we decided to spend four or five days here, it was the perfect spot. The National Park is beautiful and the Tyenna River running past the campsite was a great place to play and try and spot a platypus. The national park was running ranger tours due to the school holidays, which were fantastic. We learnt all about platypus and how to spot them, unfortunately we just didn't spot one!
We did quite a few walks while here and saw some gorgeous waterfalls as well as some huge swap gums. We also discovered that there were some more large swamp gums not far from there that had been recently included in the existing World Heritage Area. These gums were even more amazing and some were nearly 300 or so years old and over 87 metres tall.
Tim had some time to do some running repairs on the camper and was able to sort out an ongoing problem we had with the breaks. Luckily while doing this he found one of the wheel bearings needed replacing avoiding any problems we might have had on the road.

Strathgordon and Lake Pedder

Strathgordon was a town that was built for workers while the dam was being built, and there isn't really a town there anymore but it was still worth a look around. The area around Lake Pedder is just beautiful and the dam itself was definitely worth a look. It is so tall and to be able to walk across it was pretty cool!

Lake St Clair and Derwent Bridge

It was finally time to leave Macquarie Heads and we made our way up to Queenstown, through the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park and on to Lake St Clair, just near Derwent Bridge. Another beautiful spot to use as a base to explore all the area has to offer. Aside from kayaking on the beautiful lake we did some great bush walks, bike rides and visited The Wall, an amazing sculpture being carved in Huon Pine by local artist Greg Duncan.

Macquarie Heads

When we went to Ocean Beach we found a cheap bush camp right at the heads of Macquarie Harbour so we decided to spend a week there relaxing, fishing and just taking in the beautiful views. The weather was gorgeous and our days drifted by very easily and made even sweeter by the salmon we caught for dinner! We had a few encounters with wildlife here, including a tiger snake too close to our camp, dolphins and a huge whale bone washed up on the beach.

Strahan

We had heard a lot about Stahan and we were really excited about spending some time there. The town itself is very pretty set out along the water and great for riding our bikes around. The much recommended Gordon River Cruise was fantastic and left us all in awe of 2500 year old Huon Pines (and my photos do them no justice either).
We drove out to Ocean Beach, which is another unforgiving piece of coastline, and played in the sand dunes as well as explored the People's Park with its beautiful creek and waterfall.