Year of the Leaping Dragon

Our arrival in Hobart coincided with the celebration of the Lunar New Year. Not only does Philip get a leap year birthday this year, but it is also the year of the Dragon, his Chinese horoscope sign. We are calling this one the Year of the Leaping Dragon. 

We celebrated the leap year in Sydney, with Tasmania behind us and Indonesia ahead of us. We left wallabies and Antarctic currents and landed in a city of nearly 5 million people. 

While in Tasmania, I think we might have added more things to our Tasmania bucket list than we checked off. We loved the open spaces, sunshine, beaches, mountains, wildlife, and low population density. There were plenty of hikers around to enjoy the views with, and we shared the beaches with a few hearty tassies who were more comfortable in the cold water than the Alaskans. But for crowd averse people like us, Tassie has it going on. 

Sydney surprised us with the easy and integrated train and ferry system, the amazing architecture, the lovely walks, and food from every culture. We love the way the ocean fingers its way through the city all over the place. It is fun to explore a big city with our two Alaska wilderness kids and to watch them imagining different life trajectories.

We are in the Jakarta airport right now, on a 7 hour layover before a red eye flight to Sorong. It has already been a long travel day and my mind is feeling pretty mushy, maybe not the best time for writing reflectively. But I’m getting something out there before the next adventure starts! Here are some pictures that tell the tales better than my words. 

Peaking over the sheer cliffs of Cape Haui, in Tasman National Park. 

Check out that column in the center! There is actually a rock climber down at the base about to start the climb.

We just did a section of the Three Capes Track. I would go back for more!

We hiked 5 of Tasmania’s “60 Great Short Walks”. It is a well curated list and we loved them all. This is part of the Crater Lake Circuit. 

The one place the crowds could have possibly plagued us was Dove Lake in Cradle Mountain. Luckily the weather was crap and it kept everyone else away! 

Dove Lake

One of the beaches of Freycinet National Park. There were HUGE oyster shells all over the place in this whole region. 

We had nearly constant sunshine on the east coast where the beaches go on forever. The water was chilly, around 65F. 

We did spot some live wildlife (in addition to the ever present road kill), though it was challenging to get photos with iPhones. This is a park wallaby in Tasman National Park. Quillian spotted a mama and baby wallaby (or maybe a wallaroo, I can’t say for sure which one) in Cradle Mountain. The baby was initially standing in front of the mom, possibly drinking milk, but it eventually startled and hopped away. It left its mom standing there with her pouch hanging open for us to see. It did not look like a stuffed animal kangaroo pouch!  

Sydney!

This is a bluebottle (man o’ war) on a beach outside Sydney. There were warnings all over and there were piles of them on the shore, but the beach was still packed with people and many were in the water. Frequently someone would come running out limping or a kid would come out screaming in pain. The stings are painful but not deadly and apparently Aussies just suck it up and deal with it. 

The Sydney Ferry system is so cool! 

See you next time, Australia!