After a 3 hour flight from Auckland to Melbourne, a 4 hour layover and then a 55 minute flight to Hobart, we arrived in Tasmania about 9 p.m. on Saturday. Fortunately Hobart is not huge or hard to get around, so after we collected our rental car, we made it to our cottage within the hour. Our accommodation is quite nice though not exactly what we expected. We’re basically just outside of town in a neighborhood overlooking the harbour and the city and our cottage is right next to the owner’s home. Suffice it to say, though, it has everything we need and since they also market themselves as a B&B, it was well stocked with a fresh loaf of local bread, cereal, yogurt, cereal and other necessary extras. The instructions from them explained that if we were arriving late the door to the cottage would be open and the keys inside, which is exactly how it turned out, but I have to say, it’s kind of weird staying so close to the owners of the place and not actually meeting them……oh well……
Our first full day we drove down to the harbour area of Hobart and walked around a bit to get the lay of the city. Hobart is Australia’s second oldest city and is ideally situated on a harbour that is ringed by petty hills and Mt. Wellington. One of our must do’s while we were here was to actually see a Tasmanian Devil so we had researched a bit and found a wildlife park called Bonorang Animal Park about 25 minutes out of town where they had Devils as well as other Australian animals. So, after our walk around the harbour area and a light lunch, we hopped back in the car and headed out towards Brighton, where the wildlife park is. The weather really cooperated for the most part and even though it was pretty chilly, at least the sun has been out.
Arriving at the wildlife park, we found out the next guided tour was at 2 p.m. and since we had about 45 minutes until then, we were each given a bag of treats to feed the friendly mob of kangaroos they had in the back field (yes, that’s what you call a group of kangaroos!). So off we went and, indeed, there were about 30-40 kangaroos relaxing in a field in the back of the compound. Now, we had fed kangaroos the last time we came to Australia in 2006, but it was still quite a site to see them start bounding towards us as we reached into our bags. I’m sure as many of you know, there are a variety of types of kangaroos, from very small tree wallabies to the huge red kangaroos you find in the Australian outback. These fellas were in the “medium’ range, standing about 4 feet tall and very sweet and friendly. We would hold our a handful of feed and they would very gently take it from our hands without any kind of nipping or jostling. And it was just as fun as the last time we did it!!
The tour was equally enjoyable. Our tour guide started with a wombat, which had been orphaned as a baby when his mother was hit by a car. Now, this was a real treat for me as I had always wanted to see a wombat and did not expect that we would get to see one on this trip. If you’re not familiar with what a wombat looks like, you should check them out - they are COMPLETELY adorable! They’re the largest burrowing marsupial, and they basically look like a big, fat ball of fur. Apparently, road kill is a big problem on Tasmanian highways, and what happened to his mother is not an uncommon story. He was still in her pouch when he was found, and according to what the guide said, a baby in the pouch can actually live on for a few days after their mother has been killed. Well, this little guy was about 12 months old and so darn cute - he was chasing the guide around, nipping at his heels and then he would just pick him up and snuggle him in his arms while he talked about him……too cute!! Interestingly, wombats have a layer of hard cartilage on their butts which protects them from predators. If a dog or whatever chases them into a burrow they tuck their bodies into a ball so that just their backside is exposed and it becomes much harder for the predator to bite through this tough layer.
We then moved on to see the star of the park, the Tasmanian Devils. Cute little devils they are with some very unique features. Their young are born after only 21 days gestation and are about the size of a grain of rice when they come out. They have the largest litters of any marsupial, with the mother having as many as 20-25 babies. Since she only has four nipples in her pouch, however, a lot of the young simply don’t make it beyond the 21 days. The devils are about the size of a house cat (think Seamus, Jeannie & Deb) or a small dog and all of them look the same because they‘re genetically identical, with mostly black hair and a few white marks on their backside. They are also carnivores, and often eat road kill, which is one of the reasons they’re endangered because they will wander onto the highway to have a nibble at something and get hit by a car. In addition, there is a contagious skin cancer among the wild population here that has also significantly reduced their numbers.
Finally, the guide brought out one of the two koala bears they have at the park, but explained that these two guys were donated to the park as they don’t naturally occur on Tasmania and are only found on the mainland of Australia in either the tropical north and in South Australia. Also really cute buggers and just as fun to be around as the last time we were in Australia.
We finished up at the wildlife park about 4 p.m. and realized we still had time to visit one of the newest big attractions in Hobart, the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). This place just opened in January of this year and was, for both of us, one of the absolute coolest and most interesting museums we’d been to. In addition to the museum they have a restaurant and winery on the property as well as overnight accommodations. The exhibits were all really modern, some very wild, and altogether totally cool. If you want to learn more about it, click here. Nuff said…….
Our first full day we drove down to the harbour area of Hobart and walked around a bit to get the lay of the city. Hobart is Australia’s second oldest city and is ideally situated on a harbour that is ringed by petty hills and Mt. Wellington. One of our must do’s while we were here was to actually see a Tasmanian Devil so we had researched a bit and found a wildlife park called Bonorang Animal Park about 25 minutes out of town where they had Devils as well as other Australian animals. So, after our walk around the harbour area and a light lunch, we hopped back in the car and headed out towards Brighton, where the wildlife park is. The weather really cooperated for the most part and even though it was pretty chilly, at least the sun has been out.
Arriving at the wildlife park, we found out the next guided tour was at 2 p.m. and since we had about 45 minutes until then, we were each given a bag of treats to feed the friendly mob of kangaroos they had in the back field (yes, that’s what you call a group of kangaroos!). So off we went and, indeed, there were about 30-40 kangaroos relaxing in a field in the back of the compound. Now, we had fed kangaroos the last time we came to Australia in 2006, but it was still quite a site to see them start bounding towards us as we reached into our bags. I’m sure as many of you know, there are a variety of types of kangaroos, from very small tree wallabies to the huge red kangaroos you find in the Australian outback. These fellas were in the “medium’ range, standing about 4 feet tall and very sweet and friendly. We would hold our a handful of feed and they would very gently take it from our hands without any kind of nipping or jostling. And it was just as fun as the last time we did it!!
The tour was equally enjoyable. Our tour guide started with a wombat, which had been orphaned as a baby when his mother was hit by a car. Now, this was a real treat for me as I had always wanted to see a wombat and did not expect that we would get to see one on this trip. If you’re not familiar with what a wombat looks like, you should check them out - they are COMPLETELY adorable! They’re the largest burrowing marsupial, and they basically look like a big, fat ball of fur. Apparently, road kill is a big problem on Tasmanian highways, and what happened to his mother is not an uncommon story. He was still in her pouch when he was found, and according to what the guide said, a baby in the pouch can actually live on for a few days after their mother has been killed. Well, this little guy was about 12 months old and so darn cute - he was chasing the guide around, nipping at his heels and then he would just pick him up and snuggle him in his arms while he talked about him……too cute!! Interestingly, wombats have a layer of hard cartilage on their butts which protects them from predators. If a dog or whatever chases them into a burrow they tuck their bodies into a ball so that just their backside is exposed and it becomes much harder for the predator to bite through this tough layer.
We then moved on to see the star of the park, the Tasmanian Devils. Cute little devils they are with some very unique features. Their young are born after only 21 days gestation and are about the size of a grain of rice when they come out. They have the largest litters of any marsupial, with the mother having as many as 20-25 babies. Since she only has four nipples in her pouch, however, a lot of the young simply don’t make it beyond the 21 days. The devils are about the size of a house cat (think Seamus, Jeannie & Deb) or a small dog and all of them look the same because they‘re genetically identical, with mostly black hair and a few white marks on their backside. They are also carnivores, and often eat road kill, which is one of the reasons they’re endangered because they will wander onto the highway to have a nibble at something and get hit by a car. In addition, there is a contagious skin cancer among the wild population here that has also significantly reduced their numbers.
Finally, the guide brought out one of the two koala bears they have at the park, but explained that these two guys were donated to the park as they don’t naturally occur on Tasmania and are only found on the mainland of Australia in either the tropical north and in South Australia. Also really cute buggers and just as fun to be around as the last time we were in Australia.
We finished up at the wildlife park about 4 p.m. and realized we still had time to visit one of the newest big attractions in Hobart, the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). This place just opened in January of this year and was, for both of us, one of the absolute coolest and most interesting museums we’d been to. In addition to the museum they have a restaurant and winery on the property as well as overnight accommodations. The exhibits were all really modern, some very wild, and altogether totally cool. If you want to learn more about it, click here. Nuff said…….
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