The Orriscope: Tasmania - A Bit off the Beaten Path in Oz

Christy and Jay travelled to Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef back in 2000 so we wanted to explore new territory in Australia during our short 1-week visit. Australia is as large as the continental USA (imagine having a week to visit the US!), so we choose to focus our time on the island of Tasmania --- Tazzy, as the Aussie locals like to call it.

After spending a quick 24 hours checking out Melbourne, we hopped over to the coastal town of Hobart in Tasmania. We knew very little about our destination before arriving and did not even know what a Tasmanian Devil looked like aside from the wild Looney Tunes cartoon character.

We learned more about the Tasmanian Devil and Australia’s plentiful marsupials than we had ever imagined during our visit to the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park and a private night visit at Bonorong Wildlife Park (and Rescue Center). Bonorong was our Tazzy highlight. We are animal lovers and loved interacting and feeding rescued marsupials of all sizes (ranging from big kangaroos to tiny little sugar gliders) and feeding the cute little FEROCIOUS devils by hand. Pound for pound, it has to be the meanest, loudest animal out there.

Two years ago, Luke did a school report on wombats, so it was cool for him to pet Ben the wombat and see and feel the wombat’s armor and “cuddliness.” Our private night guide had raised many of the animals and had scars/love marks all over his arms and legs from the devils, wombats, and other animals he raised. After seeing all his “love” wounds, we hesitantly fed some screaming devils a wallaby leg (we will be attaching a video soon - it's sure to generate some laughs).

We rented a car and did a loop through Tazzy that took us from Hobart to the Bay of Fires and Freycinet National Park, where we hiked along snow-white beaches and up small, rocky mountains. We stayed in the Australian equivalent of a KOA, where the kids found a "jumpy cushion", a variant on the jumpy castle. We also visited the penal settlement in Port Arthur (where the worst of the convicts from Great Britain and Australia were sent).

We timed our visit in Tasmania over Easter and luckily, the Easter Bunny found us in Hobart and bequeathed us with too many sugary sweets – thus encouraging bad behavior for days to come. We also celebrated Christy’s birthday with a hike to Wineglass Bay – very appropriate considering her love of vino.

Tazzy reminded us of Maine with its sparse population of 500,000 people and its ample open-space - over 1/3 of the land is national forest. While Tasmania may not deserve a trip on its own from the US, if you are in the area, you must see one of Australia’s wildlife treasures.