CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

Hey! This is Day 6 of my seven-day tour around Tasmania with Under Down Under tours (check them out here; not sponsored). If you missed the first five fantastic days, check them out here first!

February 24, 2023 — After a night’s sleep back in Hobart, I woke up and gathered what I would need for the day: day bag with portable charger, swimsuit, towel, made a sandwich, and grabbed a couple piece of toast with Nutella for breakfast. I joined the rest of the group waiting outside to meet our new tour guide for the final two days, Justin.

Shortly after 7:30am, he pulled up, we piled in, and the journey began! We were situated in a short bus today without a trailer on the back, and I sat in the backseat with plenty of room around me (awesome!). Justin introduced himself and the bus, named Nelson, and we headed off for a tour of Bruny Island.

Bruny Island is another of the places that I most wanted to visit in Tasmania. Unfortunately, it’s pretty difficult to do without a vehicle or a tour, so its being on the Under Down Under Super 7 itinerary was perfect! It’s a small island, only 362 square kilometres, separated from the mainland of Tasmania by the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, named after the French explorer. Whaling was a big part of the early industry on the island, although that has since ceased, and the island now houses a community of about 600 people with lots of food and drink to discover.

We started our day with a quick stop at the Get Shucked Oyster Bar, followed by another quick stop to pick up a few local cheeses and bread. Our first real stop landed us at the Cape Bruny Lighthouse. This is the fourth lighthouse in Tasmania and it is also the most southern lighthouse in Tasmania. It spent 150 years working to guide sailors safely ashore from sea following the wreck of the George III in 1835. It was built by convicts and was fully operational by 1838, using whale oil to light the way at the rate of a pint per hour. It’s a beautiful building and the landscape around it is so peaceful and picturesque. When we finished exploring around the lighthouse, we made our way back down to the lighthouse keepers’ houses, one of which has been turned into a museum, to enjoy the oyster, cheese, and bread spread that our guide had picked up for us that morning.

I had my first oyster! I’d never tried one before and I liked it. They’re a little salty and it’s true that they’re a little slimy, but overall good!

Our next stop was one that wasn’t marked on the itinerary: Two Tree Point. This spot had been “discovered” for a long time before Europeans came to the area as ships had been stopping at this point since the mid-1600s to refuel and resupply. The landscape here is little changed from what it was in 1792, as we can tell courtesy of a painting made by Lieutenant George Tobin. The two trees in his painting appear to be the exact same eucalyptus trees that still stand today, making them over 250 years old.

From this point, we continued onward and completed the Grass Point walk at Adventure Bay. We were able to look across the point to Penguin Island and although we didn’t see any penguins, we certainly saw a lot of sea birds on the small outcropping next to Penguin Island.

Our next few stops included several indulgent food and drink stops and boy, did I enjoy them. The first was a chocolate stop where I purchased a little sack of milk chocolate buttons. When I say I’ve never had better chocolate, I’m not kidding. It was so wonderfully smooth and had the best taste ever. After spiking our sugars a bit, we headed toward Truganini Lookout over the Neck.

The Neck is a super-small isthmus which is pretty much only as wide as the two-lane road that crosses it. It connects the north and south ends of Bruny Island. You can see just how narrow it is from Truganini Lookout, which is named for an Indigenous woman who initially worked in concert with other Indigenous people and the European, George Augustus Robinson, with the goal of finding harmony between the Indigenous peoples of Australia and the settlers, but who left the group when it became apparent that true reconciliation was not the actual goal. It was about 237 steps to the top and the view was incredible.

Our next stop was at Bruny Island Honey, where I happily sampled a vanilla and honey ice cream that the business produces while enjoying the outside air on the porch. After that, we went to the Bruny Island Cheese, Beer, and Bread Co., where, in honour of my dad, I ordered their flight of beers. They had a couple pretty different beers: one was a “dark pale ale,” aptly named “Oxymoron.” Another, which my taste buds didn’t enjoy very much, was called “Black Pudding” and was described as a “raspberry stout.” Both of their lighter beers were really good, though: Farm Ale (a pale ale) and Cloudy Bay IPA (a raw wheat beer).

Fully satisfied and just a little bit buzzed, we climbed back on the bus and drove back to catch the ferry to Hobart. Our tour guide, Justin, played some authentic Australian songs over the bus’s stereo system. I really enjoyed sitting back, listening, and watching the world go by.

We arrived back in Hobart at around 5:30pm and after we got dropped off at the hostel, the day caught right up with me. I was absolutely shattered, and climbed up on my bunk, curled on top of the covers, and read. I dozed for about an hour when I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I’d planned to get up and eat dinner and shower a little earlier than 9:30pm, but that didn’t quite happen. I made my way over to Woolies, which was only a couple blocks away, and picked up a microwaveable tiki masala dinner and a small pack of Pringles. I sat back up in my bunk and ate, then finally went to shower. I curled up back in bed, looking forward to sleeping solidly through the night.

Which was not exactly in the cards.

I tried to drift off around 11:30pm with my earplugs in but one of my roommates kept talking sporadically and kept me up longer than it should have for me to fall asleep. Around half past midnight, I was thoroughly woken up by a really loud person walking into our room to get something. Another of my roommates tapped me on the shoulder after that person left because apparently, the person that had woken me up wasn’t even in our room — she was just friends with the one girl who was in our room. Only a few minutes later, another couple of girls walked in looking for their ID, which one of the other girls in the room had found earlier laying on the floor. Finally, FINALLY, everyone left the room and I stuffed my head under my pillow, earbuds pushed into my ears as best as I could get them, and fell asleep around 1:00am.

So ended an excellent and my first crappy hostel experience! Have you ever had a bad travel experience? Leave a comment below!

It was really annoying to be woken up and kept up, as tired as I was, but it’s also just the nature of staying in hostels. It makes for a great story to tell: that one time in Hobart when… Plus, you just kind of have to take these things in stride, and focus on the things that matter, not the least of which was that the next day I was going to be on the very last day of my amazing seven-day odyssey across Tasmania.

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