Two Easters ago, we mossied on down to Tasmania and drove down the west coast from Launceston to Hobart. Our highlight was our stay up in the Cradle Mountain National Park. We had our own little cottage, woke up to wombats and rabbits scrambling around the property, and had an old fashioned wood fire to warm us up at the end of a long day hiking. Oh, it was amazing!
This Easter, we decided to go back to Tasmania to do the other side – the east coast. It is probably no surprise that we had the time of our lives again. We just love Tasmania!
Here’s our 4 day road map of our trip.
Day 1: Port Arthur Historic Site
We arrived in Hobart mid morning and drove straight to Port Arthur Historic Site. The plan was to spend the whole day exploring the ruins and the prisons. There was so much to see! It was quite confronting being in the actual rooms convicts were living in and imagining their lives.
We also got the After Dark Package as we wanted to do the Ghost Tour! I love anything supernatural and it didn’t disappoint! We did leave at the end of the tour looking behind us to make sure that nothing was following us home!
Because we were there for the ghost tour, we had to stay the night and booked a room at Harpers by the Beach, which was a lovely bed and breakfast about 10 minutes away from Port Arthur. Our room opens out to the back garden and there is a private path right to the beach, literally a 1 minute walk! Perfect for a morning walk the next morning before we checked out!
Day 2: Bicheno
The plan for the second day of our trip was to drive up to Bicheno. We spent the morning before checking out of our bed and breakfast taking a stroll on the beach.
Our next pitstop was Eaglehawk Neck and Pirates Bay where we spent a few hours exploring and taking pictures before getting back on the road.
There are plenty of lookouts on the way up to Bicheno. We also stopped at Spikey Beach as well as Kate’s Berry Farm for blackberry ice cream, which was really yummy and a nice break from driving. But really, you can stop anywhere on the route and get just as amazing a view.
Day 3: Freycinet National Park
It was a bright and early start to the day to get to Freycinet National Park today. The photo above was captured looking down towards Wineglass Bay from a lookout point. The walk to get to the lookout point was easy peasy but the hubs was feeling adventurous that day and proposed going down the track to get down into Wineglass Bay itself! It is a 300 steps one way trail to get there! I think I did a week’s worth of exercise with that walk!
But oh, the view was amazing. And look at what we found. A wallaby hanging around the bay. Quite unperturbed by all the attention it was getting, even basking in it!
And the view. Pretty spectacular, isn’t it? I guess it was worth those 300 steps down to the bay. But golly, the walk back up was surely a killer!
This was a lighthouse at a different lookout point in the Freycinet National Park – we stopped there and did a short walk around the base with great views of the cliffs below and Wineglass Bay off in the distance.
Did you know that oysters have no cholesterol in them? I didn’t know that! I grew up thinking they were chock full of cholesterol and can only be eaten on special occasions to limit the effect of the cholesterol on me. Imagine my delight when my doctor told me that they have no cholesterol! A well deserved treat after the walk. :>
Day 4: Bay of Fires
Our last stop on this trip was to the Bay of Fires. We drove to Binalong Bay and up towards Bay of Fires Conservation Area.
It has this wild, undisturbed feel to it, especially so as there are no a lot of people around and houses are few and far in between.
There are plenty of campsites to set up and one of our bucket list is to go camping one day so this would be a good place to plan to come back to once we’ve gotten more experience in camping! It will be great fun!
We’ll definitely be back for another roadtrip one day. I reckon, east coast in summer and the west coast in winter would be the ideal combination.
