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year index
Down Under Down Under PROLOGUE This has taken a ridiculously long time to write, even by my standards. So the other day, I thought to myself, just how much have I written? I added a word and picture count to my blog software, and lo and behold, it says, "Words: 21434, Pictures: 514" Blimey, that's a novella!. And if you equate each picture to a thousand words, that's more than the bloody Lord of the Rings: 481,103 according to online sources. I shall seek brevity more seriously henceforth! Now read on... Some years back — quite a few years back, actually: in 2015 — we walked the Milford Track in New Zealand with Amanda's sister Jo and her partner Meta. It was great fun (even allowing for the blizzard) and we thought we'd like to do something similar again. Then we also thought we really ought to revisit Australia after the Bests (in-laws: Amanda's sister Harriet and family) moved there, and while Melbourne itself didn't hold the greatest attraction for us, we realised that Tasmania wasn't all that far away and it looked like it had a world-class walking trail too. But various things intervened (global pandemic, remember?), and then Jo and Meta weren't sure their health was up to a fairly tough multi-day hike, so the plan got put back on the shelf for a bit. It continued to ferment in our minds, though, and in early 2024 we decided we might not be able to do the six-day Overland Track, but that didn't mean we couldn't find places we could stay and do day trips from. The more we thought about it, the more it sounded a fine idea, so we needed to get planning. Our first port of call was Audley Travel, whose services we've used quite a few times now, and who are particularly good at organising complex tailor-made trips. However, we'd decided that we wanted to be self-catering rather than hotel-based, and Audley don't have any real experience of that in Tasmania. After a few exchanges, we agreed that on this occasion we'd DIY. Fortunately, we live in the Internet age, and it's now trivially easy to find any number of self-catering apartments, chalets, etc, online, although choosing is a lot trickier. Never having been there and not knowing much about the place, a certain leap of faith is needed. Booking.com, Tripadvisor, etc, reviews are good, but need careful filtering to remove opinions of people who love what you hate and vice versa. So we settled on a plan: travel just before Christmas, fly in to Hobart, rent a couple of cars, stay in town for a few days, then drive to Cradle Mountain National Park and spend a week there. After that, fly to Melbourne for a few days with the rest of the family, with (other sister) Dinah also flying out to meet us in early January. A lot of logistics and nobody to delegate it all to. Oh, and while Jo and Meta are not difficult, we're not used to having to consider other people in our planning either. Fingers crossed! Oh, and what about our phones? Amanda has EU roaming included, I don't, but Australia is not in the EU anyway. Ok, a bit of research leads to a good-value eSIM package which should suit us well. One potential issue is that the best coverage in Tasmania is from an operator which is a much weaker player on the mainland, so we need to choose carefully. We also try to set up an older phone of ours for Dinah, but it turns out that it doesn't support eSIMs so that's not something we can help with after all. She'll have to do the old-fashioned thing and buy a local SIM on arrival Right... Come the day, everything's booked and confirmed, we have our timetable sorted, the proof of the pudding awaits... Day 1 ~ 22 December 2024 ~ Heathrow Day 2 ~ 23 December ~ Singapore Day 3 ~ 24 Dec - Hobart Day 4 ~ 25 Dec - Hobart Day 5 ~ 26 Dec - Hobart Day 6 ~ 27 Dec - Hobart and Bruny Island Day 7 ~ 28 Dec - Hobart Day 8 ~ 29 Dec - Hobart Day 9 ~ 30 Dec - Hobart and Maria Island Day 10 ~ 31 Dec - Hobart to Cradle Mountain Day 11 ~ 1 Jan - Cradle Mountain Day 12 ~ 2 Jan - Cradle Mountain Day 13 ~ 3 Jan - Cradle Mountain Day 14 ~ 4 Jan - Cradle Mountain Day 15 ~ 5 Jan - Cradle Mountain Day 16 ~ 6 Jan - Cradle Mountain Day 17 ~ 7 Jan - Cradle Mountain to Melbourne Day 18 ~ 8 Jan - Melbourne Day 19 ~ 9 Jan - Melbourne Day 20 ~ 10 Jan - Melbourne Day 21 ~ 11 Jan - Melbourne to Home year index |