Taz-Mania!

Taz-Mania!!

Hobart & other small towns that shall remain nameless, because I can't remember them.

We flew down to Tasmania, an island province, off the coast of an island country/continent, I am not really sure how it works.  Whenever we would tell Australians we were going down here there was always a sharp intake of breath followed by an "oooooh that's nice", at the time, I wasn't sure what that meant, but I can now see why Australians like their sweet little island province.

Unfortunately a good part of the time we were there, it rained rained rained, I am sure there was much more to see than what we saw, but all was throughly enjoyed!

We went to Port Arthur, one of the islands first, (and last too, i think) penal colonies.  It was interesting to read and see the history of the area, gone from farming community, to small jail, to massive penal colony, back to farming community/men on ticket of leave, to heritage site.  After hearing often of Australia's criminal past I was looking forward to seeing some of it.  The lady who did our little tour (in the rain of course) kept emphasizing how well everything worked together and in fact what an effective jail this was for rehabilitation and simply the way it functioned.  It was almost disappointing!  Nathan and I both got cards of real people who had been jailed there, and throughout our wander we had to discover our individual's past.  Well, my guy had a sentence of 7 years because he abandoned his wife for another woman.  Oh my!  He was good in jail, so was given the job of keeping the storehouse and tuck shop running, and so, got extra rations of tea, sugar and tobacco.  Nathan's fellow got thrown in jail for stealing some clothes and he was sent out to work in a chain gang, logging.  Well, he got the flu and died.

My favourite part of the trip happened here. We went to the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary.  What a cool place!!  They have all sorts of animals that they are taking care of.  Either rehabilitating for release in the wild, like a wombat whose mother was killed by a car when he was a baby in her pouch, or have rescued from being pets, like some parrots and magpies, or who are too damaged to be released, like several tawny frogmouths who are all blind in one eye because of various injuries, and they are giving them a nice life.  They also run a 24 hour "roadside wildlife assistance" program where they will help animals who have been hit by cars and injured.  We did a spectacular after hours tour, which was especially good because so much of Australia's animals are nocturnal, where we got to feed and interact with a bunch of the animals.  I won't go into excruciating detail, but here are some the highlights. 

- hand feeding kangaroos, Nathan finally hand feeding a tiny one, and scratching their neck!

- hand feeding Tasmanian Devils (parts of wallabies) and feeling the strength of their jaws and listening to them scream and carry on. (Nathan's highlight)

- life-long dream being realized and petting a koala (just couldn't hold it) IT'S SO FUZZY

- carrying on a conversation with a 98 year old cockatoo

- finding a new favourite animal: the wombat. Who knew they are the cutest animal ever??  Just nasty biting things, so I pet it but didn't feed him

- feeding and being crawled over by sugar gliders.  I WANt ONE!!

Overall the whole time was amazing, and I would recommend this tour to any animal lover, it was worth the trip to Tasmania itself.