Tasmania

A quiet week on the work front in Sydney gave me the excuse to jump on a  flight down to Australia's island state. My first, well overdue visit...what a great place! 

So, my flight from warm, sunny New South Wales landed just after Jetstar flight no. -010 from Antarctica touched down in Hobart. On board that flight was 'Mr Brass-Balls cold-as-ice weather front' who came up to join me on my Spring trip.    Crikey...even the locals were rugged-up and swearing under visible breath as they walked into the pub!  Unfortunately, along with the unseasonably low temperatures came some snow, which meant the roads up to Mt Wellington and Cradle Mountain were shut, so I missed a few photography hotspots I was hoping to get to. I'll have to go back another time!

Here are the things I learned about the island on my quick visit...

• This is a charming beautiful island; super empty and remote at this time of year.
• Tasmania doesn’t have 'four seasons in one day’. It has four seasons every hour.
• Here phone coverage & working WIFI are wondrous myths, rather than an actual real things that exist.
• Tasmanian people are extremely inclusive, knowledgable and proud (I found this from all my cafe, petrol station, restaurant and pub conversations)

Below are some photographs from my journey (plus some random iPhone shots mixed in for good measure). You'll notice the lack of people & cars in the images. That's because there aren't many! I left out any photos from the MONA on my first day... 'The Wall of  Vaginas' and Cloaca's real life 'poop machine' are best seen in person...  that place is brilliant, and totally bonkers.

Here's my hire car at Hobart International Airport... and off I went for five days...

Late afternoon at the famous Wineglass Bay

People must live here!... somewhere...

Wine tasing at Devil's Corner...okay so there were a bunch of people in there of course!  

Cradle Valley roads just make me want to come back in Summer....with a motorbike

Nuts!   No Cradle Mountain for me this time

Unimpressed. That's now twice I've got my Hyundai match-box-of-a-hire-car stuck in the snow : I

Nose to the ground... animal tracking in the snow...

Public House accommodation. My favourite!

Sheffield 'town of murals'

Here's me looking all 'adventury' after my gruelling 25 minute hike to this lookout point in Freycinet National Park

I really give full credit to those photographers who make landscape photography their full-time job.  Yes they go to some beautiful places; working with stunning environments, animals and people, but I also realise it takes a lot of time, local knowledge & research, and a ton of patience and persistence to get brilliant results.  

Bombing around the countryside for a few days with a camera and a tripod and no real plan (i.e this trip), is really no match for researching locations, watching weather charts, traveling to the right place and then waiting hours/days in position, hoping for that ideal time where all perfect photographic conditions align.  

It was fun though, and that counts for a lot!