Places to tour

Just back from a week in Tasmania; there for a wedding and made a week of
it, a little regrettably in a Toyota cage hired from Herr Hertz.

In the time only really had the opportunity to go slowly up the east coast
and did the walks around Coles Bay/Freycinet and Bay of Fires; the youngest
daughter was there by co-incidence for the Falls music festival and we
caught up when when her money ran out and about the same time the big old
family tent died with terminal rips - no funds + no shelter = find the
folks.

At the airport going home filling up the car to avoid the twice the price
fuel that rental companies think is fair game, there must have been 30 bikes
also filling up - mainly cruisers and touring bimmers all with WA plates
starting out on a tour - kinda looked like the set of "Ulysses from the west
does Tassy".

Couldn't help thinking they had chosen a really good place to tour -

1 Roads that mostly force you to slow down and smell the roses - no shortage
of gentle paced corners.

2. Lots of reasonably priced accommodation - some of the older style pubs
were great

3. Some seriously good food, live music and mostly interesting folk to talk
to after you got over that 'Oh, mainlanders' thing. Big artistic community.

4. No where's a very long way away form where you are - with another two
weeks I reckon we could have covered most of the easily accessed great
spots. The 2 things they do really well are tourism and nuking old growth
forests; the latter appears to be losing popularity.

5. No etags or traffic to avoid, didn't see any police taking pictures and
only bleeps from stationary radar were at either end of the Tasman Bridge in
Hobart (the one that got knocked about a bit by a big boat). All the breath
testers were at the Falls festival trying to nab the daughters drinking
buddies (they had the sense to hire a bus with a Born Again for a driver).

6. the tourism info places funded by the gov't or councils really are good
with finding accommodation, recommending routes and planning trips

7 the place drips history, not all of it happy but interesting none the
less. Lots of interesting agriculture even before you get to the broad acres
of opium poppies (Mrs Price wanted to enquire about the cellar door sales or
perhaps some complimentary seed packets - seems quite interested in drugs
but shows no interest in getting on the back of the Triumph 675).

8. A *lot* of the scenery is to die for.


Only bad things -

A if you have some perverse need to use a mobile phone, make sure you have a
Telstra sim with you because outside Hobart no other telco seems to get a
look in

B January school holidays are a dumb time to arrive without bookings - mid
winter you could have the place to yourself and really give the heated grips
a work out; March or November might be nicer.

I suspect the more populous bits of the south island of 'N Zud might be much
the same but that's for another post.

Best, Andrew

 

Not because that's where your house is ?

 

And that's why i live here !!!!!!.....

 

Shhhh don't tell 'em. We only want them to visit, remember?

 

I always thought March/April was the best weather when I was living
there - still warm enough that the cold days were never freezing, but
cool enough that you didn't fry on the hot days either. About as close
to perfect weather as you'll find anywhere, in my opinion. The other
side of winter is okay, but it tends to piss down with some reasonable
degree of frequency (there was one year that we went about 2 months
without ever going more than 3 days without at least some rain!), which
may not be the sort of weather you want during a holiday.

 

Ummmm, where did you get that from? Hobart is the second driest
capital in Australia behind Adelaide and if you are 10kms away for
that bleedin' great mountain the city sits under then it is even
drier. I had to buy more wet weather and cold weather gear when I
moved to Melbourne and Sydney.

I will agree with the March/April comment though, they are superb
times to be in Tassie.

 

I rode to the top of that mountain on 23rd November 1977 and it snowed on
me.

Tasmania, cold and wet one day, bloody snowing the next.

Boxer

 

23rd November 2008 - saw snow on Mt Buller and Mt Buffalow on the trip
home from the SR500 Rally.

Nev..
'07 XB12X
'08 DL1000K8

 

I drove to the top, threw some snowballs at the missus, then drove back to
the airport and flew back to stinking-hot Brisbane in October '07.
I reckon I only experienced about 38° span that day so it's nothing like the
December day a half-dozen years ago when Kirsi and Aaro managed 80° when
they left Brisbane at 40° and arrived in Helsinki at -40° !!

 

Global Warming?

Boxer

 

It snowed up there two weeks ago, same day that Perth had 38C.

2 days ago it was 34C here.

It's called weather. Enjoy it. I'd much prefer that than continous
days in a row over 30C.

That said, when I got back from the UK out of their coldest winter
snap in a decade, Tassie had two weeks of 30+ temperatures. Too hot,
especially after acclimatising to UK.

 

Perth has had one day under 32 this year. Forecast is 38 today, 40
tomorrow.

Summertime, and the livin' is easy.

Theo

 

You know, that's the problem with you Hobart people, thinking that
Tasmania stops at the city limits!

Hobart may be as dry as a grannie's crotch, but Launceston can on
occasion be as wet as...well, I'm sure you have an imagination...

Any time is a superb time to be in Tassie, that just happens to be the
best time of all.

 

You can keep that. Anything over 25 and I start to get uncomfortable.

 

Ummm, I lived in Launceston for 25 years. I think I've got a pretty
good handle on its weather

And I don't see Lonny as any wetter or drier than Hobart, but don't
have figures to back that up.

Until a few weeks back, I hadn't seen any decent rain here for months.
Lots of months.

Now if you want to discuss the west coast of Tas then we have a
different situation.

 

I agree, when they are over 25, they start to get abusive and self reliant

 

We're talking about weather, Kev, not your love life.......

Moike

 

You know what is real scary? Someone said the same thing to me last
night. I gotta get older girlfriends . . .

 

George beat you to it . . .

 

[hearty applause]