Tasmania: Mt. Wellington & Mt. Field National Park - 15.9

Our day started bright and early again - pickup was at 7:55, by now I already knew most of the people on the bus as they were on past 2 tours as well.

First stop of the day was Mount Wellington, it is 1270 meters above sea level and provides very good views on Hobart and surrounding areas. Of course for this the weather needs to be clear, not misty and rainy as it was when we made it up there. There was also unbelievably strong wind up on the mountain, wind mixed with rain :) Apparently in the afternoon the weather will be even worse so we made it up there as the first thing.

For the next stop we headed over to Mt. Field National Park where we got to take many walks in the woods, by the waterfalls, on the Mt. Field and by a lake. On the walk by lake Dobson there was quite a bit of snow on the ground still, so small snow fight was held :)

In the afternoon we got to see local Tasmanian animals in a wildlife park. There were Wombats, Platypuses (those we did not get to see though), Wallabies, Koalas, Tasmanian Devils, owls and other local animals.

Today our tour finished kinda early, we were back in town already by 5pm. Stopped by the hostel and then headed over to 5AUD pizza with others who we have been on couple of tours together and stay in the same hostel as I do. After dinner I used the chance and uploaded some photos, I still can't believe how expensive Internet access is here :( We had agreed to meet at the hostel at 8 and head over to northern part of Hobart for BINGO night :) There is really nothing better to do in Hobart on Tuesday night than to play BINGO - like 80 year oldies :-P There are couple of us who have to take 4:34am shuttle to airport to catch a 6am flight to Melbourne. Couple of brave ones are going to stay up the whole night :D, and I'm not one of them - any sleep will do, even if it is only 4 hours.

BINGO ended up being lots of fun. There were 8 of us heading over there, walk through the cold rain was not the most enjoyable one, but once there we had tons of fun. One of us even won one game and got a pitcher of free beer :)

I really like taking local tours. For one, you always get more stops than just the destination. For an example on a day we went to Port Arthur, we took a little detour and stopped at a town named Doo. At one point one of the families in the town named their house Doo-Little :) It took no time for all the people to start naming their houses as well. We saw all kinds of fun stuff there like Doo-Me-Too or Wee-Doo :) There were many and really funny ones, but I can't remember them. Another positive side is that as the tour guides do this for living they are full of interesting facts and stories that you can't read in the books, and this is not for the destination only but also for the whole trip - things you see out of the window when driving. You would also get adequate answers for any questions you might have about local life. For third, you always meet other travelers when on tours. Mostly you are stuck in a small bus for some amount of time so talking to people sitting close to you usually happens within the first 10 minutes of the trip :) And most of the time you end up going to dinner or spending other free time with them during your stay. Meeting other travelers is a good opportunity to find out about your next destination or share your thoughts on your previous destination. For one, I got quite a bit of insight on Christchurch, where I'm heading next - what to do there, where to stay and where to eat :) Good times I must say!