{"id":7549,"date":"2015-12-24T01:01:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T15:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=7549"},"modified":"2016-07-09T23:45:39","modified_gmt":"2016-07-09T13:45:39","slug":"tasmania-2014-part-1-arrival-eaglehawk-neck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=7549","title":{"rendered":"Tasmania 2014 part #1 \u2013 Arrival, Eaglehawk Neck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"untitled-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A few things usually dictate when and where we travel \u2013 time of year, events and price of flights. Cheap flights pretty much always take a precedent but we prefer travelling in between seasons to avoid crowds and public\/school holidays where possible. This time however was pretty much the opposite of that. We were locked into a small window due to work commitments so basically it was the Easter weekend or nothing till the end of the year and who wants to wait THAT long amiright?? With only 5 days at our disposal we had to keep it reasonably accessible with minimal expenditure. We\u2019ve heard rave reviews from our landscape photographer buddies championed by Mel Sinclair who mentioned (and was smart enough to go the following week!) that around this time of year the Fagas trees start changing colour (they even have a festival dedicated to it) so we thought, why the heck not.<\/p>\n

Well the first problem was going when we had to not when we wanted to so we were actually about a week early for the colour changing, no problem, just need to look for places in cold areas where winter is coming early. Second problem, travelling during a batch of public holidays, surely not everything will be closed right? Sadly we were wrong on both accounts, throw in constant wet weather ranging from heavy drizzle to outright monsoonal downpours and a feeble rental car with no will to live and that was just the beginning of our Tasmanian adventure! It was trying to say the least but we\u2019ll try to keep the whinging to a minimum and stick to the facts \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

The biggest Keyzer Soze moment of making people believe the devil didn\u2019t exist was arriving at the airport to clear skies. The drive out to Eaglehawk Neck was reasonably uneventful, apart from a bit of afternoon\/pre long weekend traffic it took a bit over 2 hours from the airport including the low speed limits, endless road works and unpaved roads with trucks and 4wds gunning it with no consideration of on coming traffic.<\/p>\n

We chose the Best Western Lufra Apartments<\/a> because they are pretty much directly above the tessellated pavements. The hotel was a little dated but that sort of thing never really bothers us, we go on holidays to do things other than look at the wallpaper! Meals were a little higher priced but when it\u2019s the only option in the surrounding area the choice is pretty easy if you don\u2019t want to go hungry. The staff however were friendly and helpful.<\/p>\n

\"untitled-5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The next morning we got up for sunrise, a little icy but nothing too unmanageable. The sunrise itself was rather uneventful – enough for a couple nice photos at the tessellated pavement, nature working its magic on carving out a rather intricate grid in the rock, but it did hold high hopes of a beautiful day of sightseeing. Back to the hotel the dining room\u2019s expansive windows displayed a spectacular view and the buffet brekky with most of the basics covered wasn\u2019t too bad either. Being a long weekend we were expecting a bigger crowd but it was rather tame, probably was a different story for the proceeding days though.<\/p>\n

\"untitled-8\"<\/a> \"untitled-9\"<\/a> \"untitled-11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"untitled-12\"<\/a> \"untitled-13\"<\/a> \"untitled-14\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Conveniently, the Pirate\u2019s Bay area is also very close where you can take in the blowhole, Tasman Arch, Fossil rock look out and Devil\u2019s Kitchen all with in the space of an hour or so if you stick to the main lookouts and 86 the scenic walks. The weathering and layering of the rock formations at the Tasman Arch was tragically poetic to see nature creating and at the same time destroying history of the landmark. Like most natural landmarks there is no open and close times so getting an early start, beating the crowds and getting these sites out of the way is definitely the way to go to maximise your day.<\/p>\n

\"untitled-29\"<\/a>
\n\"untitled-17\"<\/a> \"untitled-26\"<\/a> \"untitled-30\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Travel tip: about 2km from Eaglehawk Neck on the way to the blowhole there is a small town nicknamed \u201cDoo Town\u201d, which lovingly coming about because\u2026 well they added \u201cDoo\u201d to everything. Its pretty much a \u201cblink and you\u2019ll miss it\u201d blimp on the map but cute and quaint enough to stop for a quick selfie while trying not to snicker at \u201cdoo doo\u201d jokes.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"untitled-16\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With the weather still clear and our sense of adventure high we headed further south to Port Arthur to take in the convict town and its historic buildings\u2026<\/p>\n

\"untitled-21\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tasmania 2014 part #1 \u2013 Arrival, Eaglehawk Neck<\/a>
\nTasmania 2014 part #2 \u2013 Port Arthur and Salamanca markets<\/a>
\nTasmania 2014 part #3 \u2013 Hobart to Queenstown to Cradle Mountain and Liffey Falls<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few things usually dictate when and where we travel \u2013 time of year, events and price of flights. Cheap flights pretty much always take a precedent but we prefer travelling in between seasons to avoid crowds and public\/school holidays where possible. This time however was pretty much the opposite of that. We were locked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2348,388],"tags":[2147,2718,2715,2717,2720,2716,2714,2719,2775],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7549"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7549"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7956,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7549\/revisions\/7956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}