Friday was a pretty low key day, and we went to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, which is the main plant and where the magic started! It was well worth the journey and we got plenty of free samples and learned a bit about the company too. It turns out that they actually use different milk and sugar in the chocolate that they make in Australia from the chocolate made in the US, so there is a difference in taste (not that I would ever be able to notice, but I suppose maybe some chocolate fanatics could). I also learned that Americans don't even make the top 3 in amount of chocolate eaten per person in the world, but Australians do... apparently they spend 11 (or was it 10?) months of the year at the factory making chocolate eggs, all which are sold and eaten in 1 month SOLELY by Australians.. Ridiculous. After the presentation, we were able to buy chocolate, and we saw this giant box of breakfast bars for only $12. After some deliberation, Jaci decided to buy it. We were trying to guess how many boxes were inside, but after leaving and opening it up, we found a gigantic bag filled of about 100 bars, 90% of which were unwrapped... We laughed about that for a bit.
The evening was spent wandering around Hobart. I didn't really know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised. Though it is one of the two main cities in Tassie, it is actually pretty tiny and has no skyscrapers, but has a nice feel to it. There was a neat outdoor mall and lots of cool restaurants and shops along the pier. I wish I would have had some extra time to spend just wandering around in Hobart. We found this really cool place to eat at for dinner and got some really good pasta and pizza (my first in a very long time!!).
Saturday morning we woke up early to go rent a car!! After going to a few places the day before with expensive estimates, we found this kind of sketchy company called Selective Car Rentals that gave us a good price, so we decided to go with it. We got a lovely, old Toyota Corolla (that Kelly named Blue Betty), that had some difficulty accelerating up hills and with brakes that needed extra effort to work. Renting a car was an awesome decision and made for a great weekend. We spent about 9 hours in the car on Saturday, but it was great because we got to see so much of Tassie as a result. It was a really scenic drive, but it sometimes would turn into a dirt road for extended periods of time or would just go down to one lane for both directions.. scary!
Eventually we made it to Cradle Mountain, which is probably Tassie's most iconic location. It was very much worth the 5 hour drive there, as it was absolutely amazing! I've been to plenty of beautiful places so far, but this was basically my first time (minus the Blue Mountains) seeing mountains instead of beaches, and it was great! We did a two hour hike around Dove Lake and past Cradle Mountain and then two mini hikes that went by waterfalls nearby. We were really happy because the weather looked like it was going to start pouring any minute, but held out for us. We started heading back around 6pm and made it to this town called Sheffield in about an hour where we decided to stop for dinner. Despite this town being one of the biggest ones on the map, it was so empty, and at 7pm on a Saturday night there were literally only 2 'restaurants' open in town. The one that we ate at doesn't really even count as a restaurant as it basically served fast food. We also learned that Sheffield has stores with really weird combinations of goods... This one store that we walked by sold the nice combination of flour, dvds, and clothes. Very logical if you ask me. I drove the rest of the way back, and though it was a few hour drive, it flew by and I enjoyed being able to drive again and driving on the left side of the road!
Sadly Kelly had to leave us Sunday morning, but Jaci, Jin, and I continued our journey, this time to Bruny Island which is pretty close to Hobart. We took a ferry over with the car, and then went to explore the island. Unfortunately it was pretty cold and rainy for most of the day, so there were tons of hikes that looked awesome that we didn't do just because we didn't want to get stuck freezing in the forest. We did get to see the majority of the island and stopped at many awesome look outs along the way. My favorite spot was 'the neck' that separated the north and south islands. It was really cool because you could see the two beautiful, but different beaches on both sides. Also, there are a ton of penguins there, but since it was during the day, we only saw one (but were very excited about that one). After a few hours we decided that we saw everything that we could by car, and decided to go back. We stopped at a cheese factory on the island on the way out and got to try some samples which were pretty delicious (though I'm not the biggest fan of goat cheese I learned).
That evening we went to search for some place for dinner and ended up at a restaurant called Bay Leaf Bistro. We settled on it because it looked decent and we had barely any options, but were pleasantly surprised. The service was by far the best that I've had since being in Australia (often waitresses don't care because they don't get tipped), and we got complimentary rolls (also never happens), delicious food, a chocolate ball for free (also NEVER happens), and split checks (I've only been to one place so far that has done this)!!! We were amazed, especially at the fact that these little things could make us so ridiculously happy. Later that evening we did a ghost tour through some old penitentiary in Hobart. As a whole it was kind of dumb, but it was a cool thing to see, and we got to see where prisoners used to stay and were hanged, and our crazy guide looked just like this old convict. However the closest we got to creepiness was how loud one guy on the tour was breathing the entire time.
As a whole, Tassie was an awesome time and I wish I would have been able to stay longer because there is SO much to do there.. I've already begun to plan my next trip to Australia (I know, I'm strange), so perhaps I'll have to add Tassie to the list. Last night I went to see a play at the Opera House which is another thing that was at the top of my list to do. I went with Katie and her mom, and we saw The Alchemist, which was very good and hilarious. We ate dinner at Circular Quay with an awesome view of the bridge and city lit up beforehand, and then went to the play which was such a great experience. Tomorrow, I leave for New Zealand for 11 days, and I couldn't be more excited! Expect the next post to be ridiculously long because there is going to be tons to talk about. Anyways, talk to you all soon!
Random things we learned in Tassie:
1. Don't listen to crazy 1 tooth airport shuttle guys on where to stay... we were almost scared away from our hostel when our driver told us that staying there was a terrible decision, but it ended up being awesome!
2. There are more sheep than people
3. The windshield wiper will not operate the turn signal... we kept forgetting that this was flip-flopped in the car as well
4. There is more roadkill than radio stations.. we saw tons of wallabies, kangaroos, tasmania devils, and wombats... but most were dead on the road :(
5. If you get a box of breakfast bars, don't be surprised if 90% are unwrapped
6. You're allowed to drive in the middle of the road
7. It's probably not the best idea to eat 3 chocolate eggs in one sitting.. you will probably get a stomach ache of some sort
8. If you go to Cadbury and the sample bin is empty, make sure to look in the cabinet below
9. The roads can randomly go down to one lane for both directions to share
10. Don't be alarmed if the car you rent comes with a casette player and has spider webs on the mirror
11. You may drive on gravel roads for extended periods of time
12. There are still places where people will pump your gas for you
13. You can go to Perth, Brisbane, and New Zealand all within Tasmania
14. Don't be surprised if your headlights don't work and then find out the next evening that you just weren't turning them on the right way
15. Most places will be closed at 7pm on a Saturday night
16. It is more hillbilly-ish than the rest of Australia and there are radio hosts with ridiculous lisps
17. Don't be surprised if a museum you stop at is the size of a bedroom and they expect you to pay $4 to enter
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