Tasmania - of mountains and mysterious caves, of enchanted forests and rivers, of rugged seas and just being in nature. (Pt 2)

16 May Mon

We set off for Freycinet National Park early  at 7.15am. A long and winding 2 hr drive.

I've registered us on the Wine Glass Bay cruise which started sailing at Coles Bay at 10am.

It was an uncomfortable voyage cos I felt sick most of the time. It was a bumpy ride on the Tasman Sea. One of the staff gave me a hot cup of ginger tea to dissipate my queasiness. Very grateful for that. The service was excellent. The guys were very jovial and ensured we could see the wildlife, especially the kids.

Zech was in tip top condition and was bouncing around all the time from the beginning till the end. Nathanael slept on the way back and I suspected he might be feeling seasick.

The landscape was great and the wildlife amazing. The most awesome thing was seeing a pod of dolphins swimming around and right beside you. Having been on such Aussie cruises a few times, this was the most number of dolphins I've ever seen. My boys are so blessed. The fur seals basking in the sun on the rocks was another sight to behold. It was a delight to see them frolicking and playing in the water too.

The rock formation, an almost hidden cave and an eagle nest perched high up on the rocks with waves crashing below were part of our cruise sighting.

Spot the eagle's nest?

This was our lunch.  Had our ploughman lunch in the middle of Wine Glass Bay.

After the cruise, I was dead tired. Probably the after effect of seasickness.

We headed to Cape Tourville after that. Nathanael likes lighthouse so we decided to go for this rather than the Wineglass Bay lookout. This little one still remembers the lighthouse at Kangaroo Island!

Awesome lookout points! What a fine day!

 



17 May Tue

Brought the boys to Bonorong Wildlife Park today. Such a disappointment! Perhaps it was afternoon so everything looked dead. Could hardly see any animals except kangaroos all around the park.

Our picnic. Fish and chips for lunch!

Zech enjoyed feeding animals and had a whale of a time feeding those hungry kangaroos. They were sure aggressive.

Nathanael was afraid of them. Some were taller than him. We found a mummy kangaroo later with her joey in the pouch. Nathanael was fascinated with the joey and became more at ease.

All the koalas were sleeping as usual. A Tasmania devil was jogging around his sanctuary. Before we left, the boys had fun observing a wombat. Hm...wonder why it's not nocturnal. I've often seen wombats sleeping in their home.

I wouldn't recommend the wildlife park. Not in the afternoon. It was boring.

We drove up to Mt Wellington. Quite an easy drive. At the peak of the mountain, the wind was so strong and forceful Zech was afraid to get out of the car. After some coaxing, he finally got out with his papa. We walked really quickly to the little building which was a lookout point. Very misty so we couldn't see much of Hobart. But the boys experienced how it was like to be on the peak of a mountain.

Everyone's trying to hold on to their beanies and scarves.

It was this misty.

Zech started asking questions again. Why isn't it windy at Cradle Mt? Why is it so windy at Mt Wellington? Another outdoor lesson for Zech. Mt Wellington turned out to be more memorable for the boys than Cradle Mt because of the wind and cold. Unforgettable for them.

Managed to capture some pictures of the city further down the mountain.

18 May Wed

Drove down the Huon trail today. Beautiful country and apple orchards. Our destination was the Tahune Airwalk which brought us deep into the Tasmania forests and I just love their magical forests.

We did the 50 min air walk. Very uplifting to be walking on top of the giants in the forest. The sound of the Huon River is soooo therapeutic. At the cantilever at the end of the airwalk overlooking the Huon River, I asked the boys what song they felt like singing then. Nathanael answered, "Give Thanks." Such an appropriate song!

We also did a 30min Huon Pine walk. Can't get enough of the forest. How it reminded me of Enid Blyton's enchanted forest and the faraway tree, books that I grew up with. It was my magical world as a child. :) Lush green moss everywhere, giant towering trees and the sound of the rushing river beside us. Made us feel truly alive! There was a light shower but none of us complained.

 



As the rain got heavier, we decided to go for tea at a nearby town.

Delicious lemon tart and vanilla cake. Plus a hot cup of English breakfast tea. Life is good.

For the first time in their life, the boys were consuming more sugar than they've ever had.

On the way back to the city, we found apples for sale along the road. We stopped and bought a big bag of apples for $3! What a pretty apple shed! We were honest.

Also stopped by the Apple museum. The boys chose their apple tree and took a pic with it.

Look at Nathanael's tree. A rotten apple hanging above him. :)

Look what we found at the backyard of the museum. My boys' paradise!

 My next blog (pt 3) covers the last 2 days in Tasmania - Our farmstay in Richmond, Port Arthur and Tasman Peninsula.

Tasmania - of mountains and mysterious caves, of enchanted forests and rivers, of rugged seas and just being in nature. (Pt 1)

Many people asked me what's there at Tasmania. We can't go to Switzerland cos we do not want to be stuck in the flight for a day with the boys. We didn't choose NZ cos I feel driving is not safe for inexperienced drivers. So we chose Tasmania - 3rd in place in terms of nature. It's a beautiful scenic country. I've been there once more than 15 years ago so I think it's somewhere we can have a relaxing holiday and fulfil some of my objectives for Zech in his last preschool year, just before he enters primary school.

Nature is a playground for young kids. It's too cliche to think of theme parks as fun places that will keep our kids occupied when travelling. We certainly don't need machine operated equipment to entertain our kids when God has created such a magical wonderland for us to enjoy.

13 May Fri

I always tell my boys if they have nothing to do in the car, look out of the window. This seems to have rubbed off on Zech. On the plane, after doing his activity books and watching the same video repeatedly for at least 3 times, I noticed he had nothing to do. I suggested more videos for him. :) Zech said he just wanted to look at the clouds. That was 1 of his fav things to do on the plane. Feel very glad that Zech's starting to appreciate the natural works.

Fresh faces after an almost 8 hours flight. We were dead tired, but not these 2.

We spent a night at Ibis, one of the airport hotels. Next morn, we caught an early morning flight to Lauceston. That one hr Qantas flight was incredibly smooth and pleasant. It was a very small aircraft but much more stable than you would imagine.

After getting our groceries and having a hearty lunch at Aromas Fine Food (recommended by TripAdvisor), we drove for 2 and a half hours to Cradle Mt. It was tedious especially the last 30 min or so.

Along the way, we found a rainbow! So incredibly near, I could see the spectrum of colours clearly. Somewhere over the rainbow was Cradle Mt. What a blessing from God! It was the boys' first sight of a rainbow. It was simply amazing!

Rainbows are in fact very common in Tassie, as I realised later.

We checked in to Cradle Mt Wilderness Village. Didn't do much for the rest of the day. We tried to spot our wild friends visiting our cabin but no luck. While having dinner, we spotted 1! A possum. Then another appeared! They went away rather quickly. Maybe they were scared off by my boys' loud voices.

14 May Sat

Thank God for His protection and for sending fine weather for our trail walk! We, with 2 young boys in tow, attempted the Dove Lake circuit walk. The first half was great! As we ate lunch at the foot of Cradle Mt, I thought Nathanael was a great hiker. He had been walking non-stop for the past hour or so. Told the boys if they could complete the walk without giving up and in good spirits, they get a certificate of completion when we go back to Spore.

 

There were some unexpected twists in our second part of the walk. The heavy rain last night changed some of the terrain. The down hill walk on wet pebbled ground was rather challenging for a 3 yo. So his papa took out the life saviour - the baby carrier! For a short while, Nathanael became a baby again.

Just as I thought we were nearing the end and we could shout hooray, we came to a dead end juncture with no footpath. The boat shed was there but due to the heavy rain last night, the bank was flooded and the shed was partially submerged in the water. We either get ourselves wet or go through a very narrow muddy path. We chose the latter. We got our shoes muddy and Nathanael had to be carried again. This last part was quite unpleasant and unexpected. But we could still give each other a hive five and say we made it! Completed the walk in 3.5hrs!

From the hike, there are life lessons to be learnt. I can finally understand why the great outdoors is necessary for young kids. Be it hiking, mountain climbing or camping, values such as perseverance, determination, patience and problem solving skills are honed. Really glad our family went through this circuit walk. It's a fairly easy walk. I'd say it's challenging for a 3 year old and challenging for families with young kids. Unless you use a carrier all the way, which I've seen some families doing it, you need to guide the kids through the different terrains encountered during the hike.

We did the enchanted walk next. A very easy walk for families. We love the creek, the cascading water, the tunnels made for kids to play, the forest that looks straight out from a fairy tale and of course the wallaby hopping away from us.

 

 

At the end of the day, my legs were aching. My boys? They said their legs were fine.

15 May Sun

We left Cradle Mt on a rainy day. On the way back to Lauceston, we stopped by a raspberry farm cafe. Ordered scones with raspberry jam and 2 baby cones with raspberry ice cream for the boys. What a treat for them!

Headed down to Cataract Gorge after lunch. A sunny day in Lauceston. We drove up to the car park in the reserve. As we walked down the long flight of steps, there were so many maple leaves on the ground. The boys had a great time playing with the leaves, esp Nathanael. He seems to be very fascinated with leaves and twigs.

Took the chair lift across the basin and back. See the little koala strapped on to his papa?

 

 

The boys love the ride. The view at the top overlooking the gorge was spectacular.

 

We took a short walk to the suspension bridge. Then headed back up again on the chair lift. The boys had some time to play.

 

The little one romping and stomping all around. Born to be free!!!

The next part of my blog (Pt 2) details our trip to Freycinet National Park, Bonorong Wildlife Park, Mt Wellington and Huon Valley.

Instilling curiosity in learning

I'm quite messed up when it comes to science experiments. Firstly, I'm not scientifically wired so something that's really commonsensical can turn out bizarre. Secondly, any experiments I try always (almost) turns out to be a failure. So I need to experiment many more times than the norm. Zech is, of course, fine with that. He enjoys the experiments. :) A lot of discovery learning stems from these experiments. What we predicted may not be the result and I guess, experimenting several times with different variables has given us some surprises.

A few weeks ago, we did a volcano experiment.

Wasn't too satisfied with this small volcano.

Wanted something more explosive. So I followed the instructions on a blog, noting that it would cause a mess so I put newspapers on the table. NEVER did I expect such an explosive volcano eruption! Thanks to my smart idea of using blue colouring, the explosion caused all my walls, the floor, piano cover, the kitchen, a small part of my sofa and even the ceiling to be stained! And of course, Zech's face and mine were blue too. We laughed over it but cleaning up was no easy task. Spent about 30 min or so cleaning. Zech helped to clean up the floor (one of the pros of not having a helper) while I worked hard at scrubbing my precious walls and sofa.

Still not satisfied, we tried again. I knew what went wrong so this time, I could control the amount of explosion this experiment will make.

See this? Very safe.

Just last week, Zech studied about rainbows. We started exploring with light every other morning. This time, I wanted a perfect rainbow. We explored various ways to make a rainbow using sunlight, mirror and water.

The prettiest rainbow was made using a prism. Borrowed from my neighbour's girl. :)

 

We saw strips of rainbow in the water by doing this.



 

Zech discovered the rainbow himself by simply looking into the jar of water, which clearly illustrated how a person has to be positioned between the sun and the water in order to see a rainbow.

The photo didn't do credit to the rainbow. :(

Here's another beautiful rainbow made just by placing a glass in the sunlight.

This week, Zech is learning about snow and ice. He's really excited about it. Mummy secretly wished the 2 boys will be able to experience snow soon cos we are flying to Tasmania next week. Our first stop is Cradle Mountain and it's snowing now!

For the time being, the boys can only console themselves with artificial snow.

Another experiment they love... is to excavate the Lego man trapped inside the ice. We've done this last year but the boys do not recall a single bit of it.

Zech poured lots of salt inside and he soon realised salt helps to melt the ice faster.



 

It's almost out!

Nathanael is the happiest with the Lego man while Gor Gor is proud of his own effort.

 

Although I'm not naturally inclined to Science, a curiosity in the world around us helps a long way. I remember being as inquisitive as my P3 and P4 pupils when I was teaching them Science. Bought fishes to rear in the classroom, mealworms to observe the life cycle and thanks to a pupil, caterpillars which turned into butterflies. Those were wonderful experiences and I've learned a lot. With my boys now, it is this inquisitiveness and curiosity I hope to instil in them, as the awe and wondrous beauty of it all not only gives us much joy in learning but also point to the Creator, the maker of heaven and earth.

 

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”  

Benjamin Franklin