Tassie Winter Break (infrequent blogging continued)

These photos go back not to our recent winter break, but the previous one over a year ago. We have been enjoying the occasional revisiting of our previous travel blogs and thought we might make another attempt to keep it going.

This trip started with a flight to Sydney, Australia, where we met Matt's parents and spent a few days before moving to Hobart, Tasmania.

Sydney was not the  part of Australia we were most interested in exploring, but as usual we enjoyed wandering around, eating, drinking and letting Cata destroy a small car.

While small for her age, her strength and wrath remain unprecedented.

We flew from Sydney to Hobart and took a car ferry to nearby Bruny Island. Bruny was quiet, peaceful, and turned out to be a great for exploring beaches, forest hikes, wildlife encounters, and eating oysters.

Australian animals are weird. The Bennett's Wallaby is quite common in Tasmania.

 We also spotted a "white wallaby" near our rental, apparently an albino variant of the same species that only exists on Bruny.

The island is also a hotspot for bird life, including this Superb fairywren (female left and male right).

We returned to Hobart. Hobart is a historic city originating as a penal colony and whaling port. It has some trendy shops, restaurants, and a great farmers market. Hobart also has industrial vibe and one can look south from the port and imagine the wild Southern Ocean between this southern most Australian city and Antarctica a few thousand miles to the South.

We explored the Botanical Garden, had a fancy Christmas dinner, and visited the modern art museum. This museum has an incredible eclectic collection, including a machine that digests food and poops. 

In Hobart, we picked up a pair of camper vans and headed for the central highlands to enjoy some time  "camping" in the Tasmanian country side and to do some fly fishing.

While the fishing proved to be quite challenging with only a few trout caught in multiple attempts, the wild areas of Tasmania were a joy to explore. We found some gorgeous camping spots and had some time to hang out around the campfire.

We also had some interesting wildlife sightings. The echidna was one of our favorites. Although quite slow moving, we failed to photograph one. We also spotted possum, bandicoot, wombats, and a platypus.

We moved from the central highlands to the East Coast to visit Freycinet National Park and Maria Island.

Foggy day at Freycinet National Park

We went for a nice walk across part of Maria Island. The beach and grassland were fun to explore. We saw a number of birds not previously spotted and also looked for wallabies, kangaroos, and wombats.

Above Cata and Larry seek out the elusive wombat (there was actually one in the hollow log). 

Maria Island has no current permanent residents. Many people come in the summer to hike, camp and explore the abandoned settlements. The visitor center is housed in an old building that was once part of a convict settlement. 

We tried a delicious "Fume Blanco" Sav Blanc at Puddleduck Vineyard that we're still dreaming about. We also loved Pooley Wines.

We spent the last few days our trip exploring the Tasman Peninsula, doing some wine tasting and visiting the World Heritage site Port Arthur, another fascinating part of Australia's convict past. 

It was established in 1830 and housed some of the more serious criminals; due to its remote location, it was not an easy place to escape from.   

We found our last camp spot exploring the Fortescue Peninsula. 

The sun was out and the water was blue. It felt like our trip had turned into a tropical beach vacation.

Laughing Kookaberra at Fortescue Bay

We visited an "Un Zoo" which was essentially an old farm repurposed to attract the wild Australian animals in the area.

The "Un Zoo" did have a Tasmanian devil and it was definitely in an enclosure. 

Other Tasmanian Critters:

Black Swan

Opossum

New Holland Honeyeater

Bandicoot

Galah

Pacific Gull

Pied Oystercatcher

Hooded Plover

Brush Bronzewing

White-fronted Chat

Desaru, Malaysia

The last time we were in Malaysia, it was 2007.

We were shooting mostly slide film. 

Things have changed. 

We took our first weekend trip out of 

Singapore a few weeks back to explore a bit and enjoy the beach. Desaru is about 2 hours from Singapore, give or take a few hours wait at the border.  We were lucky and made it through pretty quickly both ways. It's been ages since we have rented a car and driven across borders and it can be a little logistically challenging sometimes, but this trip was smooth.

It was a quick trip, but we got in some hermit crab races and a enjoyed a nearly full moon.

We also visited an ostrich farm - a bit underwhelming for the adults, but Cata loved feeding them and checking out the extra large eggs.

 

The beach where we stayed was less clean than the Singapore beaches we go to. The amount of plastic accumulating in the environment in many places we visit is worth worrying about. Cata was also fascinated by the random bits of rubbish we came across on our beach walks. She was especially captivated by the large assortment of flipflops, a motorcycle helmet, and the nest of a Malaysian Plover that we came across.

 

Red-wattled Lapwing

The beach - Tiara Desaru

 

Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Family trip to Australia! We took advantage of our recent spring break by flying to Brisbane and spent a week enjoying the Sunshine Coast. Traveling from Singapore is getting easier all the time and we can't wait to continue to explore.

We stayed in Caloundra and ventured up and down the coast to enjoy some beaches, and inland to the forest, zoo and some wineries. This photo is a view from our balcony.  We rented an apartment via Airbnb right across from Bulcock Beach, which was very family friendly; a playground and a coffee hut right out the door.

Cata did some bird watching, she especially enjoys turning the binoculars around to make small flighty birds even smaller and harder to see.

The country side was beautiful and we found a couple of wineries to visit, a visit to Flame Hill Vineyards in Montville being a highlight. Cata even found a chardonnay that she didn't hate.

Another day was spent in a kayak exploring Bribie Island, a sand island that is accessed only by boat or 4x4.  This island provides some nice sheltered beaches around Caloundra, which were perfect for our 3 year old beach bum. She even took an in-kayak nap on the way back to the put in.

We spent some time looking for wild kangaroos but eventually only found them at the zoo. Cata had a good time feeding them and also enjoyed the giant bouncing structure. The Australia Zoo, founded by the family of Steve Irwin, is definitely a place to check out should you be in Queensland.  

Bright sun in Tee Tree Bay beach in Noosa National Park. This beach is about 30 minutes walk from the main parking area, but well worth the work to get here! Beaches certainly dominated our time in Queensland, but we managed to do a few other things as well, including some bird watching. 

Peaceful evening at Castaways Beach

Blue Tiger Butterfly at the Ben Bennett Botanical Garden

Wallaby in the Bobbie Sattler Nature Reserve

Osprey

 

Silver Gull

Gray Butcherbird

Rainbow Lorikeet

Crested Pigeon