Christmas in Tasmania (Part 1)

For all those that thought Warner Brothers made up the Tasmanian Devil along with Bugs Bunny and the Roadrunner, I can confidently state that Tasmania is indeed home to the Tasmanian Devil. In fact, the Tasmanian Devil has been wiped out on the mainland of Australia and now is primarily only on the southernmost state of Australia - Tasmania.

And considering that Australia has a population of 22 million (compared to the US population which is 311 million yet has a similar land mass), Tasmania's one of the smaller Australian states. Tasmania has a population of 500,000 and is comparable in size to Ireland (which has a population of 4 million). It's capital is Hobart.

I'm on this mission to visit all 6 states and 2 territories in Australia and now that I've been to Tasmania - only West Australia remains!

In a funny coincidence, it also occurred to me that this past Easter was spent on Kangaroo Island and this past Christmas was spent in Tasmania the home of the Tasmanian Devil.

THURSDAY, DEC. 23
On Thursday, Dec. 23 I arrived in Hobart, Tasmania and on advice from my work colleague Kirsty went to Jackman and Ross Cafe which is widely regarded as an "institution" (the good kind, restaurant) in Battery Point. Then, this date being my nephew Kenichi's birthday and knowing he loves to visit the zoo, I decided to visit Bonorong Wildlife Centre to say "G'day" from Kenichi to the Tasmanian Devils.



Happy birthday Kenichi! Make sure you watch the video to the end...



I also fed the kangaroos - a cute joey as well as a medium-sized kangaroo that gobbled up all the roo food I had!



Shout out to Ryu - There was this great t-shirt that I thought about getting for you, it said "Who let the roos out?" but didn't think you'd wear it (it was a funky colored orange with cheesy sketch drawing of kangaroos). It was a funny play on that song lyric so I thought I'd share :)

And ever since first learning about echidnas on Kangaroo Island, I've been fascinated with these spiny anteaters. I saw them again in Hobart and these two echidnas reminded me of that Walden Pond story about how he always took the same beaten path to the pond thus missing out on all the different approaches to the pond that could bring new, fresh perspectives. As you'll see in this Flip, these two echidna follow a figure eight beaten path. I love their little snout and how the wobble around their beaten path.



FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24
On Dec. 24 I was signed up to go on this Bruny Island cruise with Peppermint Bay. Although I enjoyed the cruise, I was disappointed to learn that while we boated past Bruny Island we never actually stopped there. We stopped instead in Peppermint Bay which was a tiny, tiny town with a large commercial building bar and gift shop managed by Peppermint Bay so felt rather inauthentic.

On the positive side, I did get upgraded to the Captain's Deck on the cruise (which meant free drinks, access to the upper deck and captain's deck) and it was very roomy with comfortable seats. Along the way, we visited an Atlantic salmon fish farm just as they were being fed. What surprised me was how the salmon actually leap out of the water to catch the food - you see dolphins at Sea World leaping through the air through hoops but not fish! Who knew?



After to boat cruise, I rushed over to the Henry Jones Art Hotel which is part of this trend of fusing art, hotels and museums. My friend Matt highly recommended staying here but because I planned this trip relatively last minute there were booked and I ended up staying at the Grand Chancellor Hotel across the street.

Anyway, on my first day I checked out the bar at the Henry Jones Art Hotel and learned about this tour they offer for free. Since I missed out staying here, I thought at least I'll get to scope it out on the tour and next time I'll definitely plan in advance to book a room here. Henry Jones years ago made jam and it's branded IXL Jam because Henry Jones' motto is "I excel (in everything I do)" (IXL) which I thought was very clever.