Australia 2017

Kathy and I began our visit to Australia in Sydney.  We landed at 6 am.  After dropping our bags we rode a ferry across the harbor to begin a 7 mile bush walk along the water.  This is a picture of a bush turkey.

A Kookabura.  We saw green parrots and cockatoos on the walk too.

We road quite a few ferries around Sydney. The ferries run quite frequently.

This water Lilly flower was about 10 inches across.

I thought this photographer did a great job positioning this couple in front of St Mary's Cathedral.  He used an assistant and the wind to position the veil. 

These mounted police officers spent about 15 minutes trying to get the perfect selfie in these mirrors at Darling Harbor.  The horses seem to like looking at themselves.

Sydney Harbor Bridge from Observation Hill.

After a couple of days in Sydney we flew to Hobart Tasmania.  We spent the next 11 days touring Tasmania.  This is a picture of Russell Falls in Mount Fields National Park.

Horseshoe Falls in Mount Fields National Park.

The next morning we drove to Triabunna to catch a ferry to Maria Island National Park.  This park was once a prison location.

Now the island is a great spot to see some of Australia's unique wildlife.

The island catches some good breezes.  You can see how the wind has shaped these trees.

Maria Island is noted for it's Painted Cliffs.

Another Painted Cliffs photo.

After we left Maria Island we headed to Freycinet National Park.  This park is best known for Wineglass Bay.  This is a photo on a very cloudy day so it doesn't showcase the beautiful blue water of the bay.

Freycinet has a lot of Wallabies.  They are very tame and smaller than Kangaroos.

A picture of Hazards Bay.  The red lichen is a nice contrast to the blue water.  We will see more of this when we head to the Bay of Fire in the northeast part of Tasmania.

The Hazards of Freycinet at sunset.

Friendly Beach didn't look too friendly the morning we were there.  This is a long exposure shot so multiple waves give the foggy effect to the water.

At low tide mussels were exposed along the shore.

This is a Mussel-catcher bird.  He did an outstanding job of extracting mussels.

This couple got married at Honeymoon Bay.  The groom caught me taking this picture.  I expect the wedding photographer wonder what he was looking at.

We left Freycinet after a couple of days and headed to the Bay of Fire.  This picture was taken at Binalong Bay.

We had blue skies and warm weather.

This tree shows up in numerous Bay of Fire photos.

The day we left the Bay of Fires it was pouring down rain so we changed our plans from a waterfall walk to cave exploration.  There are two public caves in Mole Creek National Park.  This is a picture from the Cathedral Room in Maracoopa Cave

The next two pictures are from King Solomon Cave.  This cave was full of calcite crystals.

There are over 400 caves in the region but only two public caves.

Next stop was Cradle Mountain National Park.  In the two full days we walked about 25 miles.  Cradle Mountain is seen in the background of this photo.

A Wombat

There are several small waterfalls in the park.

Kathy and I are headed up a trail that will take us to the north face of the mountain in the background.

Kathy climbing the last of the cliff face.  The chains made the trail much easier to climb.

A panoramic view of Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake.

Kathy and I had just finished walking a trail that traversed the bottom of the north face of Cradle Mountain.  Only four more miles to go to get back to the car.

After Cradle Mountain we headed to the west coast of Tasmania.  Along the way we stop to walk to the tallest falls in Tasmania.  The walk was 4 miles each way along an old tramway.

Montezuma Falls

We spent the night at Queenstown which once was the center of mining for Tasmania.  The next morning we drove to Strahan to take a World Heritage Cruise.  This is a picture of hells gate. A narrow entrance into a harbor that is four times bigger than Sydney Harbor.  This harbor had a prison for the worse convicts in Australia.

Today the harbor has numerous fish farms.  They raise Atlantic Salmon and Ocean trout in circular pens.

Sarah Island was the prison location.  Up to 380 prisoners were housed on a tiny island.  They became famous for the ships that they built here. 

Hograth Falls in Strahan.

On our drive back to Hobart we stopped at Nelson Falls.  A short 10 minute hike.

One of the highlights of our trip was a 100 meter long carved wall that was about eight feet tall.  The artist just completed the work 21 days ago.  Unfortunately no pictures are allowed. It depicts the hard working people of Tasmania.

Tomorrow we are off to the south island of New Zealand.