Tasmania - Launceston

There’s two ways to get to Tasmania from Melbourne, a one-hour flight to or an 11-hour ferry crossing. The original idea was that we all cross by ferry (since we need to get the car over there) but the cost for this is $400 each plus about $60 for the car. The flights, on the other hand, are less than $100 each, return. I decide that I’d rather take the plane and get the kids in bed in the shortest time possible and Will decides that he’d quite like 11 hours of cave time on the ferry, so it works out perfectly. We get to spend the night at the Launceston Country Club and he gets to spend the night in a shared cabin, in a bunk bed. Apparently, the 3 others he was sharing with were snoring all night. Now he knows how I feel. And whilst we’re all still waking up in the morning, he’s making the 100km drive from the ferry terminal to collect us from Launceston.

We get some terrible weather due to hurricane winds coming across the Bass Straight from Melbourne which has cut off 200,000 homes from power, closed major bridges and killed 2 people. We abort our planned trips to the platypus house and seahorse world and instead visit the wineries of Jansz and Pipers Brook (also home to 9th Island).

Launceston is a strange place. I hope Dave Bracey will forgive me for saying that it’s stuck in the 70’s (maybe that’s why you left, Dave?). Lots of mullet haircuts, time-warp menus and restaurants, if you can find any, that close on Sundays.

We spoke to a few people who know Launceston and asked for some recommendation of things to see and do and no one seems to be able to come up with anything other than Cataract Gorge. Off we go then.

A chairlift up a very pretty Gorge and over an open air swimming pool that would be gorgeously located were the weather warmer (although, in fact, were the weather warmer, we’d swim in the gorge, not the pool), then an uphill climb for a birds eye view of the surroundings. A gentle walk back down via the restaurant and a very nice lunch makes us a bit more forgiving of Launceston.