One of the Top Scenic Views in the World...

On Monday, Kaitlyn and I hopped on a bus that would take us just over two hours out of Hobart and drop us off literally on the side of the road (known as the Cole's Bay Turn-off) where we were picked up by a smaller shuttle van that took us into the small town of Cole's Bay. We checked into the small hostel, which was part of a larger campground that operated during the summer months. Kaitlyn and I set off to explore the town, which was tiny - with only about 150 locals who live there all year long. We found a jetty, a beautiful beach, and got a great view of the Hazards (the mountain range in Freycinet National Park that we would be climbing the next day). We finished off the day by relaxing at the hostel.

On the Jetty at Cole's Bay.

The entire next day was spent in Freycinet National Park - hiking. We left the hostel early in the morning around 8:30am and even though the start of the trails were only 3 kilometers down the road, it took us the better part of an hour to get there. We chose to start the loop trail by going to the famous Wineglass Bay first. The trail was quite steep and had too many steps to count, however once we emerged at the top we were rewarded with one of the top scenic views in the world - looking down at Wineglass Bay.

Wineglass Bay from the Lookout.

We continued down the other side of the mountain range and onto the beach itself, where we rested for a while and got took some cool photos that definitely have to be printed and framed!

Wineglass Bay Beach.

Our journey took us another 30 minutes down the Isthmus trail, which crossed the peninsula of Freycinet National Park to the beach on the other side, called Hazards beach. Along the way we say a cute wallaby who wasn't too afraid of us at all as we passed and just continued to munch happily on the grass. Once we arrived at the beach, we stopped for some lunch while admiring the view.

Hazards Beach.

The last leg of our hike took the longest and circled one of the mountains that make up the Hazards. We got to see some beautiful coves, great views across the ocean bay to see the towns of Swansea and Cole's Bay, and awesome forest walks. We stopped quite a bit to just enjoy the scenery and managed to see another two wallabies. Once we finally made it back to the start of the trails we were exhausted but proud of the full day of exercise. We caught a shuttle back to the hostel, had dinner, and had great sleeps.

Kaitlyn sitting on some rocks near the hiking trail.

On Wednesday, we checked out of our hostel, got some great (and cheap) chai lattes and wasted some time waiting for our shuttle back to the turn-off by walking down another beach that was right across from the campground. Soon we were headed back to Hobart for another day before taking a bus to Launceston - our final destination in Tasmania. 

Waiting at the turn-off for the bus.

Next post: climbing a mountain in Tasmania!