Sunday 26^th February, 2012

My Sunday excursion led to Bruny Island which the locals like to call little New Zealand. As in New Zealand there are two islands, but here they are connected with a foodbridge. Also the vegetation is not the same. On Bruny Island there are white wallabies as one day albino wallabies escaped. As they could not be caught again, they mated with normal wallabies and now there are white ones which are not albinos. At pleasant 25° C I went to the meeting point. The air was weirdly misty. The guide told many things about the region when we went by bus to the island. The said that yesterday someone made a camping fire. This was not allowed due to danger of bush fire. Promptly the fire got out of control and led to a rapidly growing bush fire north of Hobart. I saw the smoke cloud already yesterday when I was on Mount Wellington. It looked like when I am looking at the nuclear power plant in Gösgen out of the window at home in Olten. I already thought then this looks like a bush fire. Now they hope that the rain predicted for tomorrow will eliminate the fire. Now back to the tour. With a ferry we went to the islands. First we saw a fish farm in the sea. Here young salmons are raised in containers. From time to time fresh water is added. This should resemble the natural cycle of the salmons. On the island a small part of the fishes get smoked, the rest will be sold. Many inhabitants live from sheep. They export merino wool. Another income are cherries. There is a huge plantation of big cherries. They mostly get exported to the USA. Another interesting detail I learned. In Tasmania there are three wind power stations and many hydropower plants. If Tasmania produces much energy, it is transported to Victoria (the state where Melbourne is). To do this there is a cable on sea bottom connecting the island with the mainland. If Tasmania is lacking water and cannot produce enough electricity, it gets it from the mainland. Now my tour continues on the south island. First we enjoyed tea and muffins, then we went slowly to the boat landing stage. When everyone was in the boat ginger pills were given out against motion sickness. As I get fast motion sick, I took my own pills before. They were small rubber boats and so we could get very close to the cliffs. We saw many cliffs and caves. To make sure that we did not get bored, the boat got quite rapid in between. Our destination was a seal colony. It was funny to watch these animals while sunbathing or playing in the water. On the way back we also observed birds flying and then diving into the water. Back on the land we enjoyed a salad for lunch. After a short stop at the seaside it was time to go back. At the ferry I had already to wait for more half an hour as also other people wanted to leave. Here I enjoyed the sight to the sea and watched the sky which got more and more misty. I went directly back to Hobart after the ferry brought us back to the mainland. It was good to make that tour today as it was still 35° C when I was back. To finish off: this was not my day. First the toilet door in the Pub fell out of the hinge and in the evening in my room the window was falling down. Good luck as nothing happened to me, I just had to change the room.