Since we only had a few days in Hobart, we had to be selective about the things we chose to do. We decided on one 'big' day trip and the rest of the time was spent in Hobart itself, which I'll write about later. The toss up was between
Port Arthur and the
Tahune Air Walk, both a couple of hours drive from Hobart. The Air Walk won out in the end, primarily because it is a natural attraction and who knows how long the forest might be there. We took our time driving down there, meandering through the Huon Valley and stopping for local fruit along the way. While stopping in Geeveston to buy our tickets (and eat local icecream), C's day was made when we stumbled across a girl holding a day-old wallaby whose mum's life had been lost to a car. He was thrilled to pat it and have a cuddle.
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| I was slightly apprehensive about walking out onto the platform suspended above the river! |
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| View from the end of the platform |
The Air Walk itself is at the end of a long, windy road with many places
to stop along the way and do short interpretive walks, including one
which we did to The Big Tree, an ENORMOUS tree. It was so big that it
was too difficult to get a decent picture of it. Forestry experts have
estimated that the tree weighs over 300 tonnes!
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| Looking back to where we had come from |
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| View from the middle of one of the swinging bridges |
Eventually we got to the Air Walk where we spent a couple of hours
wandering along the actual walkway as well as going on a 'swinging
bridge' walk and the short, riverside walk to see the ancient Huon Pine
trees.
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| Looking back onto the swinging bridge |
The Tahune Air Walk seems to be a forgotten tourist attraction because
there were hardly any people there and many locals had never been or
never heard of it. But, the trip is definitely a worthwhile one - the
drive down is spectacular and the walk itself is awe-inspiring, being up amongst the huge, ancient trees.
