Bicheno

I realised I didn't write down the second half of our Tasmania holiday, so I'll put it in here in case I forget. We had originally thought about going a bit west and doing walks around Cradle Mountain which is supposed to be beautiful. But we couldn't make the itinerary work so gave up and decided to explore the east coast instead. And, best decision EVER, because the weather when we were there was appalling in the west and not too bad on the east coast where we were. I had never seen a specific 'bushwalker's alert' on the weather report before, but they had one for Cradle Mountain. So we will do that another trip, and probably not in September. 

We stayed in Bicheno, which is a small seaside town, in a lovely house backing onto the ocean with beautiful views. We spread out our stuff for a few days and listened to the sea. 

We did all the usual things - walks along the beach.

Lobster rolls.

Wine tastings.

We also went on a fairy penguin spotting tour in the early evening - this is when the wee penguins come out of the water (hunting and eating) to cross the beach to go back into their burrows and lay their eggs or feed their chicks depending on the time of year. There were dozens of them and they are extremely cute - waddling and flapping - but I found it all strangely stressful. This is the most dangerous time in a penguin's day and all the behaviours - grouping, freezing, shouting at each other - are designed to protect them from predators. They are clearly going through it, and I found it hard to enjoy. Anyway, here is the traditional appalling photo of penguins running at speed in dim lighting.