Tasmania

Wildlife Park
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The trip to Tasmania got off to a bad start when I lost my luggage at the airport at Adelaide. This was the first time I traveled by myself although I would be meeting up with my colleagues at Hobart. I wanted to save some money and trouble so I traveled with Qantas and took a domestic flight from Adelaide to Hobart. I think it was a very bad idea. The whole trip took such a long time as I traveled from Singapore to Darwin to Adelaide to Hobart. Anybody who sees this must think that I am crazy to have taken such a route. I spent a lot of time at the airport waiting for the next flight. Anyway, when I tried to collect my luggage at Adelaide, I could not find my luggage and the lady there was quite nice, telling me what I could do. She also told me that I could collect some compensation from Qantas when I reached the airport at Hobart.

A big water baffalo
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When I finally reached Hobart and found the hostel that my friends were staying, they were quite surprised to see that I had so little luggage with me-I had only a small backpack. I told them that I was traveling real light and I think they believed me. Afterwards I told them I had lost my luggage and they were quite amazed that I had remained so calm but what can I do? I had already lost my luggage. Anyway, my friends were real nice and everybody contributed whatever they could to me. Chris had an extra bag so she gave it to me. She lent me some of her clothes too as we are of the same size. Nat and Sham also gave me some toiletries and clothes too. I quickly found out from them what we were going to do for the next few days. I found that they had rented a car and bought a card. We could use that card to visit quite a lot of places and try out some activities.

Port Arthur
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The next day, we went for a cruise in the morning and went to Port Arthur afterwards. On our way to Port Arthur, we detoured to the airport and I found that my luggage was still missing. At Port Arthur, we went for a ghost tour of the prison. At certain places, it was quite scary. Somebody in our tour was quite freaked out in the end as we could see the guide giving her hot drinks and trying to calm her down. It seemed that she had felt something. The next morning, we went to explore the place again and went for a normal tour.

A nice little orchard farm
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The next interesting incident happened at cradle mountain. When we reached Cradle mountain, we found that the hostels were all full so cheap accommodation was no longer available. My friends were thinking of sleeping in the car for the night but I really did not want to do that. In the end, we decided to spend more money and we checked into a nice resort style place. It was really nice. There were 2 nice bedrooms, a bathtub with Jacuzzi, a nice kitchen with a nice dining area and sitting room. Really felt like queens. The best part was there was a nice little balcony with a fantastic view of the mountain. Too bad it was too cold and we could not sit at the balcony for very long. My friends made a very nice dinner and placed it so nicely on the dining table that we could not help but spend quite some time photographing it. When we wanted to eat our dinner, we found that our dinner had gone cold so we had to microwave it again. The dinner was delicious. The next morning, we went for a trek around the mountain.

train ride
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We went to Strahan too and went for a cruise. After taking the cruise, we went to one of the shops that sold lobster and bought one. After that, we went to a sand dune area that was quite near to Strahan and climbed up the sand dune. Everywhere was sandy and we were quite afraid of losing our way so I did not really dare to venture far. We also tried to make very deep marks in the sand but we found that after some time, the marks would disappear as the wind would be blowing and the marks would become less visible. When we were driving out of the area, we did not realize that there was a big pothole in front of us and drove into it. When we tried coming out, our bumper hit the hole and part of it came off. We were quite vexed and did not know what to do. Finally I lay down on my back and went under the car to see what was wrong. I really felt like a mechanic then. I think I fasten the bumper with something and we went on with our way. We went back to Strahan and stopped at a petrol station. The guy there was very nice and he helped us to secure the bumper. I felt real grateful to him as he was very nice and he did not charge us too. By then it was 4 to 5 and we had wasted quite a lot of time, our plan was to reach Hobart that day.

Wild platypus!
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Anyway, the drive to Hobart was very long. It was summer and although the sun set at around 10, we were still driving when the sun set. It was quite scary to be on the road at night as kangaroos would just hop across the road suddenly. We were very fearful that we would hit a kangaroo. The impact will be great and we would have to pay a lot if we damaged the car. Of course we would danger our lives and that of the kangaroo's. Somewhere during our drive, we turned into a smaller road as we thought it would take us to our destination faster. It was very dark by then and we were very surprised as well as worried to see so many small animals hopping across the road. It was quite a sight! My friend drove very slowly but she still killed a small animal. She was very guilty about it. We were still on the road at 11 plus. By then, we were almost running on an empty tank and we still have not reached Hobart. We were felling rather scared as we were not sure whether we would be stranded on the road when our gas ran out. Imagine our relief when we finally saw the sign that told us that we were in Hobart and when we managed to see a petrol station that was open. We quickly refuelled our car and a very helpful taxi driver led us to my friend’s friend’s house. We were very happy that our adventure was over.

Cradle Mountain
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The next day we did some more sightseeing. I also went to the Qantas office to collect my compensation for my missing luggage. It was quite troublesome. When I told them what I wanted, they told me that I was to collect it at the airport. I felt quite thick-skinned asking for the money but I guessed since they made me go without my luggage for so long, they definitely had to compensate me in some ways. Anyway, when I heard that I had to go to the airport to collect the money, I told the staff there that I had already gone to the airport before and they told me that I had to collect the money from the Hobart office. Finally, after waiting for some time, the staff finally handed me $200 as compensation. They did not ask for the receipts of the things I had bought. I had spent around $100 buying things and my friend changed the other $100 with me with Singapore dollars. I was going back the next day so I would not be using the money.

Cradle Mountain
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The next day, my friends drove me to the airport and I asked for my missing luggage. I was quite angry when I saw my luggage as it was badly torn. Thing were not missing but I was just quite angry when I saw the state it was in. Anyway this time round, I decided not to check in my luggage. I guess it was partly my fault that my luggage was missing. It was just a small hand carried luggage which I should have carried instead of checking it in. However, the greater fault lies with Qantas as they just put a sticker on the bag and the sticker could come off easily. I asked for a report of my delayed luggage as I wanted to claim money from my insurance company. Again, they said the person who was in charge of it was not around. Anyway, I was quite pissed off. Ultimately, when I was back in Singapore, I was able to make a claim without the report. I gave NTUC a number which was the file number with Qantas and NTUC settled everything for me and sent me a cheque after around 1 month, which I thought was quite fast since I was not able to provide NTUC with anything.

Cradle Mountain
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Other activities we did during the trip included: we visited some caves, went to some museums, tried cable hang gliding, went for the Tahune airwalk, the jetboat ride, saw seahorses at a seahorse farm, also saw wild platypus at play.