The last continent I had to visit to complete my goal of visiting every inhabited continent was Australia.  Given that Australia is huge, and about the most time I could schedule away from work was 2 weeks, I decided I need to pick a small corner of Australia and explore it as well as I could instead of running all over the country to see all the main sights  and ultimately seeing too much of the inside of airports.  I like bicycling and wanted to include some cycling in this tour.  After some research I settled on a tour operator called World Expeditions that did hiking, biking, and kayaking tours of Tasmania, and a few days in Sydney on my own.

Sydney was very modern looking.

But also with lots of green spaces.

This makes it possible to see a good bit of wildlife, even in downtown Sydney.  Pretty sure this is a kookabura.

This is an ibis.  These are everywhere in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Sydney Opera House, where I would shortly be heading for a performance.

I believe I took this shot from the steps of the Opera House.

Seeing a performance at the Sydney Opera House was the main box I wanted to check off in Sydney.  I had heard stories that the acoustics in the Opera House were lousy but I guess ignorance is bliss because I enjoyed it so much that, after my tour in Tasmania, when I was transiting through Sydney to go back home and had a free evening I got tickets to another show.

I like to fish, and I usually like to work in a little time fishing when I travel.  I had a one day excursion with a local captain booked, but I got annoyed with his lack of responsiveness and communication such that I finally bailed and booked a different experience to the Blue Mountains.  Patience is a virtue, but not one I possess in large supply.

The tour also included a wildlife park I can not remember the name of.  Can’t go to Australia without seeing one of these.

Or this, a dingo.

After Sydney, I flew to Launceston, Tasmania to pick up the tour I had scheduled through World Expeditions.  I don’t remember the names of all the sites, but we hiked and biked between Launceston and Hobart for about 6 days, with a day of kayaking, and two nights on Maria (muh-RYE-uh) Island.

This is called Wineglass Bay, because in the past it was used for whaling, and the water of the bay would turn red from the slaughter of the whales.

Freycinet,  a natural preserve, I believe.

Maria Island is a former penal colony, and now used as a wildlife refuge, including helping endangered species recover.

Kangaroos come in multiple flavors, and different sizes.  Who knew?  This is a padymelon (very small kangaroo).  This shot was taken on the Tasmanian mainland, though I did see padymelons (a lot of them) on Maria Island.

Wallaby (medium sized kangaroo, of which I think there are several species).

Full sized kangaroo.  I think I remember one of our guides saying the kangaroos on Maria Island are Forrester’s Kangaroos.

Momma wombat and baby.  Awww….

This is a bandicoot.  It is a marsupial like many of the mammals on Maria Island, but I couldn’t get past seeing it as a glorified rat.

Last part of the tour included riding (a bus, not bicycles) to the top of Mount Wellington.

As my planned fishing experience had not worked out, but I had the necessary tackle, I obtained a Tasmanian fishing license and spent a little time fishing on the River Derwent in Hobart, and had a little success before catching a flight back to Sydney and then home.

If I have one regret about this trip, it was not giving myself a day or two in Tasmania off the tour to explore on my own.  Hobart in particular seemed like a nice town worth at least a day or two of time.  Between the Sydney Opera House and the wildlife of Maria Island, the most memorable part of Australia for me was the way Australians pronounce the word “No,” which sounds like a starving dingo trying to gnaw the last scraps of meat and sinew off a bone.