Day 301: Devil’s Corner to Devil’s Kitchen
Today we were supposed to get up early, drive 1.5 hours to the Maria Island ferry, spend a six-hour day out hiking/exploring on Maria Island, then ferry back and drive another 1.5 hours to our stop tonight in Stewarts Bay.
We’d heard great things about Maria Island (pronounced Mariah) — but the day suddenly seemed very daunting — a lot of shlepping, it was cold/rainy/windy outside and the island is 100% au natural — “not even a place to get a cup of coffee” as one local warned us, eying our small kids. You have to pack in all your own food, etc. We love our kids, but they’re NOT doing an outdoor wilderness excursion longer than 1.5 hours. We know that now. And we know how awful it feels to be trapped. So we bailed.
Instead, Teddy and I took turns doing the Wineglass Bay lookout hike in Freycinet, a 45-minute roundtrip uphill climb to see the view. He went before breakfast, I went after.
Teddy’s hike ~7 am 
Mine ~10 am
After my climb I called my parents for a nice, long, leisurely chat — good to catch up without nerds interrupting. Meanwhile, Teddy was doing school back at the lodge:
He picked the socks 
A lot of people had talked up the Wineglass Bay hike, by the way, and I can’t say either of us were that impressed. The lesser-heralded hike/walk at Tourville to see the lighthouse — which we did as a family around 11 am — was way more spectacular and less crowded.
new socks 
Lunch was at Devil’s Corner winery. Devil’s Corner is a wine Beth and Luke introduced us to and we’ve been enjoying over our time on Tassie. I like the pinot gris and sauvignon blanc but more than anything I LOVE the label art.
I was disappointed they didn’t have any merchandise with the branding/art — I would have bought it.
What they did have were about 10 picnic benches and food-stall-style outdoor setup with chowder, oysters, wood-oven pizza, etc. It was cozy and delicious, with the drizzling rain and dramatic sky.
We ate lunch, played wiffle ball, met a 15-year-old border collie named Josie and generally took our time enjoying the ambiance. Teddy and I got a flat white for the road. More on that below.
Next stop: The Tasman Peninsula, aka the southernmost place we’ve ever been in our lives. [Correction: Just looked on Google Maps and found that our 2011 trip to Patagonia in Argentina took us to the -46 degrees latitude vs. the -43 degrees we hit while at the Port Arthur Historic Site.]
As we were driving through farmland, we saw a hand-painted sign advertising “Horse poo: $400.” Who knows. Maybe fertilizer? In response, James asked, “Why would horse poo be so famous?” He meant expensive. Hahaha.
We had about two hours to go at this point and I must say the kids were excellent. They stared out the window, listened to audio books, played games with each other while Teddy and I listened to some podcasts and chit chatted. No roadtrip drama at all! In fact James earned ten minutes back. He’s now down to 31 min for our flight to Sydney Monday.
We made three quick stops at natural sights worth seeing…
Tasman Arch:
Devil’s Kitchen:
And the Blowhole (phone died).
Eventually we pulled in to the Stewart’s Bay Lodge, yet another family-cabin-in-the-forest locale. So many of these places will blend in together in our memory. They already are!
We’re sick of eating out, but lacked groceries. We compromised by sending Teddy out for takeout at the General Store on the town’s main road. Meanwhile I grabbed a DVD of “Up” from reception and the kids and I watched. It was rainy and cozy in our cabin. I can’t watch that movie without bawling, which confused the kids, I think. Have you seen the first 30 minutes of that movie?? Devastating.
Of course the DVD started skipping about halfway through and we had to call it quits. Cliffhanger! (Remember how annoying DVDs were?????? I was reminded.)
Dinner was fish, nugget, chips and some cheese and crackers. Threw everyone in bed by 8 without a shower and called it a night. Cozy in the rain.
MISC:
1) Been meaning to note that tailgating is very much a “thing” in Australia, so far as we can tell. Up in Queensland, all over Tassie. Drivers have no problem riding four feet behind you on curvy roads, even when you’re going 20 km over the speed limit. It’s really annoying.
2) About those flat whites. One of the things I’ve learned about myself this year is that I can’t and shouldn’t drink fancy espresso coffee drinks (eg, cappuccinos, lattes, etc.). Okay, I knew this already, but did it anyway, every single morning back in NYC. Drinking that much dairy with that psycho jolt of caffeine was just…ugly.
But since we haven’t had access to those drinks for most of this year, I’ve been forced to drink regular joe in the mornings and — lo and behold! — I feel a 1000% better each day. (Those flat whites today confirmed what I already knew. Why did I drink that? I felt awful for 24 hours after.)
The reason I mention it is because we’ve had the darnedest time ordering plain ol’ cups of coffee in this country. If you ask for “a cup of coffee” they’ll say, “Liiiiiike…a cappuccino?” I’ve tried everything, calling it an “Americano,” a “filtered coffee,” etc. and it still draws blank stares. I even commiserated with an American grandpa at the breakfast buffet back in Freycinet (the only other American we’ve seen in Tassie) about the situation. We both agreed the best thing is to order what they call a “long black.” But it’s still made in an espresso machine.
Just gimme the Bunn coffee pot, people!
