Platypus in the wild, Geeveston Tasmania

Bruny Island

Since Bruny Island is a island, dad decided to park on the boat (like we did on ‘Spirit Of Tasmania’.) After 30 minutes we reached Bruny Island. In Bruny Island dad decided to stay in a marvelous caravan park called ‘James cook.’ If your wondering, we stayed in a cabin named Exedous. On the top of my bunk bed there was a lovely window that blew in fresh air. My sister and I made some videos to put on u tube unforntually the filming was too bumpy. I was disappointed because I had made another video that had worked out ( To view it click this link .)

One night we all decided do go fishing ( P.S. we didn’t catch any.) When we had finished fishing we started to drive back to our cabin. On the way back I saw something as small as a cat running funnily up someones driveway. We knew it wasn’t a cat because it eyes did not glow when our car lights shined on whatever it was’s eyes. Later that night mum saw a wild Wombat. About 5 minutes later I spotted a small cute marsupial munching on grass. Just before we reached our cabin we all saw wild wallabies. It was a very exiting night but we were all tired and decided to go to bed.

The next day we went to a berry farm. I had to be careful because there was electric wire protecting all the fence. When we got inside mum bought me some pepper berry icecream. It was a bit weird because it was sweet then spicy.

At night time we all decided to go on a penguin tour. I decided to walk up to the top off the lookout (on the top of a hill) that was there. While I was walking up the hill I heard lots of rustling. Since it was nighttime and I didn’t have the inferred torch I couldn’t see the animal in the bush, but I did hear penguins calling and I did see a couple up there. It was very exiting looking for penguins. The way you see them ,without climbing up to the lookout, Is by looking for holes in the ground bigger then snake holes and waiting, eventually you will see the penguins. Just before we left I saw all the male fairy penguins all in a group of 50 waddling up the mountain (which I climbed up.)

Bruny Island is a great place and I definitely recommend going there for at the least 1 day!!!

Platypus Spotting In Geeveston

I find the Platypus fascinating. They have body parts that look like they belong to other animals- webbed feet and a bill like a duck (which can detect electric pulses like a Swordfish), fur similar to a bear, a pouch like a possum and can lay eggs like a reptile. No wonder why the first settlers thought this was a fake animal.
Our family visited Platypus House at Beauty Point and saw platypus. Unfortunately I could not get a clear video. I learnt heaps about them but I was very keen to see one in their natural habitat.

Geeveston is a small town in the Huon Valley. It has its own Platypus Trail which runs along a large creek bed in the middle of the town. There were no signs of any platypus during the day when we walked along the trail so I wasn’t too hopeful of seeing one.

One night mum and dad decided to go for a stroll (while Grandma looked after us) along the ‘Platypus Trail.‘ They came home very excited as they had seen 8 platypus swimming in the river. Well that was enough for me! I couldn’t wait to see them the next night and to capture footage of this strange animal. We quietly ‘tippy toed’ along the bank, as the sun was setting, and looked for signs of them. The three signs were bubbles, ripples and little splashes on the water’s surface.

We must have got just the right time because before we knew it we saw our first playtpus floating on the surface of the water looking for little mosquitoes and taking a breath after diving for crustaceans and tasty morsels under the water. I was really happy and excited to get footage of these amazing creatures. We spotted at least 6 platypus! It almost didn’t feel real. When I got excited and made a noise they quickly dived under the water and swam away. It was important that everyone was very quiet and stayed still.

People who want to see a platypus in the wild should seriously try the Platypus Trail at Geeveston.

What the Edwards family did for Christmas

In our hotel in Hobart, about 1am, Ruby was whispering Clem wake up it’s Christmas. I whispered back to Ruby to go back to sleep. I was hoping that we were away from home we would still have a good Christmas.
Mum and Dad eventually woke up at 6:30am and Ruby and I went to look at the presents under our small, chocolate tree. We had made this tree the night before by tying ribbon to a little Cadbury chocolates and hanging them. Mum really liked the Cherry Ripes and stole a few. I enjoyed all the different flavours and by Christmas night all of them had been eaten.
Opening up my presents was exciting and I received Angry Birds board game, I Tunes voucher, Mario Kart 7 and some money. Ruby was thrilled with her I-pod touch4, mum liked her Jamie Oliver Cook book and C.D. Dad liked his wallet, fish rod and Lindt chocolates.

After we opened our presents we went to the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Our family drove to church shortly after. The service was funny as some of the children got to say what they got for Christmas. I was glad we visited that church.

In the afternoon we found a great park with BBQ’s that overlooked the beach. We cooked 4 big pieces of fresh salmon, a kilo of prawns, 20 scallops and garlic bread. Our family had so much food that we didn’t have enough room for our Creme caramels, juicy cherries or the cheese. The seagulls had a gourmet feast for Christmas also!

The rest of the day was spent walking along the shore looking at sea squirts. Mum thought they were like pimples and couldn’t resist touching them to see the water come out. She thought they were gross. There were lots of oysters on the rocks but they would give you food poisoning as the tide was out and they were baking in the sun.

I was really happy that we had a good Christmas away from home and that was the only thing that mattered.

Arthur River Beach House

Arthur River is like a gateway to the wilderness. It is in western part of Tasmania on the coast. Our family spent 12 relaxing days there after leaving Launceston. From our beach house I could see lots of snapped trees piled on either side of the twinkling river. The water way led into the vast open sea which was pounded by killer waves. The wind, the ‘Roaring 40’s’, picked up the sand and threw it in our eyes. You could never predict the weather accurately- sometimes it was as still as a pond and sometimes it was as windy as a hurricane. I felt like I could fly!

On the still days we explored the beaches, climbed over driftwood and looked for shell fossils! We tried to fish for Australian (Cockey) Salmon but the rain has put too much fresh water in the river so they hung around the rocks near the sea. This made it difficult to cast and we lost lots of lures. But mum caught a ripper and dad caught a few also. Ruby learnt the hard way where fish come from and where they end up. There were some tears. The wilder days were spent inside our beach house where we watched our favourite Foxtel shows, read books on the Kindle and ate lots of toasted sandwiches and snacks. We would have liked to have eaten more fish but at least we got one good feed.

From our house we saw a red tugboat. One day dad walked to the deli and bought the tickets for the boat ride. The boat took us up the river and I saw a very rare bird! It was orange on one side and blue on the other and came from the Kingfisher family. After two hours of interesting cruising we finally reached the little docking harbour. The boat driver gave us a tour of the forest. He also found some regurgitated Tasmanian devil stuff. In the puke were echidna spikes. It sounded like the devil ate an echidna but the man told us that the devils eat anything on the floor including echidna spikes and metal! When we finally reached the hut they owned, we had a nice BBQ which included sausages and hamburgers. On the way back we were lucky enough to see a lady feed the Sea Eagles. I was just sitting down when the boat driver called me up to the cabin to drive the boat. It was really fun and freaky steering it. Some people looked nervous and they should have been! He gave me a report card at the end and I got ten out of ten!

One day we set out in the car and dad said we were going to be driving over some rough
roads. He was right, but it was beautiful. We drove through the Western Wilderness to a place called Corrina. On the way we visited the Donaldson and Savage River. Thankyou to Aunty Nat for the sick bags because otherwise a certain family member would have totally ‘sicked out’ the car. Part of the adventure was to catch a barge over the river.

The highlights of Arthur River were the T.V. at the beach house, the local deli which sold $2 chocolate bars, observing our Tassie Devil food trap (our food was taken by a quoll and small wallabies instead) and the cruise along the river.

Dismal Swamp

Imagine going down a 100m slide through the forest in 15 seconds. I did just that at Dismal Swamp. Twice! Dismal Swamp is a big sink hole in the middle of a forest. The good tour guide told us the floor of the forest was basically like honey comb. This means the dirt starts to sink when there is lots of rain.

She also told us that we should look out for tiny burrowing crayfish after we catch the slide to the forest floor. The tour guide gave us the challenge to also look for hexagonal ferns and eyes in the Blackwood trees put there by a local artist. She kept talking until mum got the courage to go down the slide.

I put on a hair net, a helmet and slipped into a carpet sleeping bag (not that I was tired!)
I laid back and the man pushed me down. It was a tunnel so I couldn’t come flying out when sped around the corners. It surprised me that water did not come through the slide. The way you stop is by hitting into big pillow at the end. At the end of mum’s slide she said ‘ow that hurt my knee’ but she survived. Ruby’s whole face was red and her mouth was wide open as she came down. Dad even caught it on camera.

I saw lots of wildlife including the borrowing crayfish then I remembered a fact the tour guide told me. What they do is borrow into the ground and build a mound around them with a hole at the top. They search for vegetation and meat under the ground. They don’t like to get wet so if water drips inside the crayfish comes and puts some more mud onto the side of the roof to make a taller tower. There were lots of towers at various heights.

The only thing dismal about this swamp was the mosquitoes so next time I’ll wear long pants!

The Nut

Most people know I like to collect crystals so I was especially excited when dad said he would drive us to a volcano called The Nut. The nut is a huge, solidified lava rock 152m high.

Since mum and dad were tired from ‘Marion’s Lookout’ they decided to pay 30 dollars to go up a chairlift. Mum was scared she was going to fall out of the chairlift so she leaned back. There was lots of refreshing wind blowing at your face. I took my hat off my head so it wouldn’t roll down the hill.

We got off the chairlift and started walking. I thought there would be lava rock but all there the rock was covered in grass and regular pebbles. Dad saw a tiny cave so we decided to walk in it and I saw a goanna. Mum thought it was a snake and walked away slowly. There was also a little pond covered with green moss to make it look like grass. I threw a rock in the water and it splashed and sank. There was also a stunning view and it looked like the end of the world. But it wasn’t.

On the way back we heard rustling in the bushes but luckily it was only a Paddymelon, a small wallaby. I wanted to get some food at the Nut cafe but dad said we would get food somewhere else.

Dad drove us to a famous fish cafe at the harbour. We had takeaway and the fish was delicious and juicy while the chips were nice and soft. There were lots of seagulls which willingly ate the chips we couldn’t eat. A whole swarm of the them swooped out of the sky desperate to eat some chips.

Then we walked around the town and bought our grandma a present. I can’t tell you what it is because she reads this! I wanted to get some lollies but strangely the lolly shop was closed.

That was our excellent day at The Nut.