Go ahead and "Jump"...............

There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe the pure beauty of the natural wonders I saw in Tasmania during my 5 day “Lap of Tassie” with “Jump Tours”. We spent three days in the west with luscious, green rain forests, sparkling waterfalls, and snow-capped mountains; two days in the east with miles of beaches, rocky shorelines, little penguins and one of the top ten beaches in the world. If you come to Australia and don’t visit Tasmania you are missing out on one of the most stunning landscapes in the world.  

Our Jump Group

The tour is designed as an inexpensive, no-frills way for backpackers to see and experience some of the best, and at times off the beaten path, sites that Tasmania has to offer. Our tour group consisted of two young ladies from Germany, Tina and Claudia; the Zhang (sp?) family from China, Doris and her parents; Andrew our Tasmanian guide and me. We covered about 1500 kilometers in a van, over 5 days, staying at hostels and cooking our own meals. When you sign up for a tour like this you never know what you are going to get. The group dynamic can make or break a tour. Ours was great and we made the most of the experience. The week previous tour included 13 people packed into the van, vomiting, and a trip to the hospital. Timing is everything.

Russell Falls

Rainforest

We started out from Hobart to our first stop Mt. Field National Park. Forty-two percent of Tassie is National Park and 20% of that is considered UNESCO Heritage sites. That is a huge percentage of protected land. In addition they have state reserves and conservation areas, although these do not have the same protected status as national parks. Throw in that 95% of their electricity is generated by hydro-power and the population is only somewhere between 500,000 and 700,000 (I heard both numbers from different guides) and you have one big green state. It was a short walk through the rainforest to Russell Falls. The forest was green and mossy, damp and cold, well before you reached them. Some of the trees in the area grow up to 100 meters tall. You could hear the falls. The falls are not massive like Niagra, but are very pretty in their setting. A two tiered waterfall about 60 meters tall, with the lower tier separated in two by a large tree in the middle and a fine mist surrounding the viewing platform. The recent rains (it is a rainforest) made the falls dazzling with Andrew saying that this is the most water he has ever seen coming over the falls. I thought they looked beautiful, little did I know there was more stunning scenery to come.

Tarraleah Hydro

We did a quick stop to take in the view at Tarraleah. Tarraleah is one of the many hydro-electric plants dotting Tasmania. It was once a very busy (for Tasmania) town while they were building the plant, but once finished it had turned virtually into a ghost town before someone came along and bought most of the buildings turning into a nice B&B. As with most of the towns that were built for the workers while building the dams and hydro-electric plants, there is a golf course (and I’m sure there was a pub or two in the day). You had to keep the workers happy.

Lake St. Clair

FGNP

Our day continued with stop at Lake St. Clair and then the Franklin-Gordon National Park (FGNP). There was quite a bit of snow at the lake and because the rains made the lake level so high we couldn’t take the usual hike along the shore. A walk up the mountain, through the rainforest at the FGNP led to a stunning lookout view, different from the one at Tarraleah. This one had wooded hills leading down to a grassy plain with mountains in the distance and snow-capped mountains further on. Throw a couple dinosaurs down there and you had a scene from Jurassic Park. Many times the scenery reminded me of scenes from the movie. Two minutes after we arrived at the lookout it started to snow and the view gone. Timing is everything.

Treeless road to Queenstown

Our last stop of the day before settling in at Tullah, our home base for two days, was Queenstown. This is an old mining town. I think Andrew said there were once 50 some mines in town and because of mergers and buyouts (who’s familiar with that!); and some going out of business, now there is one. This landscape was in stark contrast from the rainforest we just left about 10 miles behind. Even before we reached the town I could see the difference. The lush, green forested mountains were replaced by bare, rocky, hills. This was due to the clear cutting of trees once needed to feed the mines; the acid rain and chemical leaching from the mining operations, and the fact that it is now an open pit strip mine. A perfect example of what can happen if the land is not protected. We only stopped long enough to buy some groceries, but the town has a slight look and feel of the old west. And if you think Australian Football (rugby to us) isn’t tough enough, try playing the Queenstown team. Visiting teams hate having to play away games in Queenstown because they have the only football pitch (field to us) made of gravel and packed clay. It’s so unique that it may be declared a heritage site. That would be like the Bears playing without equipment in the Soldier Field parking lot. They breed them tough in Tassie!   

Day one was great, but day two  ………….

Cheers mates!

norb

MONA...X +

MONA from the ferry

MONA – Museum of Old and New Art is unlike any art museum I have seen. It is the largest private museum in Australia and a monument to the ego of its’ owner David Walsh; maybe not so much ego, but more the character of David Walsh. It was built at a cost of ~200 million dollars to house his private art collection. It just opened earlier this year, and the museum is currently free to the public. There is talk that he will begin to charge admission to non-Tasmanians, but this has yet to happen. My understanding is that David is some sort of genius mathematician, a savant, like Dustin Hoffman’s character in “Rain Man” and has made his untold millions gambling. That is a nice job if you’re good at it and apparently David is an expert. He has the money to do what he wants, doesn’t care what others think and seems to relish controversy. You can look him up on the internet and draw your own conclusions. He is an interesting individual.

Art museum, not haunted house



Art museum, not fun house

The one thing I know he has done is create a fantastic museum for showcasing art, especially contemporary art. This is the best presentation of contemporary (and antiquity) art that I have ever seen. The museum is fairly nondescript from the outside. If you drive in from land, the building appears low and small; and there is a tennis court near the front entrance. Why is there a tennis court you may ask, because David likes tennis and it’s his museum so there is a tennis court, screw parking. The museum sits on the edge of a peninsula and when you see it from the water, the outside is brown rusty metal which belies what awaits for you inside.  I took the ferry over from Hobart; Yes MONA has its’ own ferry service. The is $15 but the museuem is free and the views of Hobart harbor and the river Derwent are worth the price. The museum is built 3 stories underground into the sandstone, with the lower floor being only 1 meter above sea level. Upon entering the museum you are given an ipod like device as there are no signs or information placards on any of the art. The ipod has a GPS system, you push a button, it knows where you are in the museum, and then presents you with information about the art in that area. Touching other buttons you can get as little information as a summary of the art, like the artist name and title of the piece; or delve deeper and get more information, quotes from artists, commentary by David and others, and with some pieces audio. Not your standard fare at an art museum. As you go through the museum observing the pieces, you can also vote on them touching the X (hate) or + (love) on the ipod. I was told that David will take all the pieces people love and remove them and only keep the pieces people hate. He’s that kind of guy. You can also enter your email address and the museum will then send you a link so that you can view the art on line along with your judgements (X’s and +’s). Maybe on second review you'll change your mind on how you feel.



Not the real library but another piece of art

The museum building itself is like a piece of art itself. The bare sandstone walls show through in some places. The overall color scheme is dark and black, even the museum workers wear black. I didn’t notice them at first; they blend into the background like museum ninjas. The museum is not symmetrically laid out, it is more like a labyrinth of art. There is even a tunnel connecting the museum to a 20,000 book library, that looks like a concrete conduit, but it too is really a piece of art.



bit.fall

Coffin of Pausiris

The current exhibition is titled “Sex and Death” and is intended to create controversy with its’ subject matter.  As to whether any of the art is good, you have to be the judge. Some people think contemporary art is crap and MONA can support that theory. For you scientist artists there is a piece by Wim Delvoye, “Cloaca Professional”. It is basically a series of digesters, you feed it at the beginning, it goes through a digestive process including the elimination of gasses and at 2pm or 3pm each day it produces a brown “work of art”.  If that’s art, then I’m Michelangelo after a big dinner. You’ll see hanging bloodied limbs, 150 plaster casts of a certain female body part and a fat car, but you will also see pieces by Sydney Nolan (who if you remember from an earlier blog is hanging in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne)including his largest piece which need a special room to be built to house it, a wonderful piece “bit.fall” by Julius Popp (water falls from the ceiling in the form of words. It’s pretty cool) and some fantastic pieces from ancient Egypt. There is a room that they only allow one or two people to enter at a time. It is dimly lit and there are stepping stones, surrounded by water, that lead you to a small island. On the island are two equally sized, glass covered containers. Inside one is the mummy and coffin of Pausiris and the other contains an image of the same. The image is a layered scan of the coffin and as you watch, the scan is run and it starts going through each layer slowly the coffin begins to dissolve revealing the mummy inside. Super high tech scanning imagery used on a coffin from antiquity. A great juxtaposition of technology in a superbly lighted setting. MONA is like the Louvre on acid.

Another Sidney Nolan Ned Kelly on the left

Cloaca Professional

 If you love art, come to Hobart and visit MONA. If you’re in Hobart for any other reason, make the time to go visit MONA. + it or X it, MONA is a museum well worth seeing.

Cheers mate.



Oh look another rainbow on the way to MONA

norb

Cascade Women’s Factory Prison and the Cascade Brewery……

Ok I’m back from my “Lap of Tassise” side tour, but I won’t cover that for another post or two. I’m still trying to catch up on the earlier experiences. There is just not enough time for seeing the sights and writing.

Mt. Wellington - Hobart

The Cascade Womens Factory Prison and Cascade Brewery were a disappointment from a visual aspect. All that remains of the prison are the brick walls, and even some of that is recreated, and the small matrons house. As with many of the sites once the originally facility closed, the buildings and land were sold off, used for other purposes, or knocked down. There was a point in Tasmania when they did not embrace their convict past and were embarrassed by it, so they tried to hide it or destroy it and many structures were lost this way. Also in 1976 there were bushfires in the area which destroyed many buildings. The brewery was completely destroyed by the fire, but rebuilt by the factory workers in 3 months; you have to have beer.  The tour guide at the brewery told the story of a hardened river of molten glass created from bottles melted by the intense heat. They should have saved it as a piece of contemporary art J The bushfires must have been huge for they destroyed buildings in Hobart as well as in Port Arthur which is 90 minutes away. I’ll need to do a little research.   

Saw a few more rainbows.

The tour guide at the women’s prison was enthusiastic and knew the history well, and all the guides are volunteers. It’s an interesting story but I could just as easily read about it rather than visiting the site, but the entrance fee goes towards restoration and archeological work which is worthwhile. The women’s story at the Cascade Factory Women’s Prison was similar to the men’s story at Port Arthur. Women were “transported” from Britain to serve hard time for crimes we might deem as petty. Most were labeled as prostitutes, even though prostitution was not a transportable crime, as another way to demean women. From the tales told I think the women had it worse both Britain and in the prison. This prison, like Port Arthur, were both built outside Hobart so that the upstanding people of the city didn’t have to see the wretched convicts. They also claimed it was for the women’s safety. Harsh living conditions were prevalent; small cells, poor food, hard labor and cruel punishment were standard. Many women were pregnant or became pregnant with the children housed in their own ward, unfortunately infant mortality ran about 75-80%; it probably wasn’t much better outside the prison in those times. If you were pregnant you were still expected to work, usually in the laundry; there was no maternity leave. The prison lies in a valley, at the base of Mt. Wellington near the major water source for the city of Hobart; the Hobart rivulet. When it rained or the snow melted part of the prison would have deep standing water. So much so that the women in yard 1 (there were 5) would have to sleep in hammocks above the water, although they still had to stand and work in it. Not a pleasant life.

Inside Cascade Brewery

Cascade Brewery

While taking the local bus to the Cascade Brewery, I talked to the bus driver. She had been to the states and like several others I spoke to who had visited the US, they all went to visit Las Vegas. Interesting choice. The Cascade Brewery tour itself was nothing special, but the beer samples at the end and conversation with the bartender were great. It is a small brewery the makes the Cascade brand, but they also do contract brewing for other labels. I thought it was ironic that they make more beer for the other labels than they do under their own label and noteworthy that hops used in brewing are in the same family as marijuana. The interesting things you learn. My conversation with the bartender Andrew and his girlfriend Erin was great. He had spent some time in Canada and the US working and they also did a 3 week stint of house sitting in NYC. They are in the lottery to get a green card to come and live in the states. Both love America. He told me one of the coldest days they spent was a September day watching baseball at Wrigley Field in Chicago. I told him to come back in January! He said something that as a traveler made me happy to hear.  He felt that Americans get a bad rap as not being friendly or helpful to tourists or foreigners and related two stories where people went out of their way to help him and Erin. That made me feel good because I know I appreciate the assistance I get when travelling, and I must say Australians are extremely friendly. So keep that in mind the next time a visitor needs assistance. You are representing the USA. Take the time to treat them well. It will help me in my travels. Don’t make us the ugly Americans.

Having fun down under.

Norb