Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Mates!

How's it everyone from Wollongong, Australia, about an hour south of Sydney?! We just arrived today from Tasmania so I'll backtrack and run you through our Tassie road tripp'n adventure.

We ended up waiting until the last minute as usuall to book a car so that we could cruise up the east coast of Tassie but it ended up working out. We found a place called "cut price rental" and when Jimmy gave us a lift there we soon realized we were renting a car from a gas station repair shap, no joke! The joke was that our car was someone elses that they were working on and they were renting it for the time being while the owner thought they were "working on it!" The front end was smashed in but she ran beautifully and we decided to call this shela car what else but "Sally!" After a thorough (complete sarcasm) check of Sally we were off to use and abuse her up the coast of Tasmania. We took off some two and a half hours to Coles Bay on the northeastern peninsula where we set up camp on Richmonds Beach, a beautiful long sandy beach with great shells and chunky light sand. We were greated by an adolescent Wallaby who of course we named "Gary Jr." who chilled with us for a couple hours as we ate dinner, letting us feed him ucolyptis leaves and pet him! A Wallaby is just like a kangaroo if you don't know. We just chilled that day once we got to the beach and played volleyball, dug a sand castle and caught an amazing sunset as the sun set over the west coast which was the mainaland Tassie as we were looking from the Peninsula. I know it sounds like we have drank a lot but we have taken nights off and thank God this was going to be one of those nights which would follow the rest of our Tassie trip, we are calling it detox, haha just kidding!

We awoke the next morning by the ranger saying we couldn't camp on the beach so we packed up and took off before having to pay and drove towards Wine Glass Bay to hike down to it. We hiked to the beach, some hour walk over boulders and moderate terrain, making friends with a Walloby and catching an amazing view over the bay as you could see the fog roll over. By the time we reached the beach the fog broke off and made for a little windy but otherwise beautifully sunny beach day on one of the top ten beaches in the entire world! The sand was super big as it really consisted of tiny pebbles that felt so amazing on your feet as they felt like stepping on a cushion. We hiked alongside the ocean over some rocks that were discouldered orange in spots because of the algey and saw a dead massive seal that reaked of rotteness. It was sad but I think I got a pretty killer photo alongside the big guy as he probably when alive outweighed me by a couple hundred pounds. We mostly just sat in the sun and enjoyed the day and then took back up the trail which proved to be a bit harder as obviously is was more uphill! We got back in the car and headed back to a beach called friendly beach where there was free camping. We stumbled across a spot passed the seemingly endless beach by accident that was completely secluded so we set up camp there. There was a beautiful break off the rocks so Jay and I climbed out to the end of them and watched the break for quite awhile soaking it all in; on a desolate beach on the peninsula off Tasmania completely isolated away from all living organisms while we chatted about how we wish we had boards and could wedge between the rocks of this sureal surf break. We camped alongside the cliffs edge of the beach and fell asleep early on the soft sand as the sun set behind us over the mainland.

We woke to rain the next morning early around 7am or so and as soon as we caught a break in the rain we packed up and headed south in hopes of better weather to the southern peninsula. The weather turned around slowly as we headed south and proved to be a great day for all the cool scenery we saw. We first went to Tasmanian Peninsula which was a massive cave that you could look through to the ocean that had origionally formed by the land atop the cliff collasping. We then did a quick hike to Devils Peak which looked over a towering cliffside down into the water some thousand feet up. It sucks that the pictures will never do this spot justice but I have the mental imagery so I guess that's all one can ask, you just gotta get out and see it for yourselves! We got these amazing fish and chips at this little trailer next to our next spot we visited, which was a blow hole that spewed water pretty high up. The swells weren't really kicking at the time so it wasn't that impressive but it was still cool to check out. Next we went to a cave that you had to hike down to that was pretty cool. The cliffs in the distance were absolutlely massive and some of them looked like giant totem poles that shot out of the water. We wanted to check out Port Arthur, which was the first Australian prision spread across multiple acres and a beautifully maintaned garden with other bulidings in rubble, but we opted not to because it cost $25! So instead we went to a pub close by and had some beers while we sat and talked story in the sun. We soon realised that we could just walk around the fence from the pub and we were at Port Arthur so guess what we did? Blending in with all the old people we walked around for about an hour checking out two of the most visited landmarks in Tasmania, the church and the prision, both which were incredible to see. We got some sweet jump shots as usuall and decided to call it a day and head back to Hobart (downtown). We didn't want to impose on Jimmy's family because we had told them we would be back a day later so we decided to crash in a hostel which was pretty nice. Got some beers but soon realised that's the last thing we wanted to do so we made up random games to motivate us, like through bottle caps at the ceiling and than trying to rikashade them onto empty beer bottles, before passing out early again and catching up on lost sleep from the previous month!

The next day we took a brewery tour of the first beer to be produced and sold in Australia, Cascade Brewery. It was an old brewery set amongst the forefront of Mt. Wellington, intwined in Spanish chestnut trees and a beautiful garden. The tour was lovely as our guide was a big sweat heart and took warmly to a bunch of Yanks asking stupid questions about how beer is made and how we can make it stronger! Four ingrediants to make beer; barely, hops, water and yeast! We took off back to Jimmy's that night and had a light barby while I had noodles because I've been feeling a bit sick with a head cold, and went to bed early .

We boarded a flight early this morning at like 6:20am and go into Sydney about 8:00am. We got picked up by Di's daughter Zoe (Di was one of our mums from China we traveled with) and settled into another house which is Mandy's house, (the other mum). Today it is the 23rd but techinically back home it's the 22 which is Thanksgiving so we went and got a feast! We also met up with Sarah, who is Pele's friend we traveled with in Europe, and are all grinding tons of food tonight which we are about to start preparing. I am really hungry so I best be off, Happy Thanksgiving to all you Yanks! Missiing everyone heaps and if there's one thing I'm thankful for it's the incredible upbringing from my family that has allowed me to have the ability to travel the world which fuels my passion to keep breathing!

Cheers and good on ya!

Grant