Fri March 27 – The Tasman Peninsula

The weather gods have pretty much abandoned us. We awoke this morning to torrential rain but eventually stopped feeling sorry for ourselves and got in the car to see if it might stop before we got to the trailhead for the Cape Hauy Trail, which promised great views of the stunning dolerite and pillared lava cliffs that this peninsula is so famous for.

The power of positive thinking! Just as we got to the trailhead, the rain indeed stopped and we were able to get in a pretty good hike this afternoon. I continued to tussle with one or more of those gods the whole way along though. Every time I got really heated up and stopped to remove some layers of clothing, within 5 minutes the rain and cold winds began. As soon as I put the layers back on, the sun would come out and I’d be all heated up again. That went on for about 4 hours! However we persevered and were rewarded with some amazing (and very windy) views at the top of Cape Hauy.

The Tasman government is in the process of building The Three Capes Track which will end up being a multi-day hiking trail all along the Tasman Coast (it seems many countries are doing this – not sure which generation of backpackers they’re targeting but doubt it’s the baby-boomers!) The 5km Cape Hauy section we did today is fully completed and really well done. There were a lot of ups and downs and they have built stairways in many areas but they are all of local rocks (probably pillared lava pieces) not wooden structures. So they are much more natural to move on, plus they blend in seamlessly with the surrounding lands.

We also met up with a lot of wallabies today! They are small kangaroos and they are just the cutest little things. Very tame, don’t seem to have any fear of people but also don’t pursue a relationship with us! Charlotte would have loved them!

Really hoping the weather improves for tomorrow.

First view of the pillared cliffs, which suddenly popped out of nowhere!