Tasmania – Launceston and the East Coast

I have wanted to visit Tasmania for 20 years and we finally made it! Some friends met us on the ferry and we travelled with them for the first week.

We took an overnight ferry from Melbourne into Devonport. After we arrived, we drove straight to Launceston and checked into our caravan park where we spent 3 nights. There was lots of poo all around the park, but luckily for us, they had these helpful signs around:

Launceston Area

We spent our first day wandering around downtown. Launceston has a lot of really nice buildings and the city is laid out nicely with a big river and some smaller rivers feeding into it.

There was also a really great playground that we spent another afternoon at right where there’s a large bend in the river (the playground is called the ‘Riverbend’).

Tamar Valley

The area north of Launceston on either side of the river is an agricultural and wine region known as the Tamar Valley (pronounced Tame-er). We spent our first full day exploring this area and visiting a couple of wineries.

Our first stop was a town called Grindlewald. I’ve been to Grindlewald in Swizterland many times so I was curious to see this supposed reproduction of the town. I was disappointed… The ‘town’ was actually a hotel with a couple of expensive shops and although the architecture of the chalets did look Swiss, that was about the only thing that did! (They didn’t even have flower boxes on the chalets!). But, they did have a nice lake that the kids paddled around.

We visited a lavender farm as well. The lavender wasn’t in bloom yet, but the photo on the wall gave a good indication of what it would look like if it was:

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos of the wineries (I was too busy enjoying the wines! 😋).

Cataract Gorge

Launceston has another river that runs through a gorge just next to town. We took a lovely loop walk all around the tops of the gorge, then down and across to the other side, then along the water, the suspension bridge and back. There were lots of peacocks with their tail feathers out.

East Coast

After our visit to the Launceston area, we drove over to Swansea on the east coast and stayed there for a couple of nights so we could explore Freycinet national park.

But on our first day, we drove from Swansea to the north-east along the coast and visited Denison beach and the town of Bicheno.

Here are some photos of Denison beach:

Bicheno and surrounds:

Freycinet National Park

We spent a day exploring Freycinet National Park – the lighthouse and the hike up to see the view over Wineglass Bay. It was really beautiful!

Coles Bay

Our first stop was Coles Bay where we had lunch overlooking the bay. Then on our way back from the park, we stopped again in Coles Bay so that K and R could eat some fresh oysters.

Cape Tourville

We visited the lighthouse at Cape Tourville and took the circular walk around the lighthouse with the view over the bays.

Wineglass Bay

We took a beautiful walk up the mountain to view Wineglass Bay on the other side. The walk had so many nice views and huge boulders that the kids enjoyed climbing.

From Swansea, we drove down to Hobart to visit that area.