Snow

It doesn't snow here every winter, it basically never snows in my backyard, but some years we're lucky to get a day or two where the snow manages to land on the ground up in the higher altitudes. This is Mt. Franklin, a mountain in relation to the place I live anyway. It was a volcano, now extinct, but I think it's a pretty great mountain, it has a crater and pine trees and without driving 4 hours to the proper alpine region it's the closest you'll find. On one of those rare snow days it was thankfully a weekend and my partner, his family and myself could drive out to enjoy the thin layer of white stuff.

Tasmania | Enchanted Walk

The day we arrived at Cradle Mountain National Park we had patches of rain in the morning, but we managed to squeeze in the short walk at the entrance of the park which is fittingly named. Moss and lichen covered rocks, trees which made you feel like you were walking in an enchanted forest, and a stream with waterfalls. When you're made to feel like you could be in the Lord of the Rings, you know you've experienced something good. We got through without it raining on us and spent the other hours of the day looking at the videos and installations at the park centre, the afternoon involved relaxing in the ute at our camp site (where a wallaby came to say hello), and we went to the Tasmanian Devil Sanctuary to watch the feeding as it got dark. We finished the night with dinner at Pepper's and a drive to check out what wildlife we could find - with an outcome of something like 11 wombats (!) and countless other animals.

Tasmania | Dove Lake

I was pretty bummed about the weather this day as it was something I had been looking forward to the most on our trip to Tasmania. This is where we were supposed to see Cradle Mountain, but we basically saw cloud instead (not the first time we've managed to do this!) - aside from my disappointment, it was still a view you can't complain about, in the patches where the rain stopped, everything was golden, and we sat and watched the yellows and greys, the choppy Dove Lake, spotted patches of snow and daring hikers on the mountains. We were going to take the 2 hours walk around the lake, but all I can say is, better luck next time. I'm sure one day I will be back again.