Tasmania

To be honest Tasmania would not likely have been high on my list of "must see" places if it weren't for the Museum of New and Old Art (MONA) in the state capital Hobart. Much like the breathaking Guggenheim did for Spain's northern port city, Bilbao, MONA has apparently been pivotal in transforming Hobart from a bit of a backwater into a place to be.

And of course there is the added draw of my friend Delia. "You must also go and see Cradle Mountain, the Bay of Fires, Freycinet National Park and the vineyards in the north, and that'll take at least 10 days," she advised. So, 10 days were set aside and here we are less than three weeks before the departure date and I'm still as confused and muddled as to where to go, what to see and where to stay as I was when I first started looking into this destination.

The problem is that everything is "breathtaking", "spectacular", "unique" and... heart-stoppingly expensive. I'd read about Pepper Bush Adventures in the Financial Times and was very tempted. So I made contact with the owner, Craig Williams. But A$3,600 (€2,333) for a 2-day/2-night wildlife experience? I think not. And this was the industry rate offered me because I'm a journalist. The normal retail price is A$4,800 (€3,110). Who on earth can afford to spend this kind of money for what basically amounts to two campfire dinners, a picnic lunch, a walk and waiting for nocturnal creatures to appear from the bush? I mean I could go on a six-day safari in the Okavango Delta of Botswana for less than that! Janine Williams, Craig's wife who handles the business side, remarked that "we don’t seem to be able to break into the French market." I'm not surprised! 

So, I've handed the whole caboodle over to Susie de Carteret who must run the world's only travel agency centred entirely on Tasmania, Tasmanian Odyssey. And she's based in Jersey so reachable during  normal business hours for us in Europe which is a bonus. Within minutes she'd come up with a plan. I await with baited breath tomorrow to discover the details.

As I'm not yet in Tasmania, I obviously did not take the photograph which illustrates this post. I found it labelled for reuse on Google images.