Where we stayed in a very pleasant B&B.
In the courtyard behind it was this garden and the Convict Cottage.
It was not named for its residents but for the laborers who built it in the early days of the settlement.
We traveled over the mountains through Hamilton and Derwent Bridge.
Some sights from our travels.
Along the way we saw these unusual Highland cattle originally from Scotland.
Most of the electric power for the island comes from hydroelectric stations.
The rugged terrain means that much of the water passes through as many as eight stations on it's way to the coast.
Some of the woods and streams in Cradle Mountain National Park.
It seemed like wildlife was everywhere.
One of the local possums came to visit our cabin looking for a handout.
We didn't oblige.
And occasionally we saw not so wild life on the road.
These had no trouble walking around the cattle guard bars that were across the road.
Highway warnings that you won't see very many places in the world.
One evening we went out with a naturalist who had a spotlight so we could see even more of the animals.
We saw about 40 wombats, this mother kangaroo with a joey in her pouch and lots more.
A wombat burrow is huge.
It would be easy to crawl into one.
You may not know that a wombat's poo has flat sides and is sometimes cubic.
Our travels took us to the north shore where we happened on this open water canoe race.
Near the town of Wynyard on the northwest coast is Fossil Bluff.
We were wandering around and found our way to King Solomon's Cave.
Named for the glittering crystals in one of the rooms.
Other rooms had some of the longest soda straw formations we have seen.
Elsewhere were stalactites and stalagmites and basins formed by water running along the floor of the cave.
The trail to the cave had this impressively large tree.
Sheep farms near the northern coast.
Along the coast we found this lighthouse and on the rocks we saw cormorants and our first penguins in the wild.
Nearby was a little nautical museum.
And while we were there we were rewarded with a beautiful double rainbow.
As we were taxing out for takeoff from Tasmania the pilot came on the intercom.
"We have a little problem with our computer."
"It didn't get switched over properly from ground power so we will have to go back to the terminal."
We didn't think much of it until we had to get off and then saw that two fire engines had escorted us back.
Apparently the computers can be left in an uncertain condition if they aren't readied for the power switchover.
I didn't mind since I would rather not fly if any system on the plane is in anything other than a fully understood state.
