Roadtrip Tasmania - The Great Southern Adventure Paradise

You've arrived at the edge. Can you feel the natural vibrations and the howling wind calling you into the unknown? A new land to be discovered. Adventure around every bend. Take a ride with us. Welcome to Tasmania. I would describe Tasmania as being this sort of land that feels a bit undiscovered. Kind of feels like a small country town where like 20 minutes or 10 minutes, five minutes out of every place you can go somewhere and do something really fun. One of the few last untouched places in the world. It is not that big but wherever you go you feel alone and I love that because it's not super touristy like a lot of other places in Australia. The landscape I find is phenomenal. Beaches, mountains, rivers, it's all there sort of on your doorstep. There's hikes everywhere, there's waterfalls and there's all this stuff you can do and all you have to do is jump in a car with someone and just go driving. Yeah road tripping in Tassie it's really cool. It's a really small place so I mean it's not so small that you see it all in one day but it's not so big that you can't get from one side to the other in one day. I think that the nature and the colours and what you see here is just incredible. Tasmania seems to go on a different speed especially also because there's an island life sort of mentality, everything gets shrunken down. Everyone's very friendly, very open-minded, it's very easy to meet people and you definitely make lifelong friends doing it. It's all like different countries. I think it's something special and it has to be also discovered by yourself. Yeah you've got a lot to see when you're traveling through Tassie that's for sure. If you kind of want to get off the tourist track and see something that's a little bit different than the rest of Australia it's definitely the place to go. It's just ridiculously beautiful. Unbelievable, you have to come here. Tasmania, it's great. I'm Nicola, I'm 24 and I'm from the Central Coast which is like an hour away from Sydney. This is my first time backpacking anywhere. So I'm Mayan, I'm from the Basque Country, 25 years old and I just came with my brother. Yeah my name is Esrao Genola and I come from the Basque Country, I'm 27 years old. And from this moment on it's life in a backpack. So I was really really nervous when I first got there but thank goodness I actually met these two amazing boys. So when I went to the Bay of Fires I was actually really surprised that not more people were around. The rocks were like these vibrant orange colors. We had such a beautiful lunch there and then we had a beautiful bath. The culture difference between those boys and Australian boys is so different. They're so romantic and they're trying to woo you all the time. So at first I was a little bit taken back. I just thought they were trying to hit on me the whole time which they probably were. But I'm sure it was just their cultural aspects and you know them treating women like absolute goddesses. They'd be so polite, you know they would compliment you all the time which honestly that's every girl's dream so I was in heaven. The best experience I have ever had with some friends there and it's just incredible yeah. To the waterfall where life flows pure. Here we connect. Here we are born again. I'm Nathan Zou, I'm 23 and I'm from Maroubra, Australia, Sydney. My name is Holger. I'm 28 years old right now yeah, I reckon that'll be and I'm from Germany. The rainforest is a nippy start and then the sun popped out in the rainforest and all the ferns kind of lit up. On our way to Liffey Falls on a walk up there there was like bridges crossing the river under it actually or an end around it there were these like stone pillars. Look at this one, it's shaped like a good stake. We decided to add our own pillar to that yeah. We also went to Liffey Falls that was very much picturesque like a curtain of water falling off two cliffs and we had a good morning shower there that was good. Water was extremely cold but after some days of not having a shower you don't really care. The sun need not shine. Because beauty is found everywhere in Tasmania. I'm Kelly, I'm 26 years old and I'm from the US. My name is Marissa, I'm 24 years old and I'm from Toronto, Canada. My name is Danielle, I'm from Canada and I'm 24. We drove out to see some waterfalls, they were really beautiful. It was really nice, it was out in the middle of nowhere, there's no one else there so it was really nice just to have the whole hike and park to ourselves. You don't see a lot of people in this area like you do on the northeast coast of Australia. Spectacular views, the scenery was amazing, I've never seen anything like that in Australia so far. There's no such thing as bad weather, just different types. My name is Sam or Samantha, I'm 19 and I'm from Melbourne. My name is Emma, I'm 23 and I come from Melbourne, Australia. I decided to travel Australia because I thought it was a good idea, see my own country or my own backyard pretty much. My travel partner is my younger sister Samantha. My older sister just sent me a text message and said do you want to go around Australia with me in a month and I was like yeah okay. We are very close even though we're sisters, we do butt heads sometimes. A lot of people are shocked that I can travel with my sister but it just makes it so much easier, I couldn't imagine doing it with anybody else. My experience with road tripping and buying a van, setting it up has been very educating. For such a little space you find so much stuff and you're like I don't need that but we'll get it anyway but we're in a van and we don't have room. Hey, I'm Billy from Canada and I'm here in Cradle Mountain because it's time to go canyoning. And just like that I was ready to throw my body down a canyon. All right, all set to go. We just drove up to Cradle Mountain, drove over to this drop point, short push walk in, I got suited up. Two things are unique here, one is we're in the World Heritage Area the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. What we've got is a really unique part of that World Heritage Area that not many people see. So you stand on top of Cradle Mountain and look out across the scenery, you see a little divot in the landscape, you wouldn't realise that there's a huge canyon in there and lots of waterfalls and exciting things like that. So it's great to be able to show people. The other thing I just love doing is just giving people an adventure because that's really our reason for being is just to have adventures. So just giving people a chance to get out in the wilderness and do something exciting. Before I knew it I was abseiling into a gorge and then jumping in cold running water. Down the river was really cool too like and there were just some massive jumps like an eight metre jump that we did which was very hectic and also there was a water slide. So the guides who took us were really cool. They were just down to earth people like you and me, you know, just loved the outdoors. They were real Tarwegians. Lunch was great too. We had lunch in the canyon, made up some wraps, had some hot chocolate. Cruising the highlands in the van, Holger, Nathan and Billy stopped into Cradle Mountain to meet up with passionate local guide Aaron and his friend Craig from Minnesota. TAS Safaris is unique because we're getting out there doing lots of different walks, getting out there doing some of the really well-known stuff but we're also really keen about showing people off the beaten track and a lot of stuff that people would otherwise just sort of cruise on by and never know it's there. Lived in England for a couple of years and when I came back I realised that we had just such a fantastic little island here and it's often not till you leave that you realise what you've got at home and the real genuine experiences are getting out there camping. You see stuff that you wouldn't normally see, you see a lot more wildlife, you meet a lot of the great characters that both live and work in these areas, especially the west coast, that's really where my passion for it is. Aaron, our guide, he took us on this hike through the highlands somewhere near Cradle Mountain. Up there it was very, very beautiful. It was very, very untouched kind of stuff. There was just this beautiful moss covering kind of every facet of everything and we're just jumping through the mud, jumping the rivers, saw a big king billy tree. Three in particular, this one, the king billy, pencil pine and huon pine grow really slowly and these and the pencil pine were probably dinosaur fodder. Back around the fire, the boys chewed the fat with Aaron. He's a super knowledgeable dude who is more than happy to share some of his favourite camp spots and talk Tassie history with the boys. Well we've decided to have some new camps just to add a new dimension to it. There's a lot of people who really want to get out but we're trying to add just that little bit more comfort to it so here we've got a great little camp kitchen set up. Aaron is a mean cook and sure knows how to look after his guests. Norse and fade after a sick track backcountry style. It looks like snow. It's so white, the sun. The river looks like this. So we ended up in the Yedistone point, yes, in the top north of the island and we just got the sunset from there. It was really amazing. So when the Bass boys and myself were chilling out watching the sunset, there was these two girls wandering over. One had like amazing dreadlocks and the other one looks beautiful and so of course the boys were like oh let's say g'day and I wanted to introduce myself too. They were actually the coolest chicks I've ever met in my whole entire life. Two Aussie girls that are, get this, travelling around Australia in their van. Two most inspiring girls I've ever met in my entire life. Hearts and minds collide and harmonise. Feet dancing to the same beat. Like different notes coming together to create a beautiful song. I just can't describe it with words, the colours we saw there. It was such a beautiful beach, the sunset was coming down and down to the sea and the colours of the rocks were like orange or like red. I have never seen something like that. It was like being part of a movie. Always appreciate it, always appreciate it. Holger, Nathan and Billy headed to a small farm outside of Sheffield to meet passionate traveller and all-round solid guy, Shasa. My name's Shasa, I'm 26. Grew up in New Zealand but now I'm living in Sheffield, Tasmania. Finished uni in New Zealand then I went travelling for about two years and there was an empty house here in Sheffield so I turned up to the empty house. My plan was to take job interviews on the mainland, maybe go work in a mine somewhere with my engineering degree but I really like Sheffield. It's just a really beautiful, pretty quiet place and there's opportunity to do interesting creative things so I thought now I'll live life the way I want to from the beginning and work on my own projects and start my own business here in Sheffield. I need a little amplifier, not sure what's happened to that. I flew between the buildings with the pigeons today I sat on sunny windowsills and cooled the skies of grey So everybody, people... At the moment I'm setting up a gallery in Sheffield town full of mechanical sculptures of a whole variety of things, some made by me, some by other people. Some of them will be traditional style Victorian clockwork automatons, some will be more modern animatronics, others will be more mechanical sculptures and just about a beautiful motion. I took in through the air but I stayed clear below the heaven I settled on the clock tower and listened to it chime But something to a pigeon... You drink his knowledge, you find out he's a mechanical engineer then you find out he's got a great singing voice Shredding all these instruments makes you want to do more things Again I was trying to look for travel with a purpose I like the idea of doing an epic journey In India I decided I'd do a journey on a hand-powered wheelchair So I visited a man there and my plan was to make tricycles with him and then travel around India 2,000 kilometres on one of these tricycles and find people that needed them all throughout the country It's a really satisfying way to travel because there's a purpose to it and you just go places that you never otherwise would have been and meet people you never otherwise would have met Shasta took the boys on a hike up to Kimberley Lookout where they met another traveller from Taiwan who was also doing the hike Shasta took us on a, well, quite challenging hike Beautiful there, simply beautiful I think the best way to travel is not staying at hotels or at the obvious places where you would expect tourists to go but actually to stay with locals If you have a local with you, if you're staying with a local you can do these things like a hike Shasta knew this awesome hike that we went to right after we arrived there I figure staying with locals is the best way to travel for me Over there, that should be called Mount William and here, your land extends to the east upon sunsets and sunrise After the hike, the boys headed back to Shasta's house where they were going to crash for the night Yeah, we were at this Kiwi guy, Shasta's house just outside of Sheffield and that was really good He's a really cool guy, he's very musically talented very open to having people at his place and very open to experiences Since we stay at Shasta's house, we at least provide dinner for him We went for some green curry, obviously with some veggies and chicken The house itself is kind of an oddity He told us it's an old school and we stayed in kind of a cabin next to it and we were just chatting Shasta pulled out some instruments, he could play the accordion He could play everything, it seems Thanks for the grub Thanks for having us After that, we had a little bit of a jam session Six guys in a cabin, drinking beers Things started to get a little weird Life is just one big road trip Enjoy the ride We stopped at the Remarkable Caves We just saw signs on the side of the road and decided why not go on a new adventure We came on this beautiful rocky headland with cool little rock formations and the waves were pretty powerful crashing up against the rocks which was really cool So we headed down there to see these caves that had been formed by the ocean basically breaking through the rock Just standing there and feeling so little inside the cave, it was a really cool experience When we were there, we had also asked some locals about the surf We were able to find their little bush track and follow it all the way down to the water which was pretty cool just because not everyone that goes to Remarkable Caves is able to find that track Marissa and Kelly took a drive down to the Tasman National Park on the hope of reaching Cape Rowell before sundown The first spot that we stopped at was a lookout point which was absolutely breathtaking Just standing on the edge of the cliff, you just got this huge adrenaline rush because it was nothing but like a huge drop off and then blue wide open seas Kind of contemplating whether or not we should go all the way out but then we figured eh, we're only going to probably be here once so might as well make the trek and go all the way The vegetation changed, just pure rock and then you know more like a desert in some places so it's pretty cool to see the changes throughout the landscape When we finally got to the end, it was just, it was so cool, it just took my breath away The rock formations were like nothing I've ever seen before and it was so quiet, there wasn't a lot of other people there, it was almost like it was just us on Cape Rowell, taking in the scenery, it was beautiful An open road opens hearts and opens minds Nobody ever imagines that a bit of asphalt could change their life The group gets to know one another, you find out what their strengths and weaknesses are what their interests are and you can tailor the walks to meet that so if you after something wanting to go kayaking we can include a bit of that We all took our rods and we went in the hope of catching a big one, some trout and we just explored some of the beautiful little inlets here and there and I just remember that because of the tea tree oil the water was just black and it was just like a just a perfect mirror of the environment around No luck fishing for the scallywags, back at camp Aaron was about to blow minds again with a secret We had a really sick meal of, what was it that night, it was curry chicken and homemade naans by Aaron, that was really sick, he's a great cook that bloke, I'd take him everywhere if I could and a special recipe of the naans passed down from one guy to another, that, a bit of blue cheese to get us in the mood, it should be a good feat. Well at the moment I'm a naan flipper but in general my role is to provide endless entertainment Legendary cheese here mates, big on this cheese, grab some of your lovely curry and coconut sauce here Good bird, good barbie During dinner some friendly locals joined the guys by the fire, made them feel right at home They were even joined by the captain of the Plyman River Ferry Tiny little man, this is incredible So we were hitchhiking and we wanted to get to Mariah Island and that's where we met Adventure Dan, he was in his car and he picked us up and he was going to Mariah Island as well so we got really lucky and we hopped in and that's how we met Adventure Dan. Where are you girls going? My name is Daniel Booth and I'm from South Africa and I'm 30 years old. Adventure begins Lucky Adventure Dan, right in his element. Australia, Tasmania, Mariah, going from an island to an island to an island, can't be nothing but dead set adventure right? Well we're approaching the island and as you can see we're carrying all of the bags Good man management you see, getting them all coordinated, they've got two on each side two girls at the back for motivation, motivating the crew, so they're very happy We love working for Dan the man, he doesn't pay us enough though I would describe Mariah as a little wildlife sanctuary, it just seems like as soon as we got here we were seeing all sorts of animals that you wouldn't normally see in Australia in the wild We are trying to trace down the sunset, at the moment we've been distracted by wombats I think we just need to regather, collect our thoughts, yeah, cheers, sponsored by Cascade Prior to actually coming on the island we talked to the captain and he said pretty much anywhere is a perfect place to see the sunset What was the concept? I just wanted to kind of have a Tassie vibe you know because it's such a beautiful state, this is the west coast, Cradle Mountain there, and then as you come around the front we've got an aurora happening, a bit more mountain scenery, and then here's the east coast the sunny east coast of Tassie, the Bay of Fires with the signature lichen rocks, sunset happening as we come around to the back, the panorama coming right the way around, oh yeah It's alright, that was good, that was fun Let's go boys! Aaron took us to first this shipwreck which at some point was sunk there in a sidearm of the river. This is the furthest inland shipwreck in Australia the SS Croydon is clearly visible and still contains a valuable cargo of hue and pint Aaron and the boys moored their vessels and then headed on a short bushwalk up to a beautiful waterfall. Lovers Falls, Cape Falls. Well after paddling say five k's up amazing Tassie river we went to Lovers Falls, well I climbed down and went for a dip early in the morning had a bit of a bit of a clean bit of a shower and that was uh pretty good So the next day we decided to go to Bishop and Clark Mountain we eventually got to the place where we could actually see the mountain I had no idea that's what we would be climbing and I'm kind of glad I didn't know in advance because it was massive but it was a wonderful hike it was a bit um a bit intense we walked through a lot of quite dense um forest and then then we started to walk up some rugged like stone paths as we got to the top we had to clamber up these boulders to get right to the top I guess we were a bit blinded by the clouds at the top but it was still really amazing to be up that high when we were up on the mountain when we finally reached the top I got a bit nervous because I'm not too good with heights but it was amazing because all around us was just white from the clouds so you could look off the side and virtually see nothing so it was like being up in the heavens or something my style of travel is pretty spontaneous um very random I don't really know what I'm doing the next day let alone the next week and I sort of make my plans um just based on what I want to do or um based on certain opportunities that arise as I'm traveling I would say my style of travel is independent I don't really do that many tours um I book pretty much everything on my own easygoing non-organized unplanned from the beginning it was it was a lot more comfort oriented and now it's just function oriented just go with the flow I mean if if you're on a rigid schedule you might feel like you're missing out on something um so I just like to be able to do whatever I want whenever I want Nate and I were cruising the streets of Sheffield until along came a piano that said play me well stroke my tambourine we found the emporium the emporium in Sheffield is filled with all sorts of oddities like records instruments books antiques never gonna grow up ever definitely worth a browse when you're in town this feels like a mini museum I spotted a trombone and had to give that one a shot I thought if I impressed the owner with my bone skills he'd give me a discount on the sweet darbuka I sussed out I think my trombone skills inspired the owner as he took his bugle to the front door for a roll call so today was a bit of a spontaneous day we left Hobart to go look for some jobs for fruit picking we first went to a little apple museum it's a beautiful map that's where we are look at her she's so happy that could be us we got to try some of their cider which is really good first one is the bone dryer most alcoholic least sweet basically it's just apples converting to alcohol using the french method of making cider they're all really good don't stress enjoy girls so we're in town and we're just wondering if there's any fruit jobs around I'm not actually aware of any any concrete jobs it's very busy time of year but I can give you a booklet with some addresses of some local farm fruit picking is seasonal so it pays to do a bit of research beforehand and find out when's the best time of year to pick fruit and which fruits are the best little tip if you can get into cherries get into cherries unfortunately got rejected from a few of them but then we found a peach farm guys look they just picked one that looks gross oh yeah this one looks big you've never eaten a peach no what are you doing here we should probably get at least like 20 for all of these things maybe 30 ten dollars a basket so everyone pick your best plum and that will be our selling point like have you seen this I think we did a good job today peach power so we're all done for the day all right yeah we picked quite a bit yeah you've been here about five minutes so well we picked a lot of peaches so girls done this before yeah yeah yeah a lot actually how about we just leave it at that and you guys can just keep fruit head on I guess that's all right okay yeah thanks the best travel advice I can give to somebody is to just do it because so many times people will just talk about where they want to go what they want to do and they never really get around to doing it save a bit of money as soon as I got here I ran short of money really quickly I would say if you have even just six weeks just get there and go with the flow and you'll figure out exactly what you want to do once you get there bring a really good can opener like the amount of times we've bought cheap ones going to have dinner can't open the can just go somewhere talk to somebody find out what's the best thing to do there and then do it they just to get involved with the environment with the people and with the culture there don't rush just like if you see a road that looks cool just go down it don't think about the consequences and don't overthink things just do it enjoy yourself and live many different colored leaves fall from the same tree the one thing I discovered about traveling is you've got this such short time to spend with these people that you just make the most amazing friendships and the most amazing connections and you have no time for anything else so you become so close to these people that you never would have got the chance to in everyday life there's no way that I would have thought that I would have met two sisters and felt like I was one of their sisters in such a short time it was pretty pretty cool we travel great distances to realize there is little distance between us even though this experience is lived in the present moment it will last forever for those who are brave enough to hold hands those who choose to explore and discover step through the door of opportunity the way I would describe Moriah Island to a friend is this beautiful almost hidden island that I don't believe many people visit no cars on the island no electricity just pure wildlife a couple of little camping areas very beautiful place very peaceful yesterday afternoon group of us went to the colored cliffs and we walked along the rocky part and then the cliffs were sort of just onto our left and there were just these stunning cliffs as if they were just painted and that was really impressive I'd never seen anything like it I travel because I love meeting new people having new experiences exciting adventures and seeing marvelous views like this fantastic sunsets I travel to just explore new things I mean when you're back home you're always in the same routine and when you're traveling you don't even have a routine every day is going to be different and I just enjoy the spontaneity of it I guess it's part of life you need to learn a bit about the world obviously that you live in but more about yourself and when you travel you take you take yourself away from the daily grind and you start to reprioritize things in your life and certainly learn quite a lot about the world and I think about yourself especially if you travel you know so many different cultures different people different countries that's for yourself it's such a good experience that it makes you a better person I think it's important to go traveling before you get too stuck in certain ways in life or set out on one sort of path which might be wrong see how a whole lot of different people live what's important to them in their lives and how they structure their lives what what's the bare necessities you can live on or how much can you fill your life up without becoming over full and then sort of decide you can take the best from each sort of life that you observe and figure out how you want to live yourself it's a feeling of freedom that I enjoy in why I travel Australia Day felt like Canada Day just in Australia hey I'm Action Bill and I'm here to show you a little piece of cultural relevance out of the blue we were invited to an Australia Day party in northeastern Tasmania in Golconda wow look at this place paradise in the middle of nowhere have you ever seen a tassie tiger is it no but I wish I did because I would catch it with my hands how many tassies does it take to screw in a light bulb 27 but they're all cousins how many tassies does it take to screw in the light bulb is this a trick question there are no trick questions is this a joke what is life but not a joke how many tassies does it take to screw in a light bulb there was a big open space where we all could set up camp a pool lake bridge crossing the lake more houses dance floor all kinds of stuff do you know any tassie slang you know if it's really funny then yeah we want to hear it the Tasmanians use is cooked up usually when people are pretty drunk and passed out it's like ah he's cooked up have you gotten a kidnapped farm yes yes for sure everybody's got a kidnapped farm in Tasmania the house sounds like it's shaking down like it's getting raunchy deep down in the sauce but I haven't gone in yet so let's we're gonna have to check it out the locals at the Australia Day party were friendly and very charismatic knowledge is gained through education but wisdom can only be achieved through experience trust me it is probably the most scariest thing I have ever done in my whole entire life but that scariness lasts for about two seconds and the joy and the experiences that you get out of it is phenomenal came out of a year wanting to do some more stuff I wanted to push myself in ways that I hadn't thought of doing and I think backpacking by myself with no plan was that my fears were I would be lonely I think that was a strong fear and that I would kind of dawdle around and nothing would happen but that has been the complete opposite of my experience which has kind of just been beyond my imagination of what I thought I would actually be doing in Tassie. I think more young Aussies should travel Australia because it's so big and there's so many interesting people the things that we've seen and every day is a different day and really nice to just be changing it up all the time. This is our country and why let it go to wastes why let foreign eyes only enjoy it when we have so much to see I started this trip when I was 18 I only had a very small amount of money and everyone that's come to me and said oh I wish I was doing what you're doing I just say you can because like we didn't start off with much and we've still got so far. If you just are happy to walk up to someone and chat and have a beer with someone yeah there are those times where you're like you know I don't know what I'm doing crap I don't know where I'm going all the buses have gone and I don't know anyone but you know you can you can overcome that somehow I've ended up here and I don't know how and it's just it's been really awesome. If you're an Australian I think it's good to come to Tasmania just to get a fairly different view of Australia. It's just been one of my favourite places so far like the whole thing I would just tell anybody to go there. Actually having the courage to do it and then once you kind of walk over that line and you've done it it's so good I came back such a different person and I'm ready to take on so much more in my life. You could stay in the same little town or just travel around your own state but it's just nothing compared to what's out there. We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us. Okay less pointing more just head shaking nodding yeah like talking to each other tell a joke. I'm walking along oh my god These fuckers are known we don't even know so I'm gonna go find out and stick this stick near it. Let's find out what happens. All right and action. I don't even know. That's right we're Billy's balls and we've been in your documentary this whole time. I'm Billy's dick. The people you find on the road eh? That's right and how do you say it? I just feel pure life. We're just so pure life right now. I just feel pure life. In terms of time when you're showing this do I include the party or do I not include the party? No because I haven't done the party so I can't. Yeah man we got laid and all this stuff happened it's awesome. Adventure is the spice of life and spontaneity is its gravy. Put up a love, put up a pain, put up a fight but don't complain and always try to remember. Don't complain and always try to remember. But don't complain and always remember. Always remember. We did it!