Tasmania —You Romantic Devil a look at the romance of Tasmania, shared by globetrotter, Leigh Meredith Moorhouse Tasmania, by the far-off Tasman Sea. Even the Aussies don’t go there. But my adventurous partner, with whom I travel often on business, decided this was the place for a unique romantic getaway. He’s brilliant, adorable, funny, and very sweet, so for me a “romantic getaway” is where ever he is. We had been traveling several weeks through Malaysia, China and Australia, managing the business side of life, negotiating contracts, networking, schmoozing. We had a mere six days to ourselves without any agenda, without any necessary distractions tugging at our sleeves. “But Tasmania?” I thought, “Are you kidding me?!” We boarded a small plane for the flight from Melbourne to Launceston (Tassie’s most northern city). We landed at the small and unassuming airport in a drizzly, chilly fog. A voice from the rental car counter said, “No worries, Mate, it’s quite easy to find the highway. Just turn left. And to the left we drove. Our destination? Cradle Mountain. Cradle Mountain is part of Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area. The Cradle
Mountain area is a popular tourist destination as well as the starting point of the bushwalk called the Overland Track. This track takes approximately six days to complete. This is a must-do for hikers and is an experience full of some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere in the world. But for our little “getaway”, we would be content with spending some quality time at a lodge, relaxing and enjoying a little down time. As far as I could see at this point in the trip, this is a tiny and quite backward place. No much going on. Only a few cars beyond the town of Launceston’s airport. Interesting looking characters walking along the side of the road for no apparent reason. I started thinking about all that I’d read in the tourism brochures. “Best vacay for foodies & wine lovers.” So far I wasn’t impressed, there wasn’t one single gourmet restaurant or winery anywhere in sight, just simple country roads dotted with small houses here and there. After a couple of hour’s drive in a southerly direction, as the roads began their twists and turns, the landscape changed as quickly as that of a handmade quilt sporting multiple -74-
