tweaver2

Travel Blog #10

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:44:05 GMT

Australia is BIG

As I approached the end of my time in Tasmania, I decided what I needed a bit more challenge and intrigue for my travels. And some cultural changes too for good measure. But I didn’t want to leave Australia yet. How does one do this? Well, the answer is quite obvious. Go to the mainland. More specifically, go spend time in proper cities on the mainland and travel between them by bus. For you Americans reading, Tasmania’s largest city, Hobart, has a population of about 200,000. Melbourne has a population of over 5,000,000. That’s a lot more zeros. It’s also quite a bit warmer in the mainland, which is difficult to deal with when you live in Tassie for a while. So that’s three culture differences: people, tall buildings, and hot weather. But to make the trip more memorable and adventurey (and by memorable and adventurey, I mean I found the cheapest way to get between all the cities I wanted to visit) I decided to ride the Greyhound between the cities. The entire trip ended up being about 2,800 miles total on 7 buses. 76 hours. 4 overnight buses. Memorable indeed.

This may or may not be obvious yet, but I’m a Type 2 Fun kind of guy. I consider myself a purveyor of Type 2 Fun experiences, though not everyone wants to buy what I’m selling. 2,800 miles on buses seemed like a sort of terrible and fun experience, and it was just that! It’s actually not as bad as you think, sitting on a bus for 17 hours. You get 30 minute meal breaks every 4 hours so you can walk and stretch and eat. And you get to watch the world pass by in the daytime. It’s much more enjoyable than long flights, in my opinion.

I figured it would be good to have a project of sorts while I traversed the Australian highways - it’s always good to keep the mind active to keep yourself from going insane. Or at least keep insanity at bay.

My project was to listen thought the catalogues of bands I really enjoy or have been meaningful to me. LPs only, not all the EPs or Singles or whatever. I had time but not THAT much time. These are the bands I listened to:

Coldplay, Dreamers’ Circus (they remain my go-to band for comfort and enjoyment in the last year or so. There are worse Danish coping mechanisms, I reckon. Danish pastries immediately comes to mind), Punch Brothers, Mumford and Sons, and Muse. I also listened to 2 audiobooks and “slept” a fair amount.

And to tell the truth, this was a pretty good approach! I felt like I had a thing to work towards so I didn’t feel quite as bored during the looonng hours. I did fall off the music pilgrimage wagon towards the end as I was completely shattered. That’s what we in the travel blogging world call foreshadowing (Do bloggers use foreshadowing? Probably not.. Should we use more literary devices to write better blogs? (This is how you know a human wrote this and not Claude or whatever by the way - I doubt an AI would use multi-parentheticals to convey the sense of getting side-tracked while you write (do I have ADHD?)))

This trip is characterized by poor sleep in uncomfortable hostels and buses, many, many kilometers walked/rucked, and a lot of wingeing about the heat. I really don’t handle heat well, so I apologize in advance. Also, friends from Alaska, strangely enough. Shoutout to Megan for all the helpful tips for exploring Aussie cities!

I misjudged the distance from the bus stop to my hostel so I got real sweaty carrying my 2 backpacks around Adelaide. Classic. The reception people looked at me like I was stupid for walking (fair enough) but when I told them I was just living in Tassie they understood that I couldn’t handle the heat so we moved past it. I spent my few days in Adelaide exploring the Fringe Festival festivities, seeing the city sights, the truly magnificent Botanic Gardens, and walking the parks that surround the CBD. I had planned on visiting my Aussie friend Joh who lives in Adelaide, but unfortunately our timing didn’t work out. I met Joh when she came to my gift shop looking for a bottle opener in Alaska and we’ve remained in touch since. She helped me plan my time in Australia and gave me lots of tips for how to enjoy Adelaide. You're a legend, Joh!

The highlight of my time in Adelaide was going to the Leaver and Son’s piano store. I visited the Hobart location a few times when I needed musical nourishment and they recommended I come to the Adelaide store where they have a larger selection of pianos and workshops. What a treat. They were so nice! I played an incredible Pleyel, which I had never played before, a lovely and familiar Steinway, a curiously colored and eager Bechstein, and a reserved but powerful Yamaha. The owner also gave me a tour of the workshops where they restore and work on pianos. I got to hear about their history, interesting stories about how he got to be involved with Pleyel, how some of the more unique pianos came to be. My favorite to play was the Pleyel, but my favorite to look at was the Australian made upright. It was made with Tasmanian Blackwood (this is what sold me) and it had a really interesting design. Sharp angles, no curves. It was made that way largely for practical purposes (practical = cheaper) but it actually looks futuristic and beautiful. I probably played the pianos for an hour and a half and towards the end, the lady that does their social media asked me if I would be okay with her posting a video of me playing to which I said, "no worries, mate." It’s on Instagram and was a really fun time. It’s so fun to meet piano people, especially people who work on and repair them.

My time in Melbourne had 3 segments. In the first segment I stayed at a hostel right in the CBD. It was actually the nicest hostel I’ve stay in yet! Clean, a nice common area to hang out, privacy curtains on the bunk beds. I spent a few days wandering the city, meandering through the street art alleys, enjoying art and history in the many galleries and museums, marveling at the surprisingly impressive cathedrals, escaping from the busyness in the beautiful Botanic gardens, taking naps in the parks. I found the city to be a bit overwhelming so it was nice to find quiet places to escape for a while.

Melbourne is a cool city! It reminded me a bit of NYC, just Australian. It’s a fun city to wander and find hidden alleys with cute shops and amazing street art. The highlight for me was meeting a traveler from Japan named Gaku. He was on his first solo trip, exploring Melbourne and Sydney. He’s at University and absolutely loves making films. It was so fun to chat about my travels in Tasmania, life in Japan, film making, music making, and Christopher Nolan. Gaku is great - he’s very kind and has a brightness that is nice to be around. We’ll be meeting again in Tokyo soon, so you’ll hear more about our adventures soon!

Melbourne

For the second segment, I stayed with my friend Logan. I also met Logan in Alaska! The Denali Diaspora is truly amazing. We played music a lot together in Denali, Logan singing and me playing the piano. Logan has a fantastic voice and we got along very well, musically. Our styles of performance and improv fit together nicely and we had some really amazing moments playing at open mic nights and festivals. It was so fun to see her again! I stayed with her and her many Dutch roommates, all of whom were kind and welcoming. She lives in the suburbs and we would walk around the town centers, going into bookstores and record shops and markets, catching up and reminiscing. In the evenings I saw a few bands play, most notably a gypsy jazz group. I love Django Reinhardt and gypsy jazz so it was a true delight to see it live. If you haven’t heard of Django Reinhardt, look him up. He could do more on the guitar with 2 fingers than most of us could dream of with 5.

Friendship is one of the most magical things in this life. It never ceases to amaze me how relationships can remain alive, despite great time and distance. We should not take this for granted. You never know when someone you meet once becomes a friend for life. Speaking of which..

For the third segment, I stayed with a new friend named Caleb that I met camping in Tasmania. We were camping next to each other at Mount Field National Park. I was looking over my Tasmania map, reflecting on all the journeys I had been on in the past 4 months. We started chatting about my travels, his bike packing trip, and next thing you know we’re talking fantasy books and becoming fast friends. And now I was staying at his apartment in Melbourne! He has a hugely impressive book collection and his reading habits put mine to shame. We talked a LOT about books. But we also connected really well as people and spent literally a whole day talking deeply and richly. We have a lot in common and it was really nice to connect so quickly with a new friend. A magical subset of friendship is being around people with whom can be yourself authentically. I don’t understand why some people connect well and some don’t; it’s one of life’s great enigmas. Either way, I’m grateful for it. Besides talking all day, we also went hiking outside Melbourne with one of his friends and had a really enjoyable time discussing the finer differences of US American culture and Australian culture. The Aussies are so efficient in their speech: "goodonya" has a plethora of meanings based on context and enunciation that is totally lost on me. Goodonya, Australia.

In addition to all this friend time, I made it to an Australian Rules Football game. The Footy, if you will. It was at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, one of the biggest stadiums in the world, and at least 90,000 people were in attendance. I promised some strangers at the gypsy jazz gig that I would support St. Kilda as I have masochistic tendencies - apparently St. Kilda is terrible. Turns out they are - they lost quite handily. It was a really fun time but also extremely confusing. I don’t understand the rules whatsoever. People would cheer at seemingly random moments, and then wouldn’t cheer when a team scored a point. But when they scored a 6 point goal everyone lost their mind. Very confusing, very entertaining. I had a great time!

Melbourne is a nice city, but what made my experience special was the time spent with my friends, new and old. Oh, also I had the single greatest cup of coffee I’ve ever had in my life. That was cool too.

Canberra

After Melbourne, I had a couple days in Canberra. It was also my first overnight bus experience, which isn’t as bad as you’d think. Canberra is a really cool town, albeit sort of strange. It’s clean, quiet, and very well organized. It’s so well designed it’s nice to look at on a map! And there is something like 4 million trees in the city. Maybe that's why it's so nice? I had a great time at the libraries, museums, art galleries, and botanic gardens - do you see a pattern to how I spend time in cities? I also ate some pretty amazing Italian pizza and found a brewery called Bentspoke with bike-themed beers! It would have fit in so well in Bozeman. My favorite was called Crankshaft - a hilarious name for a beer and also my Pokemon Go username. How about that!

There’s a really nice outdoor eatery called The Jetty that sits with the river on one side and the High Court of Australia, National Galleries, and other government buildings on the other. I reveled in the sunshine and nearly affordable food and drink while meandering in the parks around the government buildings for a luxurious and relaxing afternoon. It was a quick but very pleasant time in Canberra.

I had a 8 hour pitstop in Sydney so I decided to do round 2 at the Opera House. This time I actually went inside for a tour. And that was worth the upcoming 17 hour bus ride. The Sydney Opera House is one of those places that I thought was amazing but never knew if it was worth all the hype. Sometimes the internet or tourism marketing builds up things to be bigger than they are. That is not the case here. The Sydney Opera House is outstanding. It’s a hugely impressive engineering feat with a remarkable history. It’s as gorgeous on the inside as it is outside. If you go to Australia, this is probably the most important thing to do in the cities. It’s so cool. I didn’t get to see a show unfortunately.. guess I’ll be going back someday :)

Sydney

Brisbane

Brisbane had something Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra didn’t have: muggy weather. Also ferries for affordable public transportation. But mostly hot and humid weather. I suffer greatly.

Naturally, step one is find the nearest art galleries, museums, libraries, etc. Actually for this one, step one was finding strong coffee. I did get an amount of sleep on the bus, but not the 8 hours I needed or craved. Good thing there are cafes every 5 meters in Australia!

Brisbane actually surprised me. It has a really nice pathway that goes along the river that flows through the city that is amazing for walking and biking. It goes by a few universities, the Botanic Gardens (score!), bars and restaurants, all the good stuff you’d want to explore. And it’s quite a scenic walk with views of the beautiful buildings. The highlights for me were: 1) the shocking number of water dragons around the city. I found them cafes, walkways, picnic areas, parks, everywhere. It’s like the equivalent of squirrels back home, but lizards. Australia is amazing. 2) Irish music! I was perambulating around the city, following my feet, Megan’s recommendations, and good music. I absolutely love wandering cities with no real plan. Just ambling around, seeing what catches your eye or ear, you never know what you’ll end up finding. Sometimes nothing interesting. Sometimes, you find an Irish bar with an amazing band playing traditional tunes and covers. Then you remember that it’s Saint Patrick’s Day and you understand why everyone is absolutely losing (or has already lost) their minds in the Irish jigs. The band was really good! Accordion, guitar, banjo, violin, kick drum. High energy jigs interspersed with Ed Sheeran covers when the energy dies down, it was not their first rodeo (is there an Irish equivalent to a rodeo?). I talked to the accordion player for a while on their breaks (I’m an aspiring accordion player and love the instrument (I should have a footnote section like a Terry Pratchett novel for all these little tangents)). He was surprised to have someone ask technical music questions about his playing and the band. I guess there aren’t that many of us folk music nerds out there, how weird! When he realized I wanted to talk music, he completely opened up and we had a great time discussing the finer points of Irish folk music performance. He also has a music degree and is trying to figure out what to do with it. Education appears to be his route of choice, which seems to be my fate as well. The band is called Amaidí if you want to check them out!

In all honesty, the main purpose of my trip on the mainland was to get to Bundaberg. Not that Bundy as a town is anything spectacular. It was actually my least favorite town yet. But it is also the access point for the southern most part of the Great Barrier Reef. That is why I came to the mainland. Fulfilling a childhood dream to live in Finding Nemo, my favorite Pixar movie. Before I get ahead of myself, a quick list of things I did in Bundaberg to pass the time: walking and exploring the town, going to the Mon Repos Turtle Center to learn about turtles, wandering the Botanic Gardens, evacuating my dorm at the hostel because there were bed bugs, being very thankful that I had no bites and there were no bedbugs found in my bunk or in my stuff when they cleaned the dorm. Okay now for the good stuff:

Bundaberg

The Great Barrier Reef. I didn't get many photos so I'll do my best to use words and excitement to convey what it's like to be there. It was a 2 hour boat ride out to the reef. I thankfully took seasickness medication beforehand, because at least 6 people around me got sick. Apparently it happens all the time. Marine biologists and master divers hilariously turn into nurses that hand out and collect sick bags from passengers for two hours. It’s hilarious when you’re not the one throwing up at least. I shouldn’t be so smug.. Anyway! We got to the reef and I was absolutely gobsmacked at how blue the water is. It’s so blue. It’s more blue than Aaron Paul’s eyes! I was the only one who signed up for the Marine Biologist experience - nerd alert - and it was actually really fun. I got to snorkel around the reef with a Marine Biologist that showed me the differences between all the fish and coral, how to identify them, and how they monitor the reef. I learned quite a bit and it was really nice to have a guide point out all of the cool fish! I can’t remember all of the names, but there were parrot fish (the ones that eat bits of coral and then poops out sand), sea anemones and clown fish (cousins of Nemo, my new biologist friend informed me), sea cucumbers (they eat algae and poop out sand too (apparently this is good for regenerating the ocean floor and keeping the ocean healthy but what’s the deal with pooping sand)), fish like Gill from Finding Nemo, a beautiful octopus, and joy of joys, TURTLES. I sat for about 60 hours on buses just so I could see these buoyant, beshelled beauties. I swam with a green turtle and a hawksbill. Literally the best day of my life. Awe and wonder abound. We were snorkeling on “turtle cleaning stations,” places on reefs where turtles relax on coral as fish come and eat the barnacles and algae off their shells. We didn’t get to see that, but it’s on Blue Planet and you should check it out. I absolutely treasure turtles and was so delighted to finally see them in person. By the way, this was my first time snorkeling so everything was new and amazing to me. Who knew it was so fun to snorkel?! I don’t know why I spent all my time looking at trees when I could have been looking at turtles! I digress. The Great Barrier Reef is as good as you’ve heard, as good as you’ve seen on TV. It’s the best. The highlight of my entire trip in Australia. If you do anything in Australia, go here. Then see the big beautiful trees in Tassie. Then go to the Sydney Opera House. And enjoy some meat pies and sausage rolls on the way.

Brisbane Part 2

I had a quick stop in Brissy for a day before bussing down to Sydney. I went to EatStreet and had some tasty food and great people watching and a thoroughly enjoyable ferry ride. I love ferries.

Sydney Airport

I made it! All those miles, all those albums, all those fast food burgers at rest stops, all those sleepless nights. What an adventure. I genuinely felt physically drained after the whole ordeal. I underestimated how exhausting it would be to explore the mainland cities via bus and foot for 4 weeks. Sometimes the great idea in your head is a little less great in reality. But honestly, it was worth it. I got to swim with turtles, I had great times with friends, I saw a lot of the country, and I tunneled a bit deeper into my pain cave and expanded the perimeters of what I'm capable of. I’m constantly astounded at we can handle. It's always more than we think.

One of the things I didn’t mention in this trip was that I spent a lot of time chatting with friends back home. Lots of phone calls, FaceTimes, messaging. I don’t want to belabor this, though I don’t really think I can express this enough. I am so grateful for my friends and family. I’m so fortunate to have a strong support system behind me while I travel. You’re the best.

Up next is Japan. 2 months. Reuniting with an old friend and meeting up with two friends from Helena. Shrines, temples, ramen. Bullet trains, overnight buses, sushi. My feet and stomach cannot wait to explore that country.

Quote

"To enjoy life, the adventurous state of mind must be grasped and maintained. The essential feature of adventure is that it is a going forward into unknown territory."

- Agnes Martin

Courage,

Trevor

"Fill your life with meaning. Life is precious. Do not waste a single second."

- Rog Bennett

Adelaide

P.S. I have to acknowledge Matt Ballinger for starting me on my journey of becoming a birder. He introduced me to the birding documentary " Listers " on Youtube that you should absolutely check out. It's amazing. Matt gave me the push I needed - a reminder to download Merlin and Ebird and start tracking all the birds I see. I can't believe I didn't do this in Tasmania. Australia is a haven for cool and cooky birds and birding is the best pastime ever. I write this so you have a fuller picture of my time on the mainland. I did all the things above, while also pulling out my phone whenever I heard or saw a bird so I could identify it. It's the best. Go download Merlin and start finding the birds around you. You'll start to notice all the other amazing things you're surrounded by too. You can thank me (and Matt) later.

Travel Blog #9

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:37:33 GMT

Goodonya, Tassie

My experience in Tasmania gave the full the gamut of life’s experiences and emotions: ebullience, anger, sadness, joy, longing, loneliness, surprise, contentment, discontentment, fear, empowerment, melancholy, mirth, gratitude, love, awe, wonder. You get the gist. It felt like I lived 4 years of life in 4 months. It was so intense. On the whole, I had a lot more time than I ever have to devote to explore and think. As my friend Dave Dranchak remarked, I was basically on a long term walking mediation. And in a lot of ways, he’s right. One of the most interesting parts of the trip was that I could spend more time than I ever could, following trains of thought all the way to their natural conclusion, or until at least they jumped off the tracks. I got to spend an entire day reflecting and reminiscing on 2025. I listened to songs that reminded me of important people in my life and spent time thinking of those people, reflecting on my gratitude for them. I pondered and pontificated about the nature of change, presence, friendship, family, being alone vs loneliness, the importance of making art, what it means to have a home or stability or security or grounding, etc. I already think about these things, but in my “normal” life I rarely feel like I have the time or attention span to devote long periods of time working through them. I’m incredibly grateful for this space because I’ve been able to question, well, everything, and get a better idea of what I appreciate and value in this world. That may or may not sound like a good time to you, but I actually quite enjoy it. I also couldn’t help it. Everything was new and unbalanced so I was also just trying to make sense of my new reality. I probably didn’t come up with that many firm answers, and I certainly have more questions than when I started.

I’m sure I’ll be reflecting and discovering changes for years to come as well. There was growth, that's for sure. So much growth it’s kind of insane. I suppose that’s what travel is for though, huh? Or perhaps, it’s what travel can do for you if you’re open and willing. I truly did not expect this trip to be a soul-searching type of trip. I’ve read lots of accounts of people who say their first trip they sought to discover the world and ended up finding themselves instead. I read that and thought, in my hubris, that that wouldn’t be me, that I didn’t need it, I'm already good. Ha! Hubris indeed.

So this is a little tricky to write. Partly because after I left Tasmania, I dove right into exploring the mainland of Australia. And party because it’s bittersweet. Tasmania has been the focus of my attention for what feels like an eternity. I got the idea for traveling to Australia while I was in Alaska in 2023, and Tasmania became the focal point of that idea sometime early in 2024. In a way, my fixation exploring Tasmania is what propelled me through the slightly tumultuous and harrowing experience of having 3 surgeries after returning from Alaska. Without going too deep into that experience, especially as many of you have lived it with me and are probably tired of hearing about it, it was a challenging time. I think I needed something to focus on, something to hold on to when my tenacity and resilience threatened to crumble around me. I knew that I wanted to go to Tasmania and play in the woods. I HAD to go to Tasmania. I wanted to hike as much as possible, do multi-night backpacking trips, spend my days walking amongst the trees and mountains. (I originally wanted to get back to running / ultra running and run the mountains of Tasmania, but we can’t have it all.) So I had to do the work. Go to PT, do what my PT told me to do (I certainly tried, Colleen!), go to the gym regularly. And more importantly, keep showing up. It’s amazing how something as small as breaking your leg can call into question your notions of mortality and physicality. How it can make you really consider how you want to spend your days on this planet, or how you want to spend your limited miles with a damaged knee.

As you may know, I get a bit obsessed with things. I hyper fixate on ideas or things and can’t really let go of them until they run their course. Australia, with Tasmania at the heart, was my fixation. Something inside me, something metaphysical, was pushing me towards Australia. It’s hard to explain or rationalize, and to be honest I don’t really care to, because it kept me on track. I couldn’t let go of this deeply felt sense that I must go to Australia. And that decision wasn’t easy by the way, which you’ll know if you had to deal with me complaining in the weeks before I left Montana (thanks Tom for putting up with me). I find that whenever I do something that is hard but feels right, all sorts of things pop up before I embark on said challenge. I call it Moving Theory as it most often happens when moving. Before moving or making a big change, you might find an enticing job opportunity, make new friends, discover new things about your town that are special, meet an exceptionally cute girl that you connect with surprisingly well. That sort of thing. They all make you question the “why” of what you’re doing. Which I found tricky because my reasons were pretty simple: big trees, hiking, seeing and trying new things. In short: enjoying Life, The Universe, and Everything. Not that any of those reasons are poor in and of themselves, but my life was plenty good and didn’t necessarily require a full change. But the calling was there, and I couldn’t ignore it. Especially if the primary reason is because of fear. My mother and I talk about this often, that you want to do something but it’s really scary or intimidating, you should probably do that thing. So I did the dang thing. Like that John Muir quote you see on Subaru Outback T-shirts and National Park swag: “The mountains are calling, and I must go.”

I’m so very grateful for all the wonderful people I stayed with and worked with, the people who make the meat pies at Banjo’s, the smell of eucalypts after rainfall, sunsets, kookaburras laughing at 3 am, the relaxed and welcoming nature of Tasmanians, echidnas, my beautiful Ford Laser, sheep, TimTams, tuna and beans, white sandy beaches, free camping, the kindness of strangers, my tent+sleeping pad+quilt, echidnas, not getting bit by a snake, favorable conversion rates, locals that gave me tips on which mountains to climb, travelers who discussed environmental issues with me, technology that allows for phone calls and FaceTime calls to occur instantaneously from 10,000 miles away, echidnas, my friends and family that have kept me grounded (ish) and connected while I’ve been away, eucalyptus regnans for surpassing my exceptions, Tasmania for exceeding my dreams. And Echidnas (they're literally the cutest).

I figured for this reflection blog I would accumulate some fun statistics, lists, and photos that encapsulate my time in Tasmania. I’ve already written 8 blogs about the specifics, so this is more of a recap. And a way to process my trip, as evidenced above.

Nights in tent: 21

Nights in car: 4

Snakes I saw: 12

Snakes I didn't see: better not to think about it

Snake bites: 0

Times I jumped, squeaked, shrieked, yelled, because of a snake: 12

Spiders: wow so many why are there so many spiders everywhere

Existential crises: more than you can shake a stick at. often caused by aforementioned snakes and spiders.

Times I said "wow!" in amazement: more than Owen Wilson has in all his movies combined.

Animals: heaps! I bet you can't guess my favorite!

Birds: tons! my favorite is the Native Tassie Hen. and the Superior Fairy Wren. They are the most spectacular blue. And what a name!

Kilometers driven: 6000ish

National Parks visited: 14 out of 19

Great Short Walks traversed: 31 out of 60

My favorite hikes (in no particular order. pics are in

Mount Roland

Walls of Jerusalem

Mount Amos

Mount Rufus

Tarn Shelf

Cape Raoul

Leven Canyon

Bishop and Clerk

Fluted Cape

Cradle Mountain

Animals

Cool Birds

Trees

Obviously, if I’m going to write a blog about how much I love Tasmania, I need a section for the trees

Special moments

As I’ve written before, the beauty and specialness of life often comes in the little moments. So here’s an incomplete list of some of the precious moments that brought me joy and made me appreciate being alive in this wonderful world:

Walking around the Grove of Giants with James and Louis, marveling at the magnificence of trees.

Meeting Lee and Lorraine on Bruny Island. They showed me kindness, healthy food, a hot shower, and much appreciated friendship.

Magic card tricks and Monopoly Duel with Len on the Tasman Peninsula. And sleeping in a normal, comfortable bed for the first time in what felt like an eternity.

MONA. Seeing wacky and impressive art, meeting friends who introduced me to James, seeing amazing music, an ill-advised purchase of a pocket-sized synthesizer.

My whole 3 weeks with James at Badger Flats was pretty interesting and special so it’s hard to pick out the most special ones. Playing James’s piano, writing him a song and playing Chopin, while gazing at the gums was really nice. Also reading so many books while listening to Lumen by Bill Lawrence.

Felix and Leon coming up with the slogan “Trevy likes bread”. Truer words have never been uttered.

Pod Inn Capsule Hotelin Launceston. This was just new and novel and actually really quite fun. It was the strangest place I had slept up to this point, but that was eclipsed several times afterwards.

Dinner with Sandie and Joe after hiking around Cradle Mountain. We had a lovely dinner and sparkly conversation about their family, my family, life, and chasing goals. In my mind, this is where we became proper friends. And where I got some excellent advice.

Mount Amos sunrise with Tyler. My first friend and first sunrise hike in Tasmania. And possibly the most stunning view of the trip.

Sunset at Cockle creek, reading Brandon Sanderson with a Yeti cup of red wine on the beach. An extraordinary display of colors from the sun, reflecting off the still waters at Cockle Creek. A perfect, calm end to a day of bushwalking and gawking at the Southern Ocean.

Releasing a quoll with the UTAS researchers. I learned a lot about quolls, environmental research, and got to see a quoll up close. Amazing.

Mountain Biking in Derby. Two days of sweaty, exuberant, exhilarating riding and very sore legs. Plus, no crashes!

Sheep Weaning. Never thought I’d be working with sheep. It’s pretty fitting, considering my attachment to the book The Alchemist.

Aurora Australis. Incredible. I can think of worse things to look at while you recover from Covid.

Cygent Folk Fest, talking with Josefina, my nyckleharpa hero. The Cygent Folk Fest and all the bands I saw really shook me to my core. Incredible soul-nourishing music and moments I’ll never forget.

Playing pianos at Leaver and Sons, in Hobart and in Adelaide. The folks at Leaver and Sons are very kind and accommodating every time I pop in for some rejuvenating piano tinkling. It’s another thing that is nourishing to me, as playing piano is an integral part of my life. Plus, the pianos I played in Adelaide were absolutely stunning.

Ford Laser - this little legend got me around with nearly no problems. I got to see and experience so much because of it. My favorite times are riving around the Mount Field listening to old Nashville hits, riding the highways around Tassie listening to Tash Sultana and my Aussie music playlist, jamming to Cory Wong in the North West, to name a few. Not to mention the semi-sleepless nights, the peanut butter sandwiches before and after hikes, the endless “wow!”’s emanating from me as a gawk at the beaches and mountains around Tasmania. Goodonya, Laser.

Making friends at campsites. I made more friends camping than I did in the towns or at hostels. Emily, Christian, Brad, Caleb, Diderot, Geoff, Tom, and Holly all made my trips special and unique in different ways. And the many others with whom I didn’t exchange names. Sort of strange, but that’s how it goes traveling I suppose.

Courage,

Trevor

"Fill your life with meaning. Life is precious. Do not waste a single second."

- Rog Bennett

Up next is the 4 weeks I spent on the mainland of Australia, or as we Tasmanians call it, the North Island :)

Miscellaneous Stats

Guarding bursaria and little gum trees in the Midlands to protect them from the pesky wallabies. May they grow tall and strong.

Hikes (from list above)

Selfies / Beard progression

Travel Blog #8

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 11:50:13 GMT

Magic and Majesty Abound

My work stay on the Tasman Peninsula was, to be honest, a relief. I had spent the prior 3 weeks in the bush, which was amazing and insightful, but I won’t pretend that I was craving a normal bed and (ideally) fewer spiders. Len and Toni, my hosts, provided just that. They are lovely people with an incredible property with stunning views. They were very kind and generous to me, especially when I got sick basically as soon as I got there. I can't thank them enough for taking care of me and providing a peaceful space stay. For work, I did a bit of brush cutting, deck repairs and staining, and fence removal. Plus, I got to drive an old work ute! It’s pretty weird changing gears with your left hand, but you get used to it eventually.

My last few weeks in Tasmania have been an absolute whirlwind. I spent a couple weeks on the Tasman Peninsula and a couple weeks in the NW of Tassie, with a week or so of playtime to boot. To summarize the incoming ramblings, Tasmania just keeps getting better and better.

Tasman Peninsula

For me, the highlights of the Tasman Peninsula are the Cape walks. You get to see 1,000 ft tall cliffs, stunning beaches, shockingly blue water, and arches, caves, and other cool rock formations. I walked Cape Houy and Cape Raoul. Cape Pillar was a bit long for me to accomplish after being sick, so I guess I have to return :) The walks themselves aren’t terribly hard or technical and you are rewarded with some of the most iconic views in Tasmania.

After the Tasman Peninsula, I made my way up to the Northwest of Tassie with a pitstop for a night at Friendly Beaches, where I saw my first non-roadkill wombats and a Fairy Penguin!

My stay at Highland Park Estates with Sandie and Joe was really quite special. The whole of the NW and area around Cradle Mountain is incredible. It’s higher elevation, more mountainous, and feels a bit more wild. Sandie and Joe are very welcoming and delightful people. It’s impossible not to be uplifted by them. We spent many hours in engaging conversation, eating delicious (and healthy!) meals, and marveling in the beauty of Tasmania. I did lots of woodworking, cutting sideboards and replacing part of a deck. I don’t like to brag, but I’m basically a master of the Miter saw now. It had seemed like the woodworking gene skipped me, but perhaps it’s just been dormant all these years! It’s really satisfying work, repairing and building things.

Side note on the trees on the property: there are huge Douglas Fir trees that were planted by the previous owners. It’s a bizarre experience to smell fir trees, to smell home, when in Tasmania. Usually you just smell the eucalypts. I didn’t realize how much I missed the smell of firs and pines. They also have a Wollemi pine tree, which is a super rare and ancient tree once thought extinct. You can learn more about it here if you’re so inclined.

When I wasn’t working or gawking at a Wollemi pine, I was, as you might expect, playing in the mountains in the area. First up, Mount Roland.

Mount Roland is a really quite impressive rock that sort of appears out of nowhere when you drive along the northern coast of Tasmania. I remember seeing it from afar back in December and thinking “wow I’ve love to be on top of that cool rock.” Well, turns out I was now a half hour away from it and it has a track for me to walk! (Sandie and Joe have a stupendous view of it from their yard too). It was a really amazing hike and an incredible view from the top. You can see Bass Straight, several of the places I camped and explored back in December, big mysterious mountains to the Southwest. Simply stunning. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it probably many more times, but I LOVE alpine regions. The little shrubby plants, the short gum trees, the tiny little flowers, the colorful lichen-covered rocks, it’s the stuff high elevation dreams are made of. Totally worth the blisters.

Up next was Cradle Mountain. The most popular National Park in Tassie. And after a short bus ride from the Visitor Center, you can quickly see why. Dramatic mountainscapes, alpine lakes, wombats. The trifecta. It’s also the start of the Overland Track, Tasmania’s most popular backpacking route. I did a hike around some of the peaks above Dove Lake and under Cradle Mountain itself. There were seriously cool rocks and cliffs, a serene rainforest section, lovely waterfront picnic areas, steep steps, panoramic vistas, pristine lakes, wide open moorlands, and wombats! It was probably my most joy-filled hike of the trip. So many microclimates and different times of views. Lots of tourists looking happy to be alive despite my enthusiastic, sweaty grins as I rushed by them. If I were to have any regrets on this trip, and I don’t by the way, but if I did, it would be to spend more time in the Cradle area, hitting all of the hikes and walking the Overland Track. It’s really something special and requires a few solid days to see it all properly. I actually would have seen more, but I found that I had a perfect weather window to hike what was described to me as the best multi-day hike is Tasmania: The Walls of Jerusalem.

The Wall of Jerusalem National Park is adjacent to Cradle and Lake St. Clair National Parks. Together with a few other parks to the south, they make up a good portion of the World Heritage area in Tasmania. I did 3 days and 2 nights through the Walls of Jerusalem. It was my first 2 night trip since 2024 and my first doing three days of walking with weight in a row since I hurt my leg. I broke out all my pain meds for this one to make sure I could do it. It actually wasn’t very hard hiking, but it is tough carrying weight for 3 days, especially with a knee that sometimes feels like it’s 75 years old. Good thing I was going into another alpine region so my gleeful enthusiasm could carry me through any tough parts, am I right?!

After a couple hours of ascent, the track levels out and you get into the plateau which is filled with lakes, ponds, snow gums, yellow gums, and everyone’s favorite, white lipped snakes (tiny and poisonous, perfect). As you keep going, you see King David’s Peak, which makes up one of “walls” in the park. Solomon’s Throne, the Temple, Mount Jerusalem are the main peaks, all of which have insane views of the plateau and of the mountains around Lake St. Clair. Then there are lakes and ponds like Solomon’s Jewels and the Pool of Bethesda that add to the majesty of the area. By now you’re probably wondering why there are so many biblical names in this National Park. And before you jump to conclusions, it’s not some quantum link to Israel or a time warp to the Old Testament. Probably. I don’t know much about quantum physics or time travel but I assume not. Basically, a guy named Reg that used to hike in the area way back in the day (way back meaning mid-nineteenth century, not like Old Testament times) thought the walls looked like Jerusalem and suggested Biblical names for the landmarks. He also named a couple lakes Lake Thor and Lake Tyre so I think he had a thing for religion and mythology.

The Walls of Jerusalem hike was probably the most social of my hiking adventures, which was unexpected but greatly appreciated. I met some really cool hikers and shared a sunset hike of Solomon’s Throne with one of them. We all reveled in the magisterial sights together. Sharing joy is a much more pleasant way to bring people together, compared with say, trauma bonding. Though after a long day hiking, sharing in the suffering and sweating brings people together pretty well too. I feel like a broken record sometimes, saying “wow this place in Tasmania is really amazing or truly special” about basically everything I see here. But it’s also true, so I can’t help it. My experience in the Walls of Jerusalem will stay with me for a long time, I reckon.

It was sad to leave Highland Park Estates. Partly because of the kindness Sandie and Joe showed me, but also because it marked the end of my Tasmania trip. It was my last work stay, which is still hard to believe. I had been researching these stays for over a year and they served to signify different sections of my trip. All this time, I had been thinking about the “next stay” as something to look forward to. And now that's done. I will have a blog about my Tasmania reflections to go more in depth on this soon.

After I left, I headed southwest towards Strahan, a very cool little town on the West Coast. It reminded me a lot of my time in Sitka, Alaska. There is a gift shop / sawmill / museum / wood store that was really spectacular. Everything they make and sell is from native Tasmanian trees, with an emphasis on Huon pine. Huon pines are found in the area, and lots of reclaimed logs are still found along the riverbeds and beaches. It was SO cool to see the saw mill and smell Huon pine everywhere. It’s got a distinctive scent that is hypnotizing. Or maybe I was just a bit tired and hungry. It’s hard to say sometimes. By this time I’ve learned many of the Tasmanian trees and plant names so it was really satisfying to recognize them, especially compared to when I arrived and knew nothing. I still know nothing, but I've managed to lodge some tree names up in my noggin at least.

The next day I went to Queenstown, which has a very gross river, which you can learn more about here . It’s a super cool mining town with lots of history. Imagine a smaller, rainier version of Butte. After Queenstown, I made my way East towards Lake St. Clair, stopping along the way to do some short walks to break up the drive. I got a sweet campsite on the Lake in the park and I met some really cool guys, Brad and Christian, who had been hiking for 8 days in the Ducane Range (you can see this from the summits in the Walls of Jerusalem). We spent the morning chatting by the lake and in the cafe, talking about Tasmania, pros and cons of living here, ecology and environmentalism, Las Vegas, etc. Definitely a highlight for me.

I hiked Mount Rufus later that day, for what I think was the most panoramically spectacular view yet. The hike itself was pretty good, apart from the snakes.. I saw 4 tiger snakes on this hike, and have seen 12 total on this trip. So a third of them I saw that day. And if you’re reading this mom, tiger snakes are definitely not poisonous. And I definitely didn’t very nearly step on one, twice. Like within an inch of it on both steps. Nope, definitely not. Since I didn’t do that and didn’t get bit by any other snakes, the trip was absolutely worth it for the amazing view. You can see Frechmans Cap, The Walls of Jerusalem, the Ducane Ranch, and a bunch of the mountains with Greek names like Mount Olympus, Mount Thetis, etc. I know, more mythological names, it’s a bit ridiculous, but also for a giant nerd it’s also super cool.

After Lake St. Clair, I made my way south to Mount Field National Park. Mount Field feels like the spiritual start to my Tasmania adventures; it was my first National Park and marked the beginning of my exploring of Tasmania’s wilderness. If you remember my first post about BIG trees, this is where I’m talking about. It was also my lowest point of the trip, emotionally, so it was fitting to go back to re-experience it and see how far I’ve come, literally and emotionally. I did a really slow hike to a variety of waterfalls and around the big trees, just to revel in the glory of where I have been for the past 4 months. Absolute magic. At the camp, I made a couple more friends, Diderot and Caleb, who are bikepacking Tasmania. We ended up having a nice time hanging around the camp and looking at the glow warms in the creeks. Caleb and I got on really well, especially once we started talking about books. As I said, giant nerd. The past few adventures have all been very social and I’m so thankful for it. There’s nothing like making friends with strangers you run into in the course of life. Especially at campsites. You may not always have a lot in common, but you at least love being outside amongst the trees.

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt."

Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603)

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Music

Cory Wong - Lost in the Wonder. More Cory Wong, this time a brand new album! It’s fun and funky and fresh.

The new Tron Soundtrack - I’m a big fan of NIN. Trent Reznor get’s synths.

I was enjoying a variety post-rock, including Versus by pg.lost, Red Forest by If These Trees Could Talk, and Frozen Twilight by God is an Astronaut.

Courage,

Trevor

"Fill your life with meaning. Life is precious. Do not waste a single second."

- Rog Bennett

Highland Park Estates

I'm off to the mainland for 4 weeks of adventures! I'm shaving the beard and heading back into society for a while. It's bittersweet, I have to say. I'll have a post about that when that concludes. I will also have a post reflecting on the highlights and lowlights of my time in Tasmania soon too.

Travel Blog #7

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 10:31:54 GMT

Peace, Gums, and Nyckleharpa

It’s hard to think of a better way to start a new year than by living in a completely differently way from what you’re used to. For 2026, I went with living in the bush. Using the water from the sky and river for drinking and cleaning and the rays of the sun for electricity. Now I know what you’re wondering: what about the spiders and snakes? Well, I mean, yeah, fair enough. I too was wondering about this when I showed up to Badger Flats. Turns out the spiders are everywhere. As summer kicked in to gear and the sun really started shining, the spiders also decided they wanted a piece of the action and came out to play. Spiderwebs galore. My newest friend, the huntsman spider that lives in the walls in my room, only gave me nightmares every few days. I’m told huntsman are good for getting rid of the “bad” spiders, whatever that means. I decided to take the approach of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal that believes if you can't see it, it can't see you. While this creature may be considered one of the least intelligent creatures in the universe, it's methodology got me through; Mr. Huntsman didn't eat me, so all is well. As for snakes, I’ve only seen 3 in the past 3 weeks, and one of them (the biggest) was in town, not in my space, so it doesn’t really count. Now I know what your follow up question is: did you check under your outdoor shower for Blue Tongue Lizards? Why yes, yes I did. Consequentially, I haven’t showered in 3 weeks. (That’s mostly a joke, there is a very handy river and ocean nearby).

I stayed at Badger Flats for about 3 weeks. I learned about Badger Flats through the best, most serendipitous method: word of mouth. I was at a gig at MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) a couple months ago and met a couple of fellow tree and nature enthusiasts that recommended I stay with their friend James. As a rule, I operate on the assumption that if people refer to trees by their scientific names (Eucalyptus Regnans instead of Mountain Ash for example), I can trust them and their recommendations. And, as you’ll read, that assumption paid off well. It’s also why I trust my father with his pizza recommendations :)

My time at Badger Flats was pretty low key, ranking among the most peaceful times that I can remember in my adult life. No cell service, limited WiFi, very few pressing needs. I spent much of my time reading and reflecting on 2025, travel, existence, life, the good stuff. It was essentially a spiritual-nature retreat. A profoundly different experience from what I’ve done so far in Tasmania, and I’m so grateful for it. James and I hung out a lot, exploring his property and the surrounding region, discussing life and art and music and local issues he deals with, playing piano. Playing piano! He has a piano in his hut that played a bit - I wrote him a song and gave him some pointers, though he was doing fine on his own without me. Top tip, everyone should play music in the forest. It’s just the best. Anyway, James is a very thoughtful and considerate person. He lives quite simply and is generous with his time and space to share his lifestyle with travelers. If you’re ever in Tasmania, you should look him up and stay with him. It’s worth the experience, I guarantee it. Thank you for everything James, you're a legend. Without further ado, here’s what I’ve been up to, experiences that punctuated my reading sessions:

Cockle Creek and South Cape Bay

I spent a night camping at Cockle Creek, the southest you can drive in Australia. It’s quite nice and super duper popular for camping on the holidays. It has an interesting history of French explorers arriving there and having seemingly decent interactions with the Aboriginal people, which is more than can be said of, well, anyone else. Also a lot of whaling. So much whaling.

I walked the South Cape Bay track to get my first glimpse of the Southern Ocean (I think it’s technically the Tasman Sea still but I’m calling it the Southern Ocean because borders in oceans are made up, just like most things in life, right Nate?!). It was a pleasant, pretty easy hike through open bush and some wooded areas. You could be forgiven for not realizing the ocean is nearby until you come out of the trees and BOOM there she is, in all her multi-hued blues (multi-blued?) and salty glory. I think these waters were the best I’ve ever seen. It had it all: glacial colors of light blue and grey, turquoise, which is present in many Tassie beaches I’ve patronized, dark blues, large patches of kelp, huge foamy waves. Big cliffs, epic clouds, brutal sunshine, strong winds that cools the sweat from said brutal sunshine. I enjoyed my usual meal of nuts, dried fruit, and tuna (woe of woes, I forgot my beans!) with a special morale treat of Sour Patch Kids! Side note: I’ve taken up a potentially dangerous habit of buying candy, chocolates, Diet cokes, etc., with the excuse that it’s good for morale to have little things that cheer me up while I’m traveling and living cheaply. As if I didn’t already do this before traveling. I reckon we can justify anything to ourselves. I enjoyed a few hours on the white sandy beaches, reading my book (Words of Radiance), swimming, and generally basking ocean in her magisterial glory. I walked back to make my usual camping dinner of ramen and tuna and beans (joy of joys, I found my beans!) and read my book on the beach near my campsite while watching one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve seen in some time. It’s really something to watch a sunset in its entirety. Not something I typically do as I have the attention span of a fruit fly. But when you’re camping with no cell service, it’s worth putting the book down for. At least for a time, it’s a really good book after all. Goodonya Cockle Creek.

The next morning I walked to Fishers Point to see the view from the lighthouse. I was surprised to see kunanyi and Bruny Island from a distance away, two places I’ve explored and had magical experiences. Tasmania, it turns out, is rather small :)

I always think of my Grandpa, my mom’s dad, when I go to lighthouses. We used to visit my grandparents in Maine a lot as a kid. We always visited Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. Lighthouses are special places with fascinating histories, even if nowadays the romanticism is lost with many of them replaced with solar powered, steel framed towers. It’s the way of things, I suppose. Anyway, I love being near them. I’ve been to heaps here in Tasmania, and before I left the States I went to a really nice one on Fire Island in New York with my sister Holly and nephew Benji, as well as Pemaquid when I visited my friends Paige and Brooke in Maine. I had never been to Maine on my own, and I have to say, it is really something to relive childhood memories as an adult. Pemaquid will always hold a special place in my heart. And now, as I find myself exploring antipodean beaches and lighthouses, I can’t help but think my grandpa would be proud. He loved travel, seeing new places and meeting interesting people. Mostly meeting interesting people and trying to figure out their psychological problems. He was exceedingly good at that. I don’t actually know if he ever left North America, but I’m sure he would have loved it. I find these lighthouses for you Vilhelm Elwiggle! Let’s hope they sell perch in a basket at the next one.

James and Louis and I went to Reuben Waterfall, which was the best waterfall I’ve seen in Tassie. It’s not well marked or marketed, so the trail is a little rough and there aren’t many people using it. Score! It’s a lovely walk through pretty dense forest, and you eventually emerge into what felt like a secret, sacred place. Maybe a place for doing ancient initiation rituals. Or for two stinky dudes to get a much needed rinse.

Reuben Waterfall

The waterfall, as you can imagine, was really great. The cliffs around it have formed into interesting, angular shapes that were equally striking to me. But what struck me the most was the gum trees that had fallen into the water. The cliffs were high enough that these pretty large trees just looked like toothpicks in comparison. What a lovely place.

Hartz Mountain National Park

James and I took a spontaneous evening trip to the nearby Hartz Mountain National Park to walk to Lake Esperance. It was hot and sunny at James’s place but by the time we got to the trailhead, it was cloudy, misty, and chilly. Tassie weather, am I right? We were in an alpine region, so to me it makes the experience even more magical. There was a sign that said the Southwest of Tasmania is more grand than the Grand Canyon, to which I said “not bloody likely, mate” but it was so misty that we couldn’t see very far anyway. Maybe it is grander than the Grand Canyon, but only in one’s imagination because you can’t actually see anything? Hard tellin' not knowin'. Sorry Tasmania, the area is truly amazing, but it’s probably not grander than the Grand Canyon. I mean, they capitalize the "G" in Grand for it and everything.

Books

These are the books I spent my time with at Badger Flats

One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka

Cadence by Emma Ayres

The Way of Zen by Alan Watts

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson

Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod

I recommend and and all of these books. But I highly, highly recommend One Straw Revolution if you have any interest in permaculture or philosophy.

Music

I listened to the album Lumen by Bill Lawrence a LOT. His piano playing and writing is so fun and intricate and emotional and gripping and virtuosic and sensitive. I know, that’s a lot of ands and adjectives. It’s that good. Someday I hope to make an album half as good as Lumen.

Kid A by Radiohead - I’m just discovering Radiohead on this trip. I’m usually 10-20 years behind the trend. Turns out, they’re really good!

Pale Blue Dot from River Islands by Where Water Meets - the amazing string band I saw at Cygnet Folk Festival

Chimär by Josefina Paulson - my nyckleharpa hero!

Ace by Madison Cunningham - simply a spectacular album

Bleeds by Wednesday - fun and interesting alternative album, whatever alternative means

Starship Syncopation by Cory Wong - funky, exuberant, joy-filled music. I’ve seen Cory Wong a couple times and his music reminds me that music is supposed to be fun. Make it good, play well, but don’t forget the fun. If you listen to this album, or his album Power Station, or his live album The Power Station Tour (West Coast), you’ll see what I mean. Get stuck in.

I find this to be one of the most wonderful quotes. I've sent it or written it to some of you before. And possibly in this blog? I hope not, it's hard to keep track of things sometimes. Anyway, this quote gives me great peace, as I find my life to be absolutely full to bursting with questions pretty much of the time.

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.” - Rilke, Letter to a Young Poet

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Courage,

Trevor

"Fill your life with meaning. Life is precious. Do not waste a single second."

- Rog Bennett

BIG Tree Talk

This may be hard to believe, but the Grove of Giants was my best tree experience yet. I know, I know, all trees are magical and wonderful and it’s folly to put subjective titles like “the best” on them. But I’m gonna do it anyway, because they were that good.

When I’m near the ocean or in the mountains, I often have this amazing feeling of awe and insignificance. Awe and Insignificance because these natural wonders are just so big, so ancient. Our human lives are laughable short in comparison, and I find comfort in that feeling. It takes the pressure off a little bit, you know? And I felt that same way around these trees. These trees, many hundreds of years old, have seen and survived more than I can comprehend: bushfires, storms, loggers, literal centuries of kookaburra calls, countless possum duels in their branches. Just incredible.

James and Louis and I walked through the trail, marveling with mouth agog, at the bigness of it all. I say we, but I’m pretty sure Louis couldn’t be bothered. Wallabies are most interesting to dogs for some reason. The big gums include blue gums, stringy bark gums, and swamp gums. There are bits that feel like a dry forest and other bits that are proper rainforest. Fantastic. As I’ve probably remarked before, Tasmania’s ecosystems change quiet rapidly in a most delightful way.

You should check out the website to read more about the Grove and the largest tree, Lathumus Keep (an epic name that could have come right out of Tolkien’s Middle Earth): Grove of Giants https://www.thetreeprojects.com/groveofgiants . These photos don't do it justice, of course, but I had to try.

The area is really fascinating, as the Grove is surrounded by clear cut areas, managed native forests that will be cut in a few years, gum plantations, managed by Sustainable Timber and the largest native timber mill in Tasmania. We went through all of these on the drive from James’ property and it’s hard to convey the stark contrast of the wild feeling of the Grove and the surrounding forest. 5 meters into the Grove, you’re completed enveloped by semi-wild forest that you forget that you just drove through a recently clearcut forest. The temperature drops, the sun is blocked by the canopies, the birdsong reappears. You get lost because the walking track isn’t terribly well marked (or possibly because you were following a dog’s lead while he chased wallaby scents) and suddenly you have no idea where you are. When you finally emerge from the forest, mostly unscathed, you return to a clearcut, gravel filled hellscape. In the surrounding hills you can see the scars of logging, and the parking area is literally in one of the scars. And they do feel like scars, not like natural fields or open spaces. I found it quite disconcerting. I suppose it’s the nature of things, as we need to make paper and houses and furniture and wood is an amazing product for building. It’s just hard to not get upset when incredible old growth forests that do so much good for our environment are cut down to make paper. I digress.

Cygnet Folk Festival

Another serendipitous opportunity I stumbled upon was the Cygnet Folk Festival. If you know me and my music tastes, I’m a big fan of folk musics from around the world. If you have made it to the bottom of any of these blogs and seen my recommendations for Dreamers’ Circus, or have talked to me about music in the last 6 months, you know I’m a huge fan of nordic folk music. So, imagine my sheer delight when I 1) find out a cool, local folk festival is happening in a nearby cute and artsy town, and 2) my favorite nyckleharpa player is coming from Sweden to play at said folk festival! SUBLIME!

The folk fest was amazing. I got to see the aforementioned nyckleharpist, Josefina Paulson, and her band play twice in the day I was there. A hilarious and delightful Lithuanian group. And a surprisingly impressive band called Where Water Meets that makes gripping and evocative experimental string music. The first shows were on one of the bigger stages, and the evening show was in an intimate setting that I of course got front row seats for. It was such a healing, nourishing experience. There were 2 violists (nice!) singing and playing songs including Pink Pony Club (double nice!!), traditional and new Swedish folk music on nyckleharpa, bass mandola, oboe, violin, and cello, and modern, experimental string music on guitar, violin, cello, and viola. Then about 12 musicians on the tiny stage playing folk tunes, then folk tunes that they talk the audience to sing along to. It’s hard to describe with mere words. But it felt like a bubble of healing, peace, unity, love, emerged and enveloped all of us in the room. It emerged from the musicians and from the audience. It felt like we momentarily stepped out of time and into a formless space of collective togetherness. It’s rare that I’ve felt this from live music. It genuinely took a lot out of me, and I was only observing! Music is so good, so necessary. It’s something we can cling to and come together with, regardless of how horrible things get.

Note: experimental music often has a connotation of being hard to understand, unpleasant to listen to, ahead of its time, etc. Not always a good thing. When I say experimental here, I mean it more as innovative and interesting. Using novel materials for bows, cool chords, unexpected musical turns. It was certainly complex, but very pleasant to listen to and emotionally engaging.

Travel Blog #6

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 10:32:18 GMT

Adventure and Really Wild things

After finishing up my highly enjoyable biking and brownie filled weekend, I went to Launceston for a few days to get some work done and have some city time. I stayed at the Pod Inn, which is one of those Japanese Capsule hotels. It was surprisingly enjoyable! The pods themselves were small, but not too small if you’re a less-than-tall guy such as myself. A short king, if you will. And once the chainsmokers stopped smoking in the alley where my pod vented, the air wasn’t too stuffy or stinky either! Launceston is a nice town - similar in size to Bozeman or Missoula. The hotel was downtown so I could easily walk to the library to work and to all the cool shops and museums. There is also a nice nature reserve called Cataract Gorge with trails starting a few minutes from my hotel. I had a really nice day walking the trails, entranced by the many suspension bridges and enjoying the summer sun. My plans were to leave from Launnie (Australians shorten every work possible - one to two syllables is preferable. Launceston has 3 syllables and it’s simply too many) and make my way Northwest, then back East and South to land in Hobart for Christmas. What follows is some of the highlights of my adventures. Suffice to say, I absolutely adore Tasmania; I have been surprised and enraptured every day by the mountains, beaches, animals, and, do I even need to say? The trees.

Narawntapu National Park, Platypus, and The Nut

Step one: Head to Narawntapu National Park for a campsite, then to the nearby Platypus House to see some platypus and echidnas. I wanted to be sure to see a platypus in person, wild or otherwise. And you can never see too many echidnas as they’re the best animal ever. Both animals are extremely strange and delightful to observe. The platypus were a bit shy but then tended to show off a bit once they knew they had a crowd. They're genuinely a confusing animal to watch and all the more enjoyable for it. The echidnas were surprising friendly! We couldn’t pet them, but they would walk between our feet as we watched them. So cute!

Narawntapu National Park was a nice place and seems to mostly be a preserve for wildlife. My campsite was 100 meters from the beach looking out on Bass Straight and I had my usual pademelon and possum visitors in the evening. I hiked Archers Knob in the morning which had just amazing views over the water to the North, the mountains to the West and South, and marshy wetlands to the East. Plus, no snakes! An auspicious start to a couple weeks on the road.

After that hike, I made my way West towards Stanley. I stopped at Penguin and Wynyard on the way for lunch and planning. Each day I was setting off without knowing where I would be sleeping so I would do reconnaissance at each town and their Visitor Information centers for tips. A trick that proved fruitful! Penguin is a really cute town, famous for no longer having any nesting penguins but for having a large statue of one. Same thing, right? I got a campsite near Stanley and hiked The Nut, which is a a really big rock, maybe a volcano? It’s hugely impressive and gives you an amazing vantage point of Bass Straight and the towns and farms nearby. It’s sort of strange because The Nut is big enough to forget that you’re on top of a huge rock and not on "normal" ground. There are forested sections and grassland sections and you wouldn’t know you were a few hundred feet off the water until you walk right up to the cliffs. Not to worry, they are well marked. My beloved eucalypts even found their way up there too! Wind is a pretty impressive force for blowing seeds around!

The next day I stopped at Rocky Cape National Park for some quick walks and to gawk at more amazing scenery. The lighthouse had a great view of the, well, rocky cape. Not the most creative name, but sometimes you let the scenery do the heavy lifting. And I have to say, it’s hard to beat a seascape and jagged rocks first thing in the morning. Afterwards I made my way towards Leven Canyon where I’d be hiking and camping for the night. I stopped in Burnie at a Bunnings Warehouse to get pliers to fix a zipper on my tent (Bunnings Warehouse is like a Home Depot or Lowes). A zipper on my rainfly annoyingly malfunctioned a few days prior. But joy of joys, and to the surprise of probably everyone who has ever met me, I fixed it! Me! I fixed a thing! I actually haven’t used that side of the rainfly since just in case my fix doesn’t hold.. if it was broke but now is probably not broke, don’t fix it! Right?!

Rocky Cape National Park, Leven Canyon and Gunns Plains Caverns

While at Bunnings, I had my most important culinary experience in Australia - a Bunnings sausage. On Sundays, people will put up a tent outside Bunnings and sell sausages. Usually cheap sausages on white bread, maybe with onions and drinks as options. I think they typically raise money for local groups or charities. They’re dirt cheap and delicious, especially when your diet largely consists of peanut butter sandwiches and beans. Side note: Aussies eat a lot of sausages, and they don’t usually have hotdog buns like we do in the US; they usually just use a piece of bread as a bun. Which I find amazing and hilarious as that is what I would do in college to save money (remember all the Costco hotdogs we ate In college Ben?).

Leven Canyon was really quite something. It felt way off the beaten path, driving country roads into the mountains to get there. The weather started turning for the worse, getting cold, windy, and rainy, as I drove to the campsite. Not the best for hiking and camping, but that’s life. I got pretty wet hiking the Leven Canyon, but the sun peaked her head out briefly to provide respite from the precipitation and beautiful color contrasts - does the sky get better when you have big clouds, blue sky, and mysterious fog at once? The hike also included 697 stairs, which provides a pretty good workout for the ol’ knee, as well as an American couple who give you tips on where to hike in Victoria and in North Carolina! (Watch out Wyatt, NC might be my next stop when I’m back in the States. Apparently they have some untouched old growth forest that is calling my name). I also met a couple girls from South Australia that shared their dinner and tea with me as we tried to stay warm amidst the typically Tassie “summer” weather - there was snow on the mountain tops in the morning. A second culinary milestone that night - wallaby meat! It’s game meat you can buy in the supermarket, which is strange. But also tasty!

The next morning, I went on a cave tour at Gunns Plains Caverns. Think Lewis and Clark Caverns, but a bit more quirky. Tragically, I didn’t get to see the freshwater lobster or platypus that occasionally make their way through the caverns. Maybe next time.

Blackmans Lagoon and Bay of Fires

After the caverns I made my way back to Launnie to do the important, inconvenient city things like showering and laundry. How long had it been since I showered? Do baby wipes baths count as showers? I sure hope so. I also got some screen time in and watched the one Christmas movie I got around to all season - Klaus. It’s on Netflix and it’s extremely good. Thanks for the recommendation Rachel!

After cleaning my body and clothes and resupplying my food and Christmas spirit, I made my way Northeast towards the Bay of Fires. Quick stop in George Town and Low Head to see a nice lighthouse and have a chat with the parents while I had service. I camped at Blackman’s Lagoon, which was the most remote I’ve felt yet. Not that it’s necessarily terribly remote, but there were a lot of gravel roads and almost no people, which is sometimes slightly concerning when you’re in a little sedan in a foreign land. But as they say here, no worries, mate. She’ll be right. And she was! I got a great campsite and trudged through 6Ks of sand to get a most glorious beach view. It was the sort of evening sky that brings tears to the eyes. Though that could also have been the sheer relief to stop walking through soft sand. Another theme of Tasmania is the abundance of beautiful beaches. It’s not that I don’t appreciate them or take them for granted, but there are simply so many that you can’t stop at every one and have a beach day. They’re everywhere! And most of them aren’t busy at all! They look like tropical beaches, but the water feels like the Atlantic in Maine, so maybe that’s why they aren’t full of people.

I got to Bay of Fires the next day and spent the day lounging by the water and climbing around the big rocks. The beach here is blindingly white and the rocks are covered in red lichen, which might lead one to think that’s where the name Bay of Fires comes from. But it actually is what some European “explorers” called it when they first sailed by because the Aboriginal people had fires all along the bay. Again, not a terribly creative name, but it is evocative.

After the Bay of Fires, I made my way further South to Triabunna to catch the ferry the following morning to go to Maria Island. To be honest, something I find difficult and occasionally annoying about my method of travel (read solo and cheap) is that it takes away some of the fun of stopping in cute little towns. I can’t really buy stuff as I live out of two backpacks, and looking at all the local shops alone isn’t all that fun to me after a few months of travel. Maybe I’m too bent towards consumerism, maybe there are too many cute little towns in Tasmania, maybe I’m just impatient, it’s hard to say. Maybe I’ll come back to these towns someday with traveling partners and find more joy in them.

Maria Island

I spent the night in Triabunna and got on the ferry in the morning to Maria Island. The weather was not ideal for hiking and camping adventures, unless you like wet tents and your views obscured by clouds and fog. As a practitioner and purveyor of Type 2 Fun, it sounds pretty good to me! I ended up running into a couple, Tom and Holly, who I met at Narawntapu National Park a week prior and we hiked the Bishop and Clark Track together, which was a really lovely hike and would’ve had mind blowing views had it not been so foggy. Lichen covered rocks and walls of white clouds are cool too. It was so nice to hike with Tom and Holly. They both adore nature and we spent a lot of the day chatting about how cool the trees and animals are in Tassie. They know SO much more than I do and I learned a ton. It was also just nice to have other people’s thoughts to fill my brain rather than my own on a hike! We had some meals together in the next day as well. I also met another solo traveler, Geoff from Seattle ("from Seattle" isn’t his surname, that's just how I think of him) and we also shared some meals and great conversion about life, travel, community, and the like. Yay for friends! Maria Island has some beautiful cliffs, fossils, and rock formations that are really quite spectacular. I also saw bandicoots and a Tasmanian Devil for the first time! How exciting!! What a place! My time on Maria Island was really special, largely because it was the most social experience I had on my adventures around Tassie. Talking to lots of travelers and campers, making friends, getting tips for Tassie, generally having a nice time, it made a significant impression on me. Another place I only saw a small portion of and must return to someday.

After Maria Island, I made my way down to Bruny Island. I stopped in Hobart to have a shower, charge devices, and regroup. It’s hard to overstate how nice a hot shower is after several days camping and hiking. Traveling like I am (read cheap, slightly feral, and with the working assumption that if I can’t smell other people, they can’t smell me) really makes you appreciate things like hot showers, charged phones, and a proper bed.

Bruny Island

Bruny Island. My final stop on my adventure before Christmas. And what a way to end. You have to take a ferry to Bruny, though you can take your car on this one. I’m becoming quite fond of ferries - maybe along with my future blog about trees I should write a blog about ferries. Anyway, I got to Bruny first thing to get a campsite and give myself time to explore before the rain arrived. I went to another lighthouse with probably the best view of all the lighthouses I have visited in Tassie. One of the first four lighthouses built in Australia, sometime in the 1830s, it overlooked a bay of rocky cliffs and mountains and endless waters. This is when I started to truly feel deep in my heart that I love Tasmania. Afterwards, I hiked the Labillardiere Track, a 17K hike that went through pristine beaches and gum forests, most of which burned a few months ago. It’s really something to walk through a recently burned section of nature. It's really sad, but some trees had new buds growing out of the burnt branches, ferns and other grasses were growing in the ashes. Given time, the land will refresh and regrow. Eucalypts generally need for new trees to grow, so hopefully in a few years that area will be full of thriving gums and ferns. After the hike, for a morale booster, I got myself a treat at the store: fridge cig (Diet Coke) and a cookie. As I've said before, it’s the little things :)

That night, I tried to watch some penguins come to shore to feed their young, but I later learned there probably aren’t any penguins on Bruny, or at least where the Parks Service had built a viewing platform. Dang tourists scaring all the penguins away! It was still pretty enjoyable standing quietly in the rain for an hour an a half, watching the evening turn to dusk then night. It’s rare that I am able to be around groups of people and remain quiet. I have a tendency to feel awkward and try to fill empty spaces with chatter. It’s even more rare for me to stand still, much less stand still for a long time and watch the ocean. So it was quite a relief to have about 20 people on the same page - remain quiet to avoid spooking the penguins, and just be. The result: no penguins. But, for me at least, a renewed appreciation for how big, how endless, how magnificent the ocean is. How gulls and shearwaters seemingly appear out of the nothingness of grey clouds above the water. How the colors of the day slowly turn from blues, greens, oranges, and whites, to gray. A spectrum of grays, but gray nonetheless. The horizon, with gray clouds stretching to eternity, slowly melding with the horizon until you don’t know what it is water and what is cloud. Or if there even is a distinction. Soon after, the sun had fully set and only the whites of the waves provided contrast to the dark grays and blacks of the night. Now obviously, this is just what day turning to night is like. But how often do we actually watch it happen? Maybe you do, but it’s rare for me. So I found the whole event quite profound. Cold, wishing I had more clothes, hoping the rain would stop so I wouldn’t get completely soaked sleeping in my tent, simultaneously impatient for the penguins to appear and wishing the night would never end. A really profound night for me.

The next morning, with all my stuff suitably soaked, I had brekkie and made my way to my next hike. The plan was to hike the Fluted Cape track, which I sort of did. At least as the start. It started out as all good hikes do, meandering through nice beaches and gum forests. I got to a quite spectacular cliff, took the obligatory photos, and turned right onto the next part of the track. Or what I thought was the track. It quickly turned out to not be a track and more of a path that maybe someone took once. Probably. There were pink ribbons on trees that surveyors put on trees to mark the “trail”, which I’m extremely grateful for because without them I would have been quite lost. My phone map indicated I was on a track, and I knew vaguely where I was going, but bushwhacking in snake country, following cliff faces several hundred meters above the ocean is not a great place to get lost without reliable service in a foreign land. It ended up being fine: exceptional views from the many monstrous cliffs, reminders to be present while hiking so you don’t trip over every stone and twig, one of the biggest trees I’ve ever seen in my life, 3 distinct microclimates, and no snakes or injuries! It actually ended up being one of my favorites hikes in Tasmania yet (Type 2 Fun). To make it better, I ran into a lovely couple, Lee and Lorraine, right after I got off trail that asked me about where I’d been. I learned that I took the wrong route (this was obviously by now) but being locals, they had been there before and knew it well enough. They invited me to their home for tea and fruit cake, which I gratefully accepted. I walked 12Ks instead of 5 and was rather underdone for fuel by this stage. We chatted over tea for a time about travel, Tasmania, the US, etc. Lee is from the US but has been in Australia for 44 years, and Lorraine is born and raised in Tasmania. They then asked me what my dinner plans were, to which I responded with my usual response: “I don’t know, probably tuna and beans.” They took pity on me and invited me for dinner of salmon (way better than canned tuna), salad, fresh raspberries and ice cream. And, more importantly, a hot shower. As I said above, this is huge. One of the best gifts you can give to a traveler. And to top it all off, a tour to a special section of rainforest nearby that is not on the guide books! Lee and Lorraine are truly generous and thoughtful people and I’m so grateful to them. It was the perfect way to end my Bruny trip before heading back to Hobart. What a day. If there is a lesson to be learned here, it’s to 1) check your map better and 2) actually maybe don’t worry so much about checking your map so carefully if you’re not in danger because you might serendipitously meet some lovely strangers who improve your whole day with their kindness and generosity. That’s two contradictory lessons.. but as I’ve said before, two things can be true at once. Seriously though, we shouldn’t worry too much about out plans going “wrong,” because sometimes the best moments in life appear in a way we never could have planned. Be open and let serendipity in. That’s where magic lies.

Launceston

Courage,

Trevor

"Fill your life with meaning. Life is precious. Do not waste a single second."

- Rog Bennett

Music for Hope, Sanity, and Peace

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'"

- Mary Anne Radmacher

Thank you Judy for sending this!

Lumen by Bill Laurence. Everything in a solo piano album I hope to create someday. Truly masterful.

Hvis ikke de er døde, lever de endnu by Stundom. This album has nice winter / holiday vibes. The song Til Sofie is particularly nice - thanks Caleb for the recommendation!

December by George Winston. The quintessential Christmas / Holiday piano album. The well from which I drink and am nourished, pianistically speaking.

The Great Sea by Dreamers' Circus. My most listened to song of 2025 by far.

Unraveling by Muse. My second most listened to song of 2025. It's nothing like the other music here but it's extremely good.

Also, I don't get paid by Dreamers' Circus to promote their music, their music just speaks to me in a way almost no other group does. If you saw my Apple Music 2025 Replay, you'd think I might be a tad obsessive ;)

Quote for Contemplation

Travel Blog #5

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 08:40:58 GMT

Moments and Wonder

Mountain biking in Derby

Ambitiose sed ineptum - Ambitious but rubbish

I had such a good time mountain biking in Derby. Free camping, a great pub to watch the cricket in the evenings, bike trails 2 minutes from my tent? Don’t mind if I do!

Derby is an old tin mining town converted into a mountain biking destination. It’s reminiscent of a ski resort town. It’s basically only bike stores, shuttles, a couple cafes, and a plethora of pubs for post-ride beers. Amazing! The surrounding area is full of logging / forestry, but the town was able to preserve the beautiful trees by creating a mountain biking haven. How cool is that?

I rented a bike for a couple days and had a blast. The trailhead and shuttles are all in town so you can just ride from your campsite / cafe right onto the trail. The trails have a great variety of difficulties and terrains for all skill levels, which is nice, because people like me who are not very good at mountain biking get nervous when they’re in biking destinations as they can be oriented towards advanced riders. I made up for my lack of skill with enthusiasm and a willingness to suffer, as is my wont. It’s really quite a special place. It’s got: huge gum trees and ferns (a must for all my adventures, obviously), lakes and ponds and creeks and rivers, pademelon and wallabies everywhere, extremely chatty birds. The wallabies get spooked easily, which is sketchy sometimes when they just burst out onto the trail out of the bush, but it is fun when you get to chase them up the hill. They probably don’t appreciate being followed by a sweaty biker breathing rather heavily but it made my experience better that’s for some sure.

I’ve only ridden a dual suspension bike a handful of times - most likely when I traded my old single speed, Jacque The Jackhammer, with Keinan so he can have a better challenge. Turns out, it’s really nice! You just soak up alll the bumps. It’s probably better for the ol’ knee too - guess I have an excuse upgrade my bike ;)

The highlights for me were the echidnas, the kookaburras around my camp laughing ALL night, and the post-ride brownies from Two Doors Down Cafe - seriously the best brownies I’ve ever had. If you’ve never heard a kookaburra , you simply must. It’s extremely strange and disconcerting and hilarious. And they simply don’t stop. Maybe I’m just self-conscious, but I get the feeling they’re sharing a joke about me behind my back after a while. Which is okay, I do a lot of dumb stuff.

Quolls! Echidnas! Birds!

Okay, animals in Tasmania are amazing. The birds in Tassie are great, colorful, and they make the most enjoyable, bordering on annoying (see above kookaburra video) noises.I don’t know many of their names apart from the kookaburra and the Tasmanian Hen. There are simply too many to remember! Quolls are adorable little omnivorous marsupials and you should look up photos of them immediately if you want to have your day brightened. Echidnas are spiky little guys with an inclination towards rotundity and are possibly the cutest things that have ever existed? (Excluding Fenchurch, obviously). You definitely need to look them up too if you enjoy happiness and joy and adorableness. Okay I’ll provide photos but you should look them up anyway. Tassie echidnas are more furry than mainland echidnas and probably all the cuter for it.

I had the pleasure of accompanying a group of quoll researchers from UTAS / Tasmania Land Conservancy for a morning to check their traps on the property I was staying on. The researchers are investigating why Eastern Quoll populations are declining in the Midlands of Tasmania. They set traps to find and track quolls in the area, and later they will release bred quolls to see if they can bolster the numbers. We went out into the bush at sunrise and checked about 20 traps wouldn’t you know it, they got one! It was a Spotted Tail Quoll, which they let me release it after doing their thing. Such lithe, majestic creatures. This one, they named Himalaya, pranced away quite gracefully when I took the bag off her. Incredible. What a gift. Thanks Rowena for letting me do that!

That morning will stay with me for a long time. Driving a farm ute, a Hilux no less, around the bush at sunrise, amidst the most lovely of eucalypt forest, chatting with new friends, meeting a quoll. Sometimes, we are fortunate enough to have moments where time stops. Or you come out of your internal thought machine long enough to truly see where you are. The fog of thought lifts and sunshine-like clarity of presence takes over. What I find profound about these moments, is that they seemingly come out of nowhere. Sure, sometimes they emerge when you’ve made the intentional effort to do something special, like climbing a mountain at sunrise or getting married (I've never been married, so I can only assume those are equally special). But I think more often the most life affirming moments surprise you. What makes this tricky is these are inherently fleeting. Our days are not filled with them. We have seasons of life that are really challenging, filled with grief, pain, struggle. Seasons where you can forget why you get out of bed, why you even had the dreams you have in the first place. To me, these moments are a salve, an antidote for such dark times. They remind me that it's worth the effort to keep going. That life is so beautiful, so precious, so full of wonder. Seeing the eyes of your friend who loves chocolate more than is advisable by their doctor light up when you give them a piece of luscious dark chocolate. When you hear the full, rich laugh of that friend whose mirth infects everyone around them. When that song that reaches you in your heart of hearts comes on. When your team scores a goal in extra time to tie a match and you realize all is not lost. Anytime you have a blueberry. These are, for me, the moments that make life worth living. They've been happening pretty frequently lately as I’m experiencing so many new things all the time. I mean, I’m living out a dream that has enraptured me for the better part of 2 years; how lucky I am. Even so, it’s easy to get lost in the planning, worrying, and drudgery of everyday life. I have realized that I really struggle with this, have always struggled with this. I’m taking this trip as my opportunity to be better.

Forgive me if this becomes preachy, but we mustn’t take these moments for granted. I believe it’s imperative we don’t. These are the moments that make life special. It’s not the grand gestures, the big events. I mean, those are great. But we most often cling to the little things, the little wonders, when we need encouragement. We aren’t owed these moments, but, we can train ourselves to see them more often. Taking a moment to really hear those birds outside your window, breathe in the smell of fresh bread at the bakery, savor that most certainly GMO-filled, unnaturally plump yet still so dang scrumptious blueberry. I reckon the better we get at that, the most wonder and fulfillment we'll find in our everyday lives.

(And yes, I get that I'm saying this as I traveled across the entire world to fill my life with excitement and adventure. It's one thing to say and one thing to experience! It all makes sense if you read Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces.)

Christmas, but it’s summer?

This is my first Christmas away from home, and my first Christmas down under, where it’s summer. The weather is getting warmer and the days are getting longer, it’s weird! I’m not complaining, I’m thoroughly enjoying the lack of snow and cold. I personally find it hard to get into the Christmas spirit, but that could be that I’m not experiencing my usual Christmas / Holiday events in Montana, seeing Christmas lights everywhere, grumbling about the lack of snow, spending time with friends and family.

Tree Talk

Another aspect of the weirdness of spring/summer in Australia is that new growth on eucalypts is often red. So the healthy little gums we guarded on the farm had red stems and leaves. And sometimes you see big, adult gums that are turning red on top with new growth. In my simple brain, red leaves = fall. The turning leaves aren’t quite like deciduous trees, but it’s close enough that as a Northern Hemisphere dweller it’s confusing. But also comforting, as my brain doesn’t fully recognize that it’s summer, not fall. Anyway, nature is amazing and gum trees rule and I continue to enjoy them more every day.

Music I'm Enjoying

My favorite Christmas album: Yule by Teitur, Dreamers’ Circus & Mads Kjøller-Henningsen

N ú Brestur Á Við Vesteurætt is my favorite on the album and a song that gets me through

Phillips Lake by Dreamers’ Circus - this has a holiday / Christmasy feel to it that is really nice

Fairy Tale by Seori

The band Cry Club - an Aussie band that has excellent rock energy and great production

Nine of Swords is an absolute banger

Quote for Inspiration

Courage,

Trevor

"Fill your life with meaning. Life is precious. Do not waste a single second."

- Rog Bennett

My friend Wyatt reminded me of this quote:

"Happiness only real when shared." Christopher McCandless' wrote this, inspired by this quote from Doctor Zhivago: "and so it turned out only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness."

As you may have expected, instead of writing my next blog quicker, I took even longer to write this one! So it goes. Have no fear, I've been up to many things and having lots of fun. For your reading enjoyment, here are some highlights.

My adventures are happening faster than I can write them down, so I'm a little behind. Expect another photo drop of all the cool places I've been lately, and probably some sentimentality and reflections on the year. Tis' the season. Until next time!

Travel Blog #4

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 08:53:56 GMT

The One Where Trevor Becomes A Shepherd

Just kidding. Probably. Though I have to say, Trevor the Shepherd does have a nice ring to it. And if I’ve evangelized to any of you about the book The Alchemist, you’ll know it’s definitely an omen.

Much has happened since we last spoke! Activities and adventures have come in bursts, so sometimes there’s not a lot going on and not much to write about, and other times there is a ton going on and not enough energy to write about them! So as I’m in the latter, here’s what I’ve been up to. I'll endeavor to post more frequently with shorter posts, but I make no promises :)

Mount Field National Park - Tarn Shelf hike, first Tassie camp and BIG TREES HOLY MOLY

This all started with an urge. A most treacherous urge. An urge like having a small, frail angel on one shoulder and a big, handsome beefcake of a demon on the other. I had an urge to buy new shoes. Or boots. Something, preferably that is at least 50% of my monthly income. Normally, I don’t trust this urge as it typically means I just want to spend money for good old fashioned retail therapy, and well, I really like buying shoes. I popped into one of the many outdoorsy stores in Hobart for a gander, definitely not to buy anything. I found my favorite trail runners and got to chatting with an employee about hiking in Tassie and the pros and cons of trail runners and boots for hiking here. And there just happened to be a pair of Salomon boots that fit me (I’ve never found a pair of Salomon footwear that fits my feet). AND they were 40% off! Don’t mind if I do! However, it was still about 50% of my monthly income still so I decided to think about it and come back if I felt I needed them. Obviously,I came back the next day and bought them. And boy I’m glad I did. It turns out what I thought was a small, frail angel on my shoulder was actually a confident angel speaking words of reason and responsibility in my ear. Because the hike I found myself on was full of slippy rocks, 1+ feet of snow and slush, creeks, the gamut of things that waterproof boots are good for. So very happy I went for it. I’m typically worried about my knee when I’m out of doors, but I decided breaking an ankle is probably actually a bigger concern when I’m out in the bush. ANYWAY, the hike was incredible. Hiking in Tasmania just feels different to what I’ve experienced. The trees have a greyish-greenish quality to them that makes the light coming through the canopy soft and muted. And there is a decent amount of light that comes through as the canopies are tall and the gums don’t have a lot of branches on their trunks. The understory has a plethora of smaller trees and shrubs and super cool ferns, all of which are unfamiliar to me. The mountains I’ve been in so far have a rounded quality to them too. None of the striking peaks of the Rockies, but stunning nonetheless.

My chosen turnout point was at a high point with a sensational view towering above Seal Lake. I had a sort of out of body experience where I saw myself on the map in the Tassie wilderness, sitting on a rocky outcrop, so far away from basically everything and everyone I know. It was surreal. So much time and effort has been made to get to this point in my life and it was actually happening! It was both an intensely lonely and empowering experience. Such has been the experience of travel for me - a mix of extremes with relatively few moments in the middle. Feelings of ecstatic joy, driving my 2002 Ford Laser through a rainforest, seeing trees that are 250 feet tall (more on this later), feelings of pointlessness and lonesomeness just a few hours later after the high wears off. It often feels like an either-or with these experiences. Somehow we have to walk the knife-edge between them and not get drawn in to either side. At least that’s what hindsight tells me. So far, I just get sucked into them and oscillate between them. It’s honestly a lot. It’s vulnerable, fun, exciting, sad, frustrating, all of it. But maybe this is the nature of travel and adventure, where you don’t get much middle ground, mostly extremes: higher highs and lower lows. I'm still trying to figure it out. Either way, I’m learning a lot about life and myself. Shout out to Craig Lawson for reminding me to have fun and “embrace the suck” while I’m here. The hard times are just as important as the good times, maybe more so, and you gotta live them.

Okay, now for the trees.

Tree Talk

Mount Field National Park is one of several places in Tas that have “big tree” or “tall tree” walks. And they clearly don’t believe in hyperbole because “big” and “tall” are simply not the right words. I mean technically they are, and I suppose they save space on the sign postings, but WOW are these trees big units. Eucalyptus regnans, or Mountain Ash /Giant Ash / Swamp Gum are the specific tall trees I saw. The tallest flowering trees in the world and second tallest trees in the world. It’s hard to describe what it’s like being amongst these giants and my photos won’t do it justice. I suppose if you've been to the Redwoods in California you would get it, but I haven't yet so here we are. I had that wonderful experience of smallness. Being a finite human with a short life, cosmically speaking. And these trees live for sooo long and survive so much - storms, droughts, bushfires, tourists with mouths agog starting up at them. Such magnificent creatures. What an honor to be amongst them.

I’ve been trying to figure out what it is about gum trees that excites me so much. Beau Miles, my adventure (and bean ) hero from Australia, turned me on to them with his film Big Gums . But being with them, working to guard and protect them from the pesky deer and sheep, seeing the young ones that are thriving in protected areas, brings me such great joy. I think because Tasmania has such a tragic history of native plants being eradicated by introduced native species and bushfires, that they feel more precious and fragile to me. They also are a bit odd - the shapes they pull, the rough bark on the bottom and colorful striping where the bark peels off, the red colorations in the springtime with the new growth, the smell. I’m drawn to things that are a bit odd, a bit different. Though that’s also only because I’m not from here - they still are foreign and new to me. It strikes me that I don’t know all that much about the native trees of Montana, the threatened species of plants, the invasive species, etc. Another great thing about travel - the newness of an unfamiliar area opens your eyes to what you’ve become accustomed to or ignorant of. I look forward to all that I can learn when I return :)

Ross Workaway

Ross is a great little town. It’s a genuine tourist attraction, mostly because it has a cool, old bridge. To be fair, it’s a really cool bridge. Built in 1836, it has a number of intricate carvings and generally is pleasing to the eye. Is it worth coming all the way to Tassie for? Probably not unless you’re a bridgeophile (is there a word for people who really like bridges? Architects?) There’s also 3(!) cafes, a very good Wool Museum, some old churches, and farms galore. My first impression is that it reminds me of Choteau. I love it. People talk about walkable cities, but no one ever talks about towns so walkable that you can walk the length in 10 minutes!

I’m staying at a farm just outside Ross. I found it on Workaway as it had a title something like “Come help us conserve trees!” to which I said “don’t mind if I do!” It turns out it’s actually quite a large farm with well over 50,000 sheep (I can’t get any specific numbers from anyone, that’s how many sheep there are). My hosts have been incredible. Very welcoming, thoughtful, inviting, inquisitive, thoughtful, all the good adjectives you want in people. I’m staying in the Shearer’s Quarters on this property. It’s quite nice with communal kitchen and living area, which has been great because there was a group of researchers from the University of Tasmania here I got to hang out with a little bit. They’re doing research on the plants, insects, and birds around Tasmania to see what’s living on farms and conservation areas. This farm has both so they have lots of space to do research, and it’s centrally located for traveling around much of Tassie.

I’ve been doing a variety of jobs here - harvesting potatoes, asparagus, and strawberries. Guarding trees - mostly gums and Bursaria - on the conversation areas where they are working on native regeneration. Poisoning invasive trees and plants that are clogging rivers - who would’ve thought I’d be back to killing weeds after all these years? And most excitingly - working with sheep! I got to help out with weaning lambs. We were drenching (essentially force-feeding lambs dewormer), vaccinating, and spraying lambs to prevent flies. I helped out with drenching and honestly great time! I’m having something of an agricultural awakening on this farm. It was quite good to work with livestock, to learn about sheep, sheep farming, farm life in general. The folks I worked with, Lockey, Esta, and Sienna, are really quite delightful people and a blast to work with. Plus, sheep are just cute and hilarious, not to mention rather dim. Most impressive to me were the dogs. The group I was with uses Kelpies, which are part dingo so they have to train them not to eat the sheep! The dogs really want to eat the sheep.

It’s been really fun here so far. I’m learning a ton and yet again my eyes have been opened to all that I don’t know. I’ve realized how ignorant I am of the agriculture in Montana. Another thing to investigate when I return! This work stay has been a great way to get an hands-on introduction into farming and agriculture. I’m also meeting more people and having more human connection in one week than I did in four Hobart. Who woulda thought a town of 400 people would be easier to meet people than a city of 250,000 :) this week has done a world of good for my mentality and attitude - there’s so much to learn, at home and abroad.

Music That Has Moved Me Lately

This album blew my mind and melted my soul:

Lux by Rosalia

These songs gave me comfort and wonder:

Dragonfly by Iris Caitwait

Hard Times by Gillian Welch

City Gardens by Dreamer’s Circus (if you like this let me know - I like Dreamer’s Circus about as much as I like trees and will provide further songs, albums, playlists, recs and extensive and effusive (word for thoughts that’s not thoughts)

Inspiring Quote

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all."

- Thomas Szasz

Courage,

Trevor

"Fill your life with meaning. Life is precious. Do not waste a single second."

- Rog Bennett

Freycinet National Park

Perhaps the most wonderful impromptu hiking adventure I’ve had, ever! My hosts have a property just outside (and I mean just outside) Freycinet National Park and we went there Friday to do some tree clearing and removal. We worked in the garden for the afternoon then my new friend / coworker / sheep farmer and I were free to explore! The beach on Great Oyster Bay was approximately 2 minutes from the property so we walked along the beach for a while, which was great. Tyler is from New Zealand and has been farming for a long while. He’s super cool with lots of great stories and experiences from his days farming in NZ. And he’s a good guy to hang out with to boot. Neither of us had much prep for this trip so we hadn’t planned anything, though we both were interesting in some hiking and exploration. At dinner with my hosts that night, we formulated a plan to do a sunrise ascent of Mount Amos, which has a simply sensational view of Wineglass Bay and the Tasman Sea. Then I would go backpack to Wineglass Bay afterwards and camp there overnight or wherever my feet took me. Mount Amos was so good. It was a pretty tough hike, especially in the dark so early in the morning. There are not many things better in this life than seeing the sunrise over the ocean, and the only way I know to enhance it is to climb a mountain to have a better vantage point. Tasmania is so beautiful. I had seen this view before on Youtube and tourist sights, and it was another surreal experience to realize: I am here, in Tasmania. Realizing the years of dreaming and planning. I am here, facing my fears of solitude and living a life without experiences. I am here, sweaty and tired and cold. I am here. It was really great to have Tyler along for the first part of my adventure. It’s not easy to find people who will do sunrise hikes with you, let alone do them with almost no warning. If I’ve learned anything on this trip - who am I kidding, I’ve learned SO many important things - one of the most important things I’ve learned on this trip is that shared experiences are more special than experiences on your own. So, with that said, after we trapesed down the mountain, I took off on my own for Wineglass Bay. It was a nice walk, apart from the 1000 descending stairs, which is brutal on the ol’ knee. But boy was it worth it. Wineglass Bay is genuinely magnificent. Beautiful clear waters. White sands. Red-orange lichen-covered rocks. Gum trees. Mountain views. Combined with blue skies and the general excitement of being removed from society, what could be better? Though I have to say, walking on beautiful white sandy beaches actually gets old real quick when you wear a pack. Such is life. I got a nice campsite with views over the water, scared off a wallaby, and set to a task I don’t typically allow myself to indulge in - doing nothing. I spent the entire day, and I mean the entire day, reading, napping, and eating. No service, no problem. What a lovely day. It’s so good to spend a full day disconnected from your phone. There’s something different about not using your phone and not being able to use your phone. It releases you from pressure to check socials, email, text friends, etc. If you can’t do it, then you don’t have to worry about it. Just read your book and fall asleep and forget to put sunscreen on your legs and feet and get sunburnt, as is proper!

This artist reminded me of the importance of curiosity:

Gabriel Kahane (specifically the album Book of Travelers)

Photo Drop #1

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 07:09:38 GMT

Photos, Pics, Images

Hi friends!

Here's some of the cool things I've seen so far! A bit of Sydney and lots of Hobart and the surrounding area.

Courage,

Trevor

"Fill your life with meaning. Life is precious. Do not waste a single second."

- Rog Bennett

Travel Blog #3

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 12:03:28 GMT

Hobart Explorations

Workaway

I’ve been in Hobart for a couple weeks now and many things have happened - here’s some notable things I’ve been up to:

I’ve been having a great time at my workaway. My hosts, Bernd and Dani and their kids Felix and Leon are gracious, patient, and generous hosts. It's been a great place to get setup in Australia and it's actually been a lot of fun getting to know them! Bernd is Swiss Australian and Dani is Serbian and they both have had fascinating lives, so I've been learning a lot. I've been doing a variety of tasks during my stay here including: dishes, baking bread, weeding, plastering a section of ceiling, mowing, fixing printers, et cetera, et cetera. There’s lots of little tasks around the property that need doing, so I do my best to be helpful and to learn what I can. Bernd hasn’t kicked me out yet so presumably I’m not doing a terrible job :D

Workaway highlight so far: the Great Chook Hunt! One of the chickens escaped and I chased it around the neighbor with a fishing net on a pole. Just like SpongeBob jelly fishing. And this is when I reflected that it’s nice to be anonymous in a new neighborhood; it’s much easier to look like a buffoon chasing a surprisingly quick chook around in the rain when nobody knows who you are and you’re leaving soon. When you start knocking on doors to see if people will let you chase the chicken out of their backyards, it’s fine to be a soaking wet American with a huge net. At least that’s the delusion I’m working under. I ended up catching the silly bird before dark and met 5 neighbors in the process! Win win!

I’ve acquired a new car!! A 2002 Ford Laser, which is likely the coolest name for a decidedly uncool car. But! I don’t need cool, I need something that is likely to function and get me around, and this car should do that. Oh and also cheapness, that was an important and possibly the most important factor ;) It’s very strange driving on the left side of the road on the right side of the car. It messes with your depth perception and occasionally (let’s hope) you almost turn into the wrong lane into oncoming traffic. After a few drives I’ve gotten used to it and I only turn on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal every other time I try to turn. No where to go but up!

WOW. I mean, wow. What a great place. Trees and ferns and shrubs and fruits and everything in-between. Turns out ferns in the southern hemisphere are quite varied and interesting - goodonya Tassie and New Zealand! The Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens were stunning, but the Hobart Gardens surpasses it for me in terms of sheer stunnification and delight. Not that anyone should compare how stunning trees are. Obviously they’re all great. The Gardens in Hobart are a bit smaller and more compact, which is actually nice for exploring and seeing all the good trees. The highlight for me was the Huon Pine(!) and the Japanese Gardens (can’t wait for March!!). There are Huon Pines in Tassie that are 3000+ years old, which in human years, is very old. Their locations are somewhat secretive as there aren’t many left. They were consumed by the European settlers as the wood is excellent for boat building. Anyway, it’s a great thing to have botanical gardens and green spaces in cities, no matter how close you are to nature. Everyone should have access to majestic plants!

Hike 1) I was feeling pretty smug about hiking in Tasmania as Bozeman is at a higher elevation than most of the state. And we’re quite proud of our mountains in Montana. However, when you’re climbing a mountain around 4,100ft but you start at 300ft, it’s a bit different than hiking the M. Turns out I didn’t bring enough food, water, snacks, or clothes! In my defense, the bike ride to the summit was tougher than I expected.. but more importantly, I did not check how far away the trailhead was, how long the trail was, what the elevation gain would be, what the weather would be, I forgot my trekking poles (sorry Colleen), you get the picture. I made sure to wear a sun hoodie and to bring my puffy jacket, so that’s something. If it’s not clear already, I didn’t make it to the summit. I ran out of food and water and got caught in a rainstorm. Also saw a giant scary snake. It was amazing! Minus the snake part. Not to prattle on about trees even more, BUT hiking amongst gum trees is a big reason I wanted to come to Australia. They’re so dang tall and weird looking and there’s a million types of them. And they smell AMAZING. I don’t have a great vocabulary for fragrances, but I got a lot of sweet, honey-like smells and when it rained, more of the usual eucalyptus smell I’m accustomed to. It’s really quite different from hiking in the pine forests I’m accustomed to. It's so much better than I imagined, which is crazy because I was pretty stoked for it! I ended up doing about 9 miles with about 3000 ft elevation gain, so it was a decent trek. I definitely regretted not having poles on the way down in the rain (ouch!). kunanyi has a lot of ecosystems and landscapes which makes it a really delightful place to recreate. The fog rolled in right as I got to where the good views should be (classic), so instead I got to see a mysterious, foggy rainforest. I’m actually glad for it because it was genuinely magical. All I could hear was the rain, wind, and myriad weird bird sounds. Basically all you want when you’re in a rainforest.

Hike 2) I was determined to reach the summit this time. I decided to take a different route that would be a bit easier and give me a different set of views and ecosystems. I also left earlier, checked the weather, had a vague idea of the trails I wanted to do, and brought lots of food and water and jackets and my trekking poles (you’re welcome Colleen). I can learn! It was SO sunny and warm and perfect. What a day! And what a great mountain! There are tons of trails and cool things to see, and this being Australia, includes a coffee shop halfway to the top. You can drive to the summit, which is nice for those who like or need that sort of thing because it really is an incredible summit. The views are quite spectacular. In one direction is Hobart, another is the ocean, and another is more mountains and bush! The bush part I ended up returning through was rocky and rugged and reminded me a bit of the plateaus in the Beartooth Mountains. Spectacular. This route was also about 9 miles and 3000ft gain, a fair trek for a day hike. If you're ever in Hobart, you gotta get up kunanyi.

Don’t take the people in your life for granted. Let them know they’re important to you, however you can. Buy them a coffee, write them a card, call them to check in, do a chore they don’t like to do, whatever. Do it now, don’t put it off. It doesn't have to be a grand gesture - we all love when people reach out to us, so why don't we do it for others more? We’re nothing without the people around us, and life is all the sweeter for that.

I’ve benefitted SO MUCH from my friends and family, particularly in difficulties I've had in the past few years, not to mention the last chaotic 6 months with my constant moving. I don’t take it for granted and I would not be where I am without you.

Credit to James Clear and his excellent newsletter for this one:

Poet and novelist Hermann Hesse on remaining open and receptive to what the world is offering you:

"When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal... For in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.”

It’s been a very reflective, thoughtful few weeks. All in all, it’s been very good. It’s definitely been an adjustment and it’s not always pretty, or even enjoyable. I’ve had my share of “why am I doing this?!” moments to be sure. But this is not the place for pity parties - challenge, sadness, stress, it’s all part of the game, innit? These are the things that remind us we’re alive.

I think I'll do a photo-centric blog soon to share the things I've been seeing. I post more photos on Instagram, but I know not everyone uses that, and I don't blame you one bit! I'm not very good at describing the hikes and trees beyond "it was amazing! cool trees!!" so I'll find a way for you to see what I'm amazed by :)

Courage,

Trevor

"Fill your life with meaning. Life is precious. Do not waste a single second."

- Rog Bennett

Hiking kunanyi

Royal Botanical Gardens in Hobart

New Car!!

What I've been thinking about:

Good quote

Travel Blog #2

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 11:28:11 GMT

Beginnings, Beaches, and Big Trees

Programming notes: You can now subscribe to the blog to get updates when there are new posts! If you choose to do so, it will function like a newsletter, or a blogsletter, if you will. Okay, on to the main event:

Sydney Day 2

I started my day early, excited to get going and to get out of the cramped hostel. As I learned from my sister (who learned it from our mother, hi mom), I wanted to pack in as much as possible today as I likely won’t be in Sydney again anytime soon. There’s a simple process to achieve this: 1) coffee - flat white with oak milk, naturally, I’m in Straya, 2) acquire snacks and beans to fuel the days activities as meals cost money and take time, 3) in your haste to embark on the adventure forget your new water bottle somewhere so you maintain a steady state of dehydration 4) don’t stop walking!

The botanic gardens were, in a word, sensational. So many good trees! More big trees than you can shake a stick at! Probably the biggest trees I’ve seen in my life, not to mention the succulent, rose, herb gardens and rainforest areas. It is extremely good. Everyone should go if they’re ever in Sydney and also love being around trees so large you can’t capture them in an ultra-wide lens. The path along the water apparently serves as a running path for what I assume are running clubs, though club feels like an understatement when you see more people running than are in most towns in Idaho.

Seeing the Opera House was quite surreal. I’m reminded of Finding Nemo when I see it in photos, and being next to it I felt the same, which probably says something about my personality. It’s massive in person and interesting to walk around as the angles and shapes are just different than what you see in the photos (or Finding Nemo). There’s also a very impressive bridge nearby, which is neat, and you can look at both from the cafe and/or bar under the Opera House. Tourists also need flat whites and glasses of wine, not just opera aficionados.

After a quick nap and lunch, I made my way to Coogee to traverse the Coastal Walk between Coogee and Bondi. It was a beautiful, sunny Sunday arvo (afternoon for you Americans) and a really pleasant walk. It took a couple hours to meander along the paved path amongst the neighborhoods, rocky cliffs, lovely beaches, all filled with sun-soaked mirth and merriment. The ocean was just stunning, gorgeous blues and greens with the sun shining down quite brilliantly. Having spent time in Maine and Long Island recently, the ocean just feels different here. It could be the fact that the beaches are sandy :) I think I was among 3 other people I encountered the whole day wearing sun-smart clothing, or something that wasn’t swimwear. Being a Montanan, cheap, AND bald in Australia, I wasn’t taking chances in the sun or buying sunscreen - a sun-hoodie at all times for me, thank you very much. I finished my evening with my first Australian beer (nope, not Fosters) and the tastiest empanadas I’ve ever had (sometimes you do need to buy a meal after 10 hours of walking when the beans just don’t cut it).

Hobart

I flew to Tasmania Monday morning was overwhelmed by the sense of awe and anticipation, and strangely, familiarity. I have been dreaming about traveling to Australia since the summer of 2023, and Tasmania has been my focus for much of that time. Seeing it from the plane, flying into Hobart, seeing kunanyi, I was genuinely giddy. So many hours researching, planning, and dreaming, and it’s finally here! They say the air in Tasmania is the cleanest air in the world and it certainly felt like it. It was fresh and crisp and bracing compared to Sydney.

Hobart immediately charmed me. I find understanding the vibe of a city sort of nebulous. Sometimes a place feels inviting and welcoming, sometimes indifferent and apathetic, sometimes you have to work to find the secret charms, and sometimes it’s just not quite right. For me, Sydney was the latter. As my friend Caleb remarked, some places you visit and you think, “I’m glad I came” and you’re happy to leave. Maybe if I had more time in Sydney I’d feel differently. At any rate, Hobart has felt very different and I’m looking forward to exploring it more. Tuesday I walked to the city center from my Walkaway to explore a bit and do some work at a cafe. There are cool and interesting shops, many coffee shops, a map shop(!), lots of outdoor gear stores that would be right at home in the Rockies. Expect updates from these stores and all the cool things I learn when I spend more time in the town and get a better sense for what it’s all about, and when I get a sweet map from Geographica.

At the time of writing, I’ve been gone a week, which has simultaneously felt like a lifetime and a single moment. Sometimes two things can be true at once. One significant thing I’ve observed is that when you spend a lot of time dreaming and planning, essentially basing your life decisions on a single goal, it’s easy to expect life to feel different or more significant, like the sun now shines a little brighter or you’ve discovered you suddenly can see a deeper shade of blue, now that you’re living that goal. I knew the grass wouldn’t be greener here in Tasmania and that traveling in Australia would not fundamentally change my life and fix my problems (though one can hope). What has struck is that it feels like everyday life: wake up, do your tasks, decide what and when to eat, talk with the people surrounding you, look out for cool trees and birds. It reminds me of a quote from Douglas Adams’s Life, The Universe, and Everything: “‘the past,’ they say, ‘is now truly like a foreign country. They do things exactly the same there.’”. I don’t feel positively or negatively about this, it just is. It’s actually encouraging because it proves to me that we get to find and create the beauty/meaning/interest/fun for ourselves. If we want to have enjoyable, interesting lives, the onus is on us to make that happen. Learn to delight in the simple things and be curious about others and it probably doesn’t matter where you are. Learn to be okay where you are, in this present moment, and enjoy the beauty and absurdity of life, and you’re on a good path to finding some sense of contentment in life. This is the life we get. It’s unfathomable to consider events that have conspired to get us here to this moment, so let’s enjoy it, shall we?

This week's quote:

“It’s the unpredictable incidents between official events that add up to a life, the incalculable that gives it value.”

- Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust

Powerful lyrics from the song Saturn by Sleeping at Last that remind me not to take this life for granted:

With shortness of breath

I'll explain the infinite

How rare and beautiful it truly is that we exist

Courage,

Trevor

"Fill your life with meaning. Life is precious. Do not waste a single second."

- Rog Bennett

Travel Blog #1

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 08:19:14 GMT

Endless flights and Sydney wandering

Well, 3 flights and 2 days later, I’ve arrived in Australia. 15 hour flights are strange experiences, as it feels like time-traveling: in one sense literally, as my flight crossed the international date line and I’m now +17 hours ahead of Montana, and figuratively, as you go into a sort of trance-like, sometimes hellish state, sitting in a metal tube over 30,000 feet in the air with bathrooms you can barely stand in.

The beauty of long flights is you’re in a world of unreality, where your problems temporarily don’t exist. How to navigate public transportation (can you tell I rarely spend times in cities?), did my bag arrive with all my things in it, do you have to wade through a battalion of spiders to get out of the airport, these problems are not as real as the stiffness of your legs and the numbness of your backside.

All that to say, I feel a bit nervous but mostly jubilant to get off the plane and start the adventure in earnest. There are logistical things to figure out, which always weigh on my brain until I get through them - good thing our worries are almost never as bad as we think they are - then it’s playtime! So much to see and learn and experience! I have a couple days to play in Sydney, then I’m off to Hobart, Tasmania for my first WorkAway! I’ll be spending my year in Australia primarily in Tasmania so I’m eager to get there and get a feel for the area.

I walked around Sydney a bit today, exploring the neighborhood around my hostel, befriending some Sydneysiders, and generally marveling at the wonderful trees that line the streets - big gums galore! Absolute legends. It’s always encouraging to see huge trees that buildings have been built around, as opposed to tearing up trees to build new buildings, then replanting young trees. It takes so long (in human time) for these trees to get as big as they are, so we should treasure them while we have them.

Tomorrow I’m off to walk around the Botanic Gardens and Opera House, and then the Coastal Walk from Coogee to Bondi! Lots of walking - my favorite way to explore!

In addition to recounting my adventures, I'm also going to share quotes / thoughts / questions / fun facts I encounter along my travels just for fun. Here goes:

An inspiring quote from one of the three top movies to watch on a long flight:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

- Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Misc thoughts from me:

Toilets are probably the amenity most of us take for granted - put a few hundred people on a plane for an hour without a toilet and there’s gonna be trouble. For 15 hours? Forget about it.

Until next time!

Courage,

Trevor

"Fill your life with meaning. Life is precious. Do not waste a single second."

- Rog Bennett

tweaver2

Travel Blog #10

Australia is BIG

Melbourne

Canberra

Sydney

Brisbane

Bundaberg

Brisbane Part 2

Sydney Airport

Quote

Adelaide

Travel Blog #9

Goodonya, Tassie

Animals

Cool Birds

Trees

Special moments

Miscellaneous Stats

Hikes (from list above)

Selfies / Beard progression

Travel Blog #8

Magic and Majesty Abound

Tasman Peninsula

Quote

Music

Highland Park Estates

Travel Blog #7

Peace, Gums, and Nyckleharpa

Cockle Creek and South Cape Bay

Reuben Waterfall

Hartz Mountain National Park

Books

Music

Quote

BIG Tree Talk

Cygnet Folk Festival

Travel Blog #6

Adventure and Really Wild things

Narawntapu National Park, Platypus, and The Nut

Rocky Cape National Park, Leven Canyon and Gunns Plains Caverns

Blackmans Lagoon and Bay of Fires

Bruny Island

Launceston

Music for Hope, Sanity, and Peace

Quote for Contemplation

Travel Blog #5

Moments and Wonder

Mountain biking in Derby

Quolls! Echidnas! Birds!

Christmas, but it’s summer?

Tree Talk

Music I'm Enjoying ﻿

Quote for Inspiration

Travel Blog #4

The One Where Trevor Becomes A Shepherd

Photo Drop #1

Photos, Pics, Images

Travel Blog #3

Hobart Explorations

Travel Blog #2

Beginnings, Beaches, and Big Trees

Travel Blog #1

Endless flights and Sydney wandering

Music I'm Enjoying