Travel Blog #8

By Trevor Weaver • February 26, 2026

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 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.

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.