Travel with me to Tasmania, Australia - Cataract Gorge Launceston (Part I)

It's two years back since my mother came over visiting around Easter. For a fortunate stroke of serendipity, my colleague offered a free giveaway offer for the 5 days Tasmania(Australian call it Tassie) tour for 2 people.

I'm not usually a tour group person but my mother loves it. Yes. she might be one of the typical Chinese tourists​ on the big coach you might occasionally see. My mom loves the convenience of being part of a tour group when she travels. It's also better value for what you usually pay for. It allows you to basically "hop on the bus to for napping, and hop off the bus for snapping." Easy peasy.

So we took up on the offer and quickly booked the last-minute Jetstar return flight from Melbourne to Launceston which cost an ​exorbitant amount of money. It's $600 per person which would've been $69 on usual occasion if we lucky to score a deal. I used to travel a lot, and I love great traveling deals.

It was a brief flight from Melbourne to Launceston and we landed on the Good Friday morning. It was slightly colder because we were closer to the South Pole - Or it might just be the "Antarctic Vortex"?

Cataract Gorge Launceston

The driver(and tour guide) picked us up from the airport, we were stoked that there were only five tourists in a Van. Great stuff! We love a small group. The downside is though, most facilities were closed on a public holiday as such. The driver decided to take us to the self-guided nature walk close to the center​ of Launceston City - Cataract Gorge Launceston Walking Tour.

Due to the limited time we have, we didn't take the Zig Zag steep track, leading from Kings Bridge up to the Firstt Basin.
South Esk River carves its way through solid rock and enters the Tamar River Valley - we had a great time wandering into the Reserve on isolated little bush trails.

媽媽兩年都沒有來過墨爾本看我們了。打算趁著這次復活節假期，我們看看去哪裡玩玩吧。十分幸運碰巧的是，我的同事成人之美，剛剛好有兩人同遊塔斯蔓省的團體票。

Jestar 平時特價國內墨爾本忘返機票大概＄69刀來回。由於公眾假期以及臨時預定的原因我們雙人來回機票 ＄1,200 刀。這種跟團舒適旅遊機會難得。我們毫不猶豫的馬上訂機票開展我們的魔法之旅。

一下飛機來到朗塞斯頓機場，司機就接上我們。由於靠近南極，天氣比墨爾本好要冷。幸巧又驚喜的是公眾假期小團只有四，五個人。由於公眾假期，朗塞斯頓城裡基本都關門了。導遊把我們帶到離市區只有15分鐘車程，而且迷人的城市公園卡德奈特峡谷。
卡德奈特峡谷

我們第一景點來到了世外桃源的小峽谷。路基本上不算難走。但由於時間問題，我們還是隨便走走看看，輕輕鬆鬆的欣賞景點, 到處拍拍照。沒有選擇那條最長，橫跨盆地的路。拱橋，叢林，小瀑布，纜車，自然風光還算不錯。