We left the Leisure Ville Holiday Centre nice and early to make sure we were at the airport with plenty of time to load the wheelchair and me.
It is quiet as we leave the accommodation and the light still early. Nothing moves quickly here and we follow a car until the town centre turnoff at about 40 kph. But the airport is only 5 minutes from the Park so we have left plenty of time. Still took a wrong turn - its a little frustrating how long it takes the GPS to catch up with your real-time location. Gosh, talk about first world problems!
The airport is fractionally smaller than Hervey Bay. Yet is it welcoming, friendly and efficient. The first real surprise is the cost of parking - first couple of hours free then $2 per hour. For longer periods, the price drops dramatically. 3 days or part thereof is going to cost us the princely sum of $12! The next surprise was that at 8am the coffee shop opened and the regular travellers, complete with business suits and laptops all queue for their regular.
There are two planes on the tarmac. A Sharp Airlines Metroliner that is our plane for King Island and a Rex Airlines plane. I guess it is heading for either Hobart or perhaps Melbourne. They advise us that they will board us first before other passengers. I took one look at the steps up into the plane - there was no way I could manage them, and there was no guide rail, rather just a rope on either side, We book the wheelchair on as luggage - Sharp have one to take me out to the plane and once there they wheel out a manual lift which I walk on to and they manually crank me up. It feels like I am going to be higher than the plane itself! Once at my regal height, the 'lift' is wheeled the remaining 6 feet to the plane and once the lip is inside the plane, it is lowered so that there is no gap for me to trip on. "Mind your head ma'am" I am advised as a set of hands guides me from behind and another pair welcomes me in to the plane.
We were surprised to see the plane already half-filled. Wow, this must be the plane from Launceston. It carries a total OF 15 passengers and two pilots. Configuration of seven rows of one seat on either side of the aisle plus one row of three at the very rear, adjacent to the divider from the freight half of the plane. Gen and I have two seats 7B and 7C in that back row. We assume that there is no-one in 7A and have to make a mad scramble when a lady, obviously a regular passenger walks down. She insists that she is fine to sit in the centre seat, but thankfully for us (and her) the co-pilot suggests that we would all be more comfortable if she moved to the other single spare seat on the plane. Without request, he brings a seatbelt extender and says that he didn't want Gen to feel like she was being strangled for the entire flight!
After a short safety briefing which entailed an explanation on how to fit a life vest, and how to plug in to the oxygen supply if advised - none of this masks dropping from the bulkhead. There are quiet giggles when I ask if the life vests are all new "Never used" was his quick reply! The taxi out to the runway perimeter seems to take forever. Gen is not the best of fliers and this plane will be the smallest either of us have flown in. She tenses, eyes shut and fists tightly clenched as we roar down the runway and lift into the blue yonder. Today however, it is the white yonder, not blue as there is almost 8/8 cloud cover. Disappointing as I was hoping to get some nice photos of the Tasmanian coast as we flew over, and then of King Island on our approach. The cloud is slowly peeling back from the coast as the rest of the area around Wynyard comes to life. They cling on lingering in valleys.
We reach cruising altitude not too far from Wynyard and from then on, we have a blanket of rolling white below us. The clouds look and behave much like waves with very distinct peaks and troughs. They look snug and cuddly. The light is short - 30 minutes, so its almost a case of as soon as we reach cruising altitude, we are beginning our descent! Gen again gets very tense as we come down through the cloud layer - this is the one bumpy bit on the flight.
I am not sure what I was expecting King Island to look like, but it wasn't this. The land is flatter than I imagine - I mean there are hills, but looking from above, it is clear to me that these are stabilised dunes. There are a million small lakes/ponds/dams. And everything is so dry. The landscape is shades of yellow and light green as opposed to the lush green palette that I had been expecting. Before long, we have touched down and are taxiing to the gate. Gen and I wait on board while all the other passengers alight and then Gen walks ahead of me to the plane door. She alights and I am left at the top of the steps. A lift is being wheeled out - this one motor driven as opposed to the one in Wynyard. Once it is aligned with the door again I step onto it and they lower it ever so gently. I get the feeling that this is not used too often! I am happy to help them all hone their skills 😉. Seeing my wheelchair being unloaded, Gen suggests that we just use ours. Off we head for the terminal, Gen pushing me, me holding the ctutches, Gen also wheeling our carry-on luggage that had been booked as freight and the co-pilot wheeling the lift.
We are back in the land of tourism appreciation. "You are very welcome" is the catchphrase that we are greeted with at every point again. The young lady at the hire car desk at the airport is cheerful and confident. She explains the rules - if the road isn't marked on the map, then the insurance won't cover it. Unsealed roads are fine. so long as it is marked on the map! There is a network of sealed roads and about twice as many unsealed!
King Island is not large at a mere 1,098 sq. kms. But it is the largest island in the New Year Group and the second largest in Bass Strait, between northern Tasmania and southern Victoria. There are three main towns - centrally located Currie (the largest and centre of the Island's administration), Grassy in the south and Pegarah on the east coastline. Once we have the car organised, we decide to drive into Currie, 9kms from the airport to have some brunch. The King Island Bakehouse is renowned, so its here we head.
Gen is ecstatic. Our hire care is a Nissan X-Trail. She sits higher than in the Lancer. While the inside capacity is the same, just the fact that it has a bit more 'grunt' makes her happy. I'm pleased for her! King Island has more than its per sq. km allocation of things to see and do. And that first stop for us is the Bakehouse. They are known throughout Tasmania for their pies. We are standing looking at their menu board when the attendant asks what we want. "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" was my first reply that got a giggle. I really want to try their crayfish pie before we leave here, but fear that it will be too rich at this time of the day. So we settle for plain beef pies, a mini pecan tart and a slice of (sublime) honey cinnamon roulade. Plus a coffee each. we sit inside, out of the wind and slowly savour those morsels of local goodness.
Hunger dealt with we decide to drive north toward Cape Wickham. We start out on the sealed road, but its not too long before "Ooh, that sounds interesting" gets the better of me and we head onto gravel roads. We head for Quarantine Bay where there are the wrecks of four ships in the area. We travel through rolling dunes, miles and miles and miles of them. We see large herds of hereford and black angus bulls. Hundreds to the hectare, literally. I can't believe the load per hectare. It is maybe 100% more than I have ever seen before. The birdlife is amazing. There are flocks of paired Cape Barron Geese, more blackbirds than anywhere else - and they are HUGE. Then there are the domesticated geese being farmed, pheasants that take flight as we pass them. Millions of tiny wrens and swallows flock together in murmurations sweeping through the sky all around us. We saw a solitary eagle soaring on the thermals before diving to some prey we could not see. There was a peacock and two peahens dashing into the briar, turkeys being fatted and the ever-present seagulls - the common white ones as well as the brown Pacific gulls. Yes, King Island is a bird haven. There are a number of hides across the island and April is devoted to a birdwatching and monitoring program.
Moving on we are still driving north - its not far, but the roads need to be driven carefully and slowly. We pass the King Island Dairy, home to the wonderful King Island Cheeses, and we vow to have lunch here on our return trip. Finally we reach Cape Wickham and the Cape Wickham Lighthouse, home to Australia's tallest lighthouse, built in 1861 and then automated in the 1920s. It sends its light far out into the inky depths to the west of Tasmania and was built in response to the numerous ships that had crashed into the rocks of King Island. Initially it caused further sinkings when captains mistook the lighthouse for one on the southern point of Victoria and then turning south and sailing straight into treacherous rocks. Gen takes a walk along the beach and we sit for half an hour, just taking it all in.
Our hunger gets the better of us and we turn south back to the King Island Dairy. The cheese tasting and history building is quiet with only one other couple there. We opt for the cheese tasting - a sample of six of their cheeses: Three Rivers Triple Cream Brie, Victoria Cove Smoked Camembert, Lighthouse Blue Brie, Endeavour Gorgonzola Style Blue, Surprise Bay Cheddar and Stokes Point Smoked Cheddar. I discovered that I do like (good) blue cheese and Gen is finally developing a palate for cheese (yay!). We also had a Baked Brie with walnuts, thyme and local (manuka) honey. Oh it was so good. we bought some souvenirs and have sent some cheese home. We will host a cheese tasting when we get home - better let us know if you want an invitation! In order to get them home, we rush back to Currie so that we can make the post. Our parcel will be kept refrigerated until it leaves the Island! Guess we aren't the first to do this.
The afternoon is drawing to a close, so we head to check in to our accommodation. Boomerang By the Sea. Set on the edge of a cliff with views out over a rocky cove we hold high hopes. Not fully dashed, but this property is very quiet and looks very tired. There are three rooms being checked in today - we know this because there is a sign on the reception door with our names and room numbers, and the advice that keys are in the doors! Talk about trusting! However, we know that there is at least one policeman on the Island because he was eating his morning snack at the same time as us in the bakery this morning - and its not easy to flee the island!! Still, the room is clean and the bathroom is accessible. Turns out Monday night is everyone's night off with the exception of Wild Harvest - the paddock to plate restaurant in Grassy. We phone expectantly, but they are booked out all month. So we head down to the King Island Hotel for dinner tonight. Very pub food, my Schnitzel was tasty with herbs and cheese in the crumb and Gen's Eye Fillet was cooked to perfection - blue but not leaking blood! She was happy. She was going to have vegetables instead of the house salad but at an extra $6 she decided no. Its easy to understand, we saw potatoes at $5.8/kg, mandarins at $15/kg and capsicum was $16.6/kg. Turns out, vegetables are at a premium here!
Day 1 of 3 done, we are tired and heading for bed. Tomorrow we will head to the south to Grassy and a Calcified Forest. Sleep well.
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