Our next stop was in Northern Tasmania in the port of Burnie. We were docked in a working port again with one of the biggest pile of woodchips I have ever seen…and I live in a lumber area. The woodchips are loaded on ships and sent to Indonesia. Indonesia sends it back as paper. They bussed us to the city where the mayor of the town jumped on each of the cruise ship busses and welcome us to her town. It was really kinda nice! 2/3 of the population of Tasmania lives in the northern part of the state. A lot of produce is grown here: cherries, carrots, potatoes, and poppies. In order to not have people stealing poppy plants, the poppy fields are mixed with another type of poppy that will make you very sick. All poppy fields are watched on closed circuit video now as well. Hay is exported north to Australia for feed. Blue berries are grown in pots in hothouses with raspberries between the blue berry plants to attract bees. Tasmania is very green until the 1st week of January and then turns yellow within a week. We took a bus up into the hills to Wings Reserve – the Wing family has been farming for 8 generations. They started a wildlife reserve and enjoyed saving animals. I was able to hold Warren, the 8-month-old Tasmanian devil. He was a sweety, but I did get a little nervous when his mouth wondered close to my arm holding him. My sister-in-law got to hold Stevie, the wombat baby. Then there was Penny, the baby Wallaby that was cute as a button as well. What an experience! We wondered around the Wings Animal Preserve for a couple of hours before heading back to Burnie and walking the beach for a bit.
Messina Musings 