Today was another fine day with sunshine. We went for a drive to Tahune Airwalk in the Southern Forests. We stopped at Huonville where the kids had at some fun at a playground. Our next stop was Geeveston. There were signs informing us this was where you buy the Airwalk tickets, and although we thought that tickets would have to be sold at the Airwalk we stopped anyway for a look around the forestry centre and, of course, to buy our tickets.
We drove on to the Airwalk, stopping only once to look at the Big Tree. And boy, was it big! It is said to be the biggest tree by mass in Australia. It is slowly dying and shrinking, though, so another tree will take it’s place in the record books in the relatively near future. The photos I took of it don’t really show the enormousness of the tree.
In fact, the forest was full of huge, tall trees, and it was quite impressive walking amongst them. There were signs telling us that the forest was maintained for multiple uses, which is their way of saying that even though we are logging them, there is still plenty of forest for people to enjoy.
The Airwalk was a walkway built at the level of the tree canopy, and from it you had some nice views. There was some movement of the walkway when walking on it, but not much compared to the swinging bridges we walked to after the Airwalk. The walk to the swinging bridges took us through some magnificent forest and then over two suspension bridges that crossed two rivers that met just past the bridges.
We left the Airwalk and went back to Hobart the long way, going through Cygnet and Kettering. There were lots of apple trees and other fruit trees with many being in flower. The countryside was very pretty.
Unfortunately, Nathan fell asleep in the car which meant he wasn’t in any mood to go to bed at a reasonable time tonight. I tried to explain to him that we were planning on getting up very early in the morning so we could catch the ferry to Bruny Island, but he was adamant that he would wake up when he was ready. I think he is in for a bit of a shock tomorrow morning.
Inside the forestry centre at Geeveston
Swinging bridge
