Tassie – Great Eastern Drive to Freycinet

CZ is an excellent toddler travel companion, but our past few car-rides produced a fair bit of boredom and car-sickness. Thus we structure our road trips around nap times. Here are our plans:

1. Leave Hobart early in the morning,
2. Enjoy a segment of the Great Eastern Drive to Freycinet National Park,
3. Have a picnic lunch,
4. Hike a few shorter beach trips
5. Grab dinner, and be on the road again by 6pm to make it to Weegena (our farmstay) by 9pm.

As often happens with children, things did not go quite as planned, and we left Hobart at nearly 10am. Add in a stop for groceries because I wast nervous about our food supply, given the lack of internet and remote location at the farmstay, and it was even later before we were really on the road.

Regardless, the drive from Hobart to Freycinet was quite lovely, with lots of opportunities for road-side stops take landscape photos, mini beach treks, or our frequently required nausea relief breaks in response to CZ’s trademark car-sick cough. As suspected, many of the family-owned roadside stops and petrol stations were closed for the week of Christmas in Tassie, and I was very happy with our grocery delay in the end.

About two hours into the drive, we pulled off to stretch our legs, and delightedly explored a small, rocky beach. We ate PBJ sandwiches and other snacks, while discovering little treasures like clusters of plum mollusks hidden between the large stones. CZ was entranced by the white sand, and apparently she thought the seaweed looked tasty.

An hour or so later, about 10 minutes from the park entrance, CZ started her “I’m going to throw up in the next 3 minutes if I don’t get out of the car cough.” With minimal panic and yelling, we flew down the first gravel entrance that appeared, and hurriedly unstrapped her from the car seat, with seconds to spare before an epic backseat mess. Turns out, we unwittingly stopped at the newly opened Devil’s Corner Wine Cellar Door and Lookout.

The brand-new area consisted of several tourist information booths, a wine tasting room, an outdoor cafe, a lookout tower, and multiple bathrooms. We looked around a bit, but not being big wine drinkers, we spent most of our time exploring the tower. The views are actually quite expansive from the top (which is only a few floors), and you can see over the vineyards to the cape below. Notably, the grate enclosure is large enough to stick a camera lens through – a very important feature, and small enough not too worry about little ones squeezing through – an even more important feature. 

Feeling energized from the break, we got back into the car and headed on towards Freycinet National Park and Wineglass Bay.