~ 14th November 2015 ~
I had to take the wheel and we zoomed off from Launceston to Freycinet National Park which took almost two hours. It's horrible that we did not have lunch. We had no time for lunch, then we vowed not to torture our stomach for our future trips. We said that in year 2014 after our Taiwan trip yet we were doing this to ourselves again.
The national parks come with a fee. We paid for the car. There's no time to be on foot to a few sites all at once. We went down to Honeymoon Bay first as it was the nearest to the carpark. It was really beautiful. Sitting on the rock was comfortable as well. I just love the sea minus the sand. Looking at rock formation is one of my hobbies, I should say.
Then, the navigator cum time keeper shooed us back to the car. The next stop was the Wineglass Bay hike. If anyone wants to travel with us, hiking is top in the list yet none of us like hiking on normal days. It's just crazy... steps and more steps which we hated most. But we wanted the best view. Best view will be view from the top. Going to top requires hiking. Argh~! Wineglass Bay was a total disappointment on that day. Due to the cloudiness, without the blue sky that reflected on the water, it became greyish. Totally unlike what we have seen while searching on Google or maybe because those photos in Google have been heavily edited until there was no truth in the photos anymore.
We had to hike down to the carpark and took another route that would lead us to Cape Tourville Lighthouse and Lookout. The wind was so strong and chilly. We did not spend much time there because we felt that we did not have enough layers of clothing. The teeth were shattering like those horror cartoons.
The last stop was Sleepy Bay. The were squarish holes on the rocks which I think you could hibernate inside. We did not walk all the way down to the bay. It was too long a walk and all four us were not that adventurous to walk all the way down. There some things left best for the camera to work on.
Sunset was around 8p.m. so it was still bright at around 7p.m. We did not realize that we were in the wilderness. Our petrol level started to blink. We had to drive another 2 hours plus to be back to Hobart town. We went on a frantic search for petrol station and we found one outside the national park. It was a rather small town, smaller than Pekan Balik Pulau. We were also very thirsty and hungry~!! To our horror, the petrol station cum convenience store was CLOSE~! Close at 5p.m., two solid hours ago. We almost fainted.
Then we found another one further away while the petrol level was threateningly low. I have driven before at such dangerous level but in Penang, petrol stations are easy to find. The other station next to a bar was also close. There was no credit card purchase of petrol as well. The pump handles were removed as well. We were about to break down mentally. Pinky said she would never forgive me if we have to sleep in the cramped car in the wilderness with the temperature falling. And we were so hungry, we could eat anything that comes our way.
I went down to the bar to seek help. A guy said there would be another station in the next village. That would take more than 30 minutes to drive. Mr. Ma couldn't drive under such pressure and the navigator was about to faint. I drove while praying hard that the petrol level would stay at its spot, which it did. This is one of the very reasons why I love to travel. God answers prayers on immediate effect whenever I'm out of the country. Amen~! We finally found the petrol station, I drove around all 6 pumps only to be left dismay. We almost cried our eyes out when we saw that all pumps were of no function at all. There was a little cafe by the corner and we walked over to buy water. We wanted to eat but feeding the car seemed to be of utmost importance and we wanted to get out of this place to be back in Hobart Tower Motel.
A guy parked his car outside and told us there's another station with one workable pump just a few streets in front. We left and I think I can sing and dance right there. Then we encountered the greatest problem. We had no idea how to open the petrol flap. In the end, I pressed on every button that's on the car. I had no idea which button opened it but when it was finally opened, we were laughing so hard. Pinky swiped her credit card and we decided to pump it to full tank no matter how expensive it was. The old pump was gurgling away and finally the car was fed. We forgot our own hunger. We were just bursting with such happiness that could not contain within ourselves. It was our happiest moment~!
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