Hello All,

I'm coming to explore Tasmania during Xmas in dec and will stay thru mid Jan 2012.
Thinking of doing a road trip and kite along the way while exploring the island.

Any good ideas for a road trip are greatly appreciated. What are your favorite beaches? How should I structure my trip to see most of the island attractions and to kite as well.

Questions:

1. Road trip itself. Where to start , where to go , where to kite along the way. I'd like to combine the sightseeing with kitesurfing if possible.

2. Is Dec/Jan windy time in Tasmania? I'm still coming, but if it is not windy during that time, I will not bring my gear.

3. Where to stay along the way? Please recommend some not too expensive accommodations near the locations that are kitable.

4. What are the MUST see attractions in addition to kitesurfing. It is a one in a lifetime trip to such remote place for me, so it would be a waste if I only kite-surfed and did not the island itself. Again, I"m looking to combine the two pleasures and any advice on the effective way of doing it is appreciated.


5. How long to come for? Is 2 weeks enough to really explore the island? I could stay for 3 weeks if that is better. The question is is 3 weeks too long?

Thank you all in advance,

-D.

Oh that's funny Funky,
I guess we don't really want anyone to know that there is some quite awesome kiting in Tassie.

Are we allowed to tell people of the kiting locations though???

Fun2Kite - bring your kites. There are some top locations to kite.

p.s. the wall of 200+ vag. is true.

p.s.s. I did a quick tour around Tassie last year in 5 days - that is clearly not enough time!!!!

Funkyllama,
Thank you for your response. I'm now a bit confused as second response contradicts your wind assessments. Please tell me you were joking about no wind. My vacation would be destroyed if I left my gear home and then found good wind on the beach.

And if there is wind in Tasmania, please help a kitesurfer from Hong Kong desperate for some ridding to find a few spots on the way to satisfy my addition.

I would arrange my road-trip around the kite spots on the island. so would really appreciate help with it.

Any custom windguru spots you guys can share with me to look at stats?

And what kite sizes would I need?
Any wetsuit? or summer is warm enough to kite without any wetsuit?

-D

funkyllama said...


fun2kite I'm going to refer you to my travel agent to get you started. Not being harsh, it depends on what you rate more: seeing the wall of 200+ vaginas at mona or fanging down mt wellington on a mountain bike. Or both.
www.tasvacations.com/404-not-found.html

In brief:
1. When you plan via map, add 30% travel time to your estimates
2. No, no, no it doesn't get windy in tassie... But Perth has stacks of it.
3. Tassie's not like the east coast of Oz with accommodation. Tent or camper are usually the best bet to be flexible
4. Must sees. Salamanca Market. Taste of Tasmania. Sydney-Hobart yachtrace. Mt Wellington lookout. Port Arthur ruins. Doo Town. Tahune Airwalk. Shipsterns Bluff. Wineglass Bay. Bay of Fires. Cradle Mountain. Stanley Nut. Russell Falls. I've probably missed heaps.
5. Depends how fast you drive!!!

Voitek said...



Are we allowed to tell people of the kiting locations though???

Fun2Kite - bring your kites. There are some top locations to kite.

Bring the kites man. There are plenty locals happy to show you around spots when its on, even better if you could make it to a ducks http://www.tksa.org.au/The-Ducks-Nuts and get the details on the primo kite spots and have a bbq with us.

I'll inbox you with specifics if you know which parts of the coast you want to hit up, you gotta narrow it down otherwise we'll all be writing to you for a loooooooong time.

Don't be fooled - Tassie is in Australia, but its a whole cooler climate down here.

Google earth. Stanley. Nw coast.
It gets wind all the time and you can kite any wind direction, stay for a while if you kite a twin tip.
Stay at the caravan park and kite from your cabin.
My 2 cents.

Guys, couple more questions:

1. End of December: do I bring a long wetsuit to Tasmania or shorty? if long wetsuit: is 4/3 mm enough?

2. Is there a flat beginner bay on East Coast where I'm staying for first week? Girlfriend is a beginner and needs easy conditions.

3. Where do you recommend to hang out for Xmas and New Year's Eve?
We are looking for a good party in Hobart.

Thanks you!

-D.

funkyllama said...

fun2kite said...


Any custom windguru spots you guys can share with me to look at stats?

Its all pretty untapped and wild here, we wouldn't have it any other way. It can go from 10knts to 30knts in an instant, and back again. Best site to use is www.bom.gov.au/tas/observations/coastal.shtml for current observations, and find the site closest to where you want to kite.

Sharks hey. Only much as any other stretch of coastal water in Australia. don't really see them but sure they're there somewhere. hopefully well fed.

not really a consideration for us most of the time, definately not infested with them and encountered all the time anyway.

we get fish running, seals, dolphins and the migrating whales so can only assume we get the big guys as well?

Heaps of sharks down south, best stay up north, body dragging is normally called trawling in Tassie !! Stanley goes off at XMAS and NYE.

PS: Mainland kiters that ask a lot of questions are very easy trargets to !!!

PSS: Ex locals that have moved North to the mainland are not to be trusted and have a fear of sharks.

Stay safe.

fun2kite said...


Are there lots of sharks in Tasmania?

Does the pope sh!t in the woods?
We keep them as pets and train them to eat non-locals, don't believe me? Check out this training video:



And here's the sharks brother, from the same batch of eggs but not raised in captivity. He'd just eaten the fishing boat - the guys filming are in the escape dinghy that had almost run out of fuel as they were trying to get away, and could only putt along at 5knots on the auxiliary engine:

Hello All,

We are back from Tasmania after 3 weeks of great fun. Thank you all who helped with info and advice. Huge thanks to Voitek, for his time and help while we were in Tassie.

We really enjoyed the island. The scenery, people, wine, food, wind. Everything was great. I wish the weather was less volatile, but that would be too much to ask for :-)

With that, you guys should be the first ones to see the video I just made about the trip. Hope you enjoy it, as it shows the places you should be very familiar with. I'm not a pro with video making, so don't be harsh on comments :-)

Here it is:

Enjoy and wish you all good winds and a great 2012 year!

-D