Snug, Tasmania, Australia - Day 1

Sunday, February 16, 2025

It was cold last night. I know we’re technically camping, but we’ve come to expect greater creature comforts with RV travel. The temperature was as low as 32 degrees F overnight and 37 degrees F when we woke up this morning. This RV doesn’t have a heater; only space heaters for when we’re plugged into power, but we weren’t last night.

Mount Field National Park is one of two places in Tasmania that regularly sees snow during the months of June, July, and August. It’s the end of summer here now, so it’s safe to say this area is having a bit of a cold snap.

A fellow camper told Andi she saw a platypus swimming in the river next to the campground yesterday, but I couldn’t will myself outside to look for it in the cold this morning. We packed up the camper and were on the road by 9:00am. Our 2 1/2 hour drive today would take us from Tasmania’s Central Highlands region to the southern portion of the state.

Andi wanted to stop in the bigger town of New Norfolk for some Drano (our RV kitchen sink won’t drain), so he navigated us to a Mitre 10 store. “We should have gone there on the first day,” Andi said when he returned to the RV. “It’s like a Home Depot. They had everything.”

We decided to stock up on groceries at Woolworths while we were in New Norfolk. Wooly’s is the nicest grocery store on the island with the widest selection of produce. We only have a few more days left in Tasmania, so we didn’t go crazy with our purchases. We bought the makings for chicken stir fry and ground beef tacos (called minced beef here in Australia), yogurt, Schweppes Lemon Lime Bitters, and a few snack foods for the kids.

Google Maps led us along a narrow, twisting, one-lane mountain road on our way out of town — thanks Google. “Not the worst road we’ve been led down,” Andi said with a shrug as we rejoined the highway. I was waiting for the blacktop to turn to gravel… a little twitchy about that after our last experience with the blank tank toilet cassette exploding all over, but luckily that didn’t happen today.

The rest of our drive was filled with pretty farmland and sheep. Eventually, we reached the capital city of Hobart and navigated our way through traffic without any issues. Andi is getting pretty comfortable driving on the left side of the road.

Andi booked us a campsite at Snug Beach campground. Snug is a coastal town about 20 miles southwest of the city of Hobart, and a centralized point near Bruny Island and the Huon Valley. Spotty rain showers made it difficult to plan our afternoon. One minute, it was sunny outside; a minute later, it’d be raining. After spending the past two weeks in Tasmania, I’d say that about the weather here — if you don’t like it, just wait five minutes and it’ll change again.

We considered driving to the Snug Waterfall Hike about 20 minutes away, but nobody seemed all that enthused about it. Andi suggested he and I go for a walk around the town of Snug and leave Tory and Aden to hang out in the RV. The kids thought this was a great idea.

Andi and I enjoyed a nice & easy three-mile walk around town. We walked by the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and through several neighborhoods. It was a typical Sunday afternoon with locals busy washing their cars in their driveways, taking their dogs for a walk, or kids playing at the local playground.

When we returned, I made tacos for dinner on the RV stovetop. Making dinner in a rental RV feels a bit like a cooking challenge — what can I make with one pot, a spatula, and a tiny burner?

Andi and I have been talking a lot about the quality of food ingredients in Australia. They’re definitely a higher standard than the USA. There’s no artificial coloring or dyes in products here, and every packaged product (including brand names like Heinz Ketchup and Kellogg’s Froot Loops cereal) have ingredients we can recognize and pronounce. No high fructose corn syrup. The taco seasoning packet I used in our dinner tonight contained the same seasonings I’d used to make taco seasoning at home — simply herbs and spices; nothing extra.

All four of us took showers in the campground bathrooms after dinner, and then Andi and I watched this weekend’s sermon from our home church. Tomorrow, we’re catching the ferry to Bruny Island.