When I woke up, we had arrived at Mt Field National Park. We had the opportunity to get off the bus for about an hour to check out scenic Russell Falls, but that's about it. It brings to mind why I'm a little leery of tours, despite the convenience of someone else doing the organising: I could have spent a week here at the park, exploring gorges, glaciers, rainforest, and mountains. Regardless, the sun was now out, the first time I'd seen it in days, and it made for a good walk to stretch my bus-cramped limbs.

That night, we returned to Hobart to relax in the Allport Hostel once again. I reclaimed my towel, and the following day, picked up my stanky laundry from the Tassielink, making sure to avoid the bus driver who had had to deal with my mess. I was feeling whole again, though not quite well-rested. My dreams of a long sleep-in were squashed when the scratchy-voiced kid who was in my room (just listening to him made me want to clear my throat), booked on the next round of Under Down Under, decided to sleep in, then take forever in the shower. At 7am, I was woken by a pounding on the door, which didn't cease until I stumbled across the room to answer. Once we figured out the kid was in the bathroom and mentioned that the bus was waiting, he still took forever, meaning that the new tour guide was standing in my room loudly urging him to hurry. The pillow couldn't block any of this out, so I gave up and started my day.
Sunday continued to be quiet and a little rainy, so thankfully for me, Planet of the Apes was on TV, rounding out the requirements for a lazy day.

Nothing else too eventful happened, except for an interesting conversation I had with an older woman named Linda who was staying at the hostel. We starting chatting about Canada, since she tries to spend at least six months a year there, finding it a nice alternative to her native Australia. The conversation turned to music, and I learned that she had been a singer. Since then, however, she had been travelling the world pursuing knowledge of alternative healing and expansion of her third eye awareness. It seems she had been having visions since she was a girl, and had denied they existed until a particularly profound event in her early 20's, which she neglected to go into. This experience made her believe in re-incarnation, and she has been letting her intuition guide her in reconciling wrongs that had occurred in her past lives. I was fascinated, as I have a scientist's scepticism of this sort of thing, yet the want of a dreamer for it to be true. Also interesting was that this had been the second such encounter on this trip. Oh, and apparently 2010 will be a big year for me, a shame since I was hoping 2006 would be the one revealing big things.

The next morning I was up and waiting for my airport shuttle, feeling magical from my mystical encounter the night before. I'd lost the return voucher somewhere in the wilds of Tasmania, but the driver took mercy on me and let me ride anyhow. Good karma indeed. I was about to begin the last leg of my Australia trip, and as I boarded the airplane, I rubbed my hands together at the thought of the music and people Melbourne had waiting for me.