I arrived in Melbourne, totally jetlagged at 5 AM on Good Friday morning and caught a taxi to the St Kilda suburb, where our hosts, John & Yas, live. Mike had arrived in Melbourne two days earlier and opened the door with a hangover, as he'd been out with the John & Yas the night before. I went straight to bed and all 4 of us woke up at about 12.30 pm.
While i was waiting to board my flight in Singapore, Mike had sent me a text asking: "would you fancy spending the weekend with John & Yas and a couple of other people in Tasmania, rather than Melbourne?"
Well, it turned out on Friday morning that the whole question was a bit of an understatement! In fact, the plan was not to go to Tasmania, but a tiny uninhabited island, the Three Hummock Island, 8x8km, just off the northern tip of Tasmania. But that was not the whole story. We were going there by plane, which was flown by a friend of John & Yas (another John), who was a pilot. But that was not the whole story. We, the six of us, were going to be the ONLY people on that island for the weekend, except for the 2 caretakers of the homestay where we were staying at!!!
If you every fancy a true escape to an island, i can definitely recommend this one. here is the website : www.threehummockisland.com/au
Interestingly, the island was formerly inhabited (and to date a part of it still belongs to) the family of Eleanor Alliston, an English writer, who emigrated there with her husband after World War II, to write books. Obviously, I had to buy one of her books ("Escape to an Island") which I am sure makes great holiday literature...
So, we arrived there in our very private "Jet", were picked up by the caretakers and "checked in" at our accomodation: a small rustic lodge at the southernmost tip of the island. View from the front door: white sandy beach and blue sea. View from the back door: wild geese and countless kangaroos!!!
All in all, you can imagine that the weekend was pretty mindblowing. The idea to have a whole island to yourself is simply priceless. It was also the perfect contrast to noisy India and capitalist Singapore, and nothing beats walking along a beautiful empty beach.
There was of course the odd moment where you could think that you were in one of those Amercian horror movies, where suddenly the nice guy who flew the plane ran off and left us all stranded, or the nice caretakers turn into brutal murderers...
Only joking ;-)
I am truly grateful for this unique experience. And i think kangaroos are the cutest animals in the world (see photos). They are so funny. When you walk past them, they will look up and stare at you. Looking as if they were thinking "I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me to see me looking back at you". But if you try to go any closer, the will quickly run away. Eh, pardon me, bounce away.
