Kia Ora was yet another beautiful location deep in the wilderness. The scenery was fantastic, but you had to keep your eyes out for a few dangerous animals: Ants and snakes. Tasmania has a type of ant called a Jack Jumper Ant (Myrmecia pilosula), which is venomous and highly aggressive. They jump up and down when they’re angry, which is where they got their name from. After a long day of hiking, your first instinct is to remove your hiking boots and let your feet rest, but you have to remember to be very careful not to step in the wrong direction; otherwise, you’ll be in severe pain from the tiny critters.
Every native snake you come across in Tasmania is venomous, so you also want to be careful where you step for other reasons. There were a few instances of these Tiger Snakes, Lowland Copperhead Snakes, and White-lipped Snakes lying out across the hiking trail getting some sun to warm up. Fortunately, they were far less interested in us than in small prey, so we just had to be careful not to alarm them as we proceeded down the path.
It helped to have elevated boardwalk walking tracks and tent platforms available to us along this circuit and at these camping areas so we didn’t have to worry as much about the ants and snakes in their environments.
The hike from Kia Ora to Windy Ridge was about 9.6 km and took 3.5-4.5 hours to complete.
While we were slogging away with our full backpacks, schlepping from hut to hut, others were taking the much cushier and expensive option of just walking the track and having their stuff handled for them while staying in private huts with warm meals provided. You could immediately tell who was who along the way. One such encounter happened at the following waterfall, where a group of unfit walkers came to enjoy the view with us – only to light up cigarettes in our midst and show a total disregard for the pristine environment. It was quite disheartening, to say the least.
