I was living in Melbourne at the time and had done a fair bit of travelling around Australia with the luxury of having my car. I had met lots of other backpackers travelling around by lots of other means. I thought I might give it a try with out my car which might be a good experience if I was to head overseas.
A short trip to the Island state of Tasmania was a perfect trial and saved me a few dollars not having to put my car on the ferry.
As usual it didn't take long to meet some like minded travellers doing something similar, just roughing it and sleeping on the chairs during the overnight ferry trip.
It's really testing my memory but I am pretty sure I had no real concrete plans for Tasmania and ended up in Launceston after getting of the Spirit of Tasmania ferry in Devonport. I got talking to another backpacker "Su" from the UK who was keen on doing some cycling touring around and ask if I had ever thought of it, sure l said weather looks nice it could be fun, An hour later 5 random people were walking down to a Launceston bike shop looking to hire bikes and get info.
After hiring 5 bikes we decided on a short test trip and cycled from Launceston to Deloraine and a near by waterfall. One of our group only completed the first day to Deloraine and had to catch the bus back to Launceston with her bike on the bus.
After Su and I made it all the way down the East coast to Hobart (about 400km) we put the bikes on a bus and I escorted them back to Launceston.
Next up I tried some hitch hitching and made it out to Cradle Mountain and down the west coast to Strahan.
I did not really like hitch hiking so it did not last long and a only had a few days left so after Strahan I hired a car to check out a few more of the tourist sites.