Tasmania (Days 18-26)

Tasmania was the holiday within a holiday, if you know what I mean. Although we had planned to meet up with some friends later in the week, and I was due to be best man at a wedding towards the end of our stay, we took things relatively easy considering we were here for over a week.

Hobart is another big port and is not unlike Sydney in that regard, with a population of just over 200,000 though, you cannot say that it is over run with people, locals or tourists. This is Hobart's and Tasmania's charm. It is still off the beaten track, but one wonders for how long?

In the lonely planet's blue list book Australia is listed as the number one destination and within Australia, Tassie is listed as "the region of choice." I am sure they are aware of the irony that by recommending a place for it's isolation they are undermining the very reason for picking it in the first instance.

Here's a few pics of the port to give you an idea of what it is like.

The bride, or should that be the bride's parents, or should that be both (diplomatic to the last) were good enough to put us for the first few days in Hobart. I mean they only had the small matter of a wedding less than seven days away to worry about. Who couldn't do with visitors to entertain at a time like that!

We arrived late Friday night and were looking forward to going to the toilets and freshening up before we collected our bags and headed into the arrival hall where, the future, bride and groom were due to pick us up. Little did we know that the baggage reclaim was the arrivals hall! The groom confirmed that the area we were in was brand new and a couple of month's previously we would have been picking out our own bags from the back of a trolley in a shed. Like I said it's off the beaten track.

The first thing we did on the Saturday was got to the Salamanca Markets. There are really great markets and the best we were at in Australia. The market is not full of tat and general crap, but proper crafts people and artists selling their wares. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera on the day of the market so the picture below is one I "borrowed" from another web site.

The next day the groom borrowed the future in laws car and took us up to Mount Wellington. Given the name we felt we couldn't give it a miss. It was a fantastic day and the visibility was excellent, you could see the whole of Hobart and beyond.

There is a sheltered look out area at the top of the mountain here's a pic of it and one of Sharon with the future groom. The groom is doing his "I'm a little tea pot impression!"

On the way back we decided to take a minor detour to Cascade Brewery. Tasmania has two main breweries, Cascade, in the shadow of Mount Wellington and James Boag from Launceston up North. In Cascade you can get a paddle of it's six beers and have a little taste of them all. They give you an A4 sheet explaining the various types, they even have a stout. Here's a few pics.

After that we headed back to Newtown where we were staying.

We did a bit of exploring around Hobart ourselves during our time there and here's a few pics.



There are some really nice walks and areas in Hobart. The pic above is of Battery Point, where there are lots of B&B's, cafes etc.

That was our first few days in Hobart, on the Monday, Day 20, we headed onto Bicheno, where friends of ours were due to join us on the Tuesday evening. There will be more on the next post.

Cathal