From the land under the land down under

After our first few days in Sydney, Roger & I flew to Tasmania.   We hadn't been before and it was our plan to do the whole island in 5.5 days.  We arrived Sunday afternoon and were leaving Saturday afternoon.   However after Roger had done an in-depth study of the guide book he decided we didn't have sufficient time so we decided not to do the West Coast.   This is a photo heavy post - and there are so many more I could have shared with you.

On Sunday evening and all day Monday we concentrated on Hobart and the surrounding area.  The hotel on the first night was here - the building on the quay behind the boat.

On Monday we drove to the top of Mount Wellington where we almost got blown away by the wind.  The strength of the wind was actually quite frightening, but the view was amazing - if a little hazy!

We went to MONA - the Musuem of Old & New Art.  Apparently it's raison d'etre is to make viewers uncomfortable.  This was the only exhibit that I liked.  Cascading water that wrote words.

 

Everything else was not just uncomfortable, it was so far out of my comfort zone as to make me feel ill.  We left fairly quickly.   Apparently this goldfish installation was okay because they didn't use the same fish for each session!

 I quite enjoyed this notice in the car park.

We did a self-guided walking tour of Hobart.  I liked these sculptures.

Tuesday was an exceedingly hot day and we spent most of it in the air conditioning of the car.   We stopped off at various picturesque places along the East Coast.

And stopped at an ice cream farm set up by an ex-pat Brit.

Wednesday was somewhat cooler and we started off by visiting a waterfall.

We arrived in Launceston and walked into town and along one side of the gorge to the end and then climbed up the side of the gorge to walk back to the town.

The peacock was displaying at the mid-point of the walk.

On Thursday we drove from Launceston across the middle of Tasmania ending up in a place called Hamilton.  It was a bit of a one horse town!   The tourist office had found us a cottage to stay in.  The town supposedly had 4 places where you could eat.  One of them did breakfast and lunch, one of them only did lunch, the pub that served dinner was shut, so that left us with the only place that was open.  Fortunately the food wasn't too bad but if you're travelling through Tasmania I would give Hamilton a miss.  However we did see a wallaby during our travels that day.

On Friday we travelled across the middle some more and down into the Port Arthur peninsular.  We stopped off to check in at the Norfolk Bay Convict Station.

We were so glad we did as the owner gave us lots of advice about what to see in the area.  He also suggested we went on a boat trip which we booked for the next day.   We carried on to the Port Arthur historic site.  A short boat trip was included in the admission and then we walked round the site.

The view from the boat of the convict colony.

The view from the prison although I doubt the convicts really appreciated it.

Then we went to some coalmines where some of the convicts worked.   This was a timeline marked out with chains.

 And the view from a prison cell.

Our last day in Tasmania consisted of a boat trip and the flight back to Sydney.  The boat trip turned out to be one of those fast boats where you get wet!  However the boat was only driven fast between interesting points to take photos and then we were given lots of time to take photos.  The geology was fabulous.

A New Zealand Fur Seal

This wave crashed right over the boat

Australian Fur Seals

Apparently this was a calm day!  Heaven help those who go on a rougher day!

I hope you've enjoyed a short(ish) tour around Tasmania.   There's one last post about the rest of our visit coming soon.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice