Advertisement
Published: February 23rd 2007
Edit Blog Post
Hobart from Mount Wellington
Hobart in all it's glory..roughly arouund 200000 people live here. Now that I finally made the decision to leave Melbourne...well it wasn’t that I really needed to make that decision, just actually book something to make leaving the city concrete and not something to do next week…Tasmania became the next stop on my trip. Tasmania is similar to Newfoundland in Canada, or any other state/province that can lay claim to the fact it is their countries whipping boy. The mainland continuously makes jokes about Tassie and will look for remnants of a second head if you say you’re from there!
My flight over from Melbourne didn't leave until 6:40am and since I needed to take the airport shuttle at 4am, that left me with 2 choices; try and pull a quick little nap before catching the shuttle of head to the bar until it closes and then waste and hour in the TV room before catching the late night/early morning shuttle. Needless to say, the later won out which left me pretty tired once I arrived in Hobart. My frend Heather, who I initially met in Europe during my tour there a couple years ago, was gracious enough to pick me up at the airport and also give me free
Hobart from Mount Wellington
Hobart is similar to Vancouver since it is right next to a "mountain" or a glorified hill as I like to call it. accomodations while staying in Hobart. Turns out that she was dropping off her boyfriend at the airport that same morning for an early flight as well so we were both pretty tired. That didn't stop us from seeing some of the sites of Hobart though!...okay, from her showing me the sites.
We started off with a quick little breakfast where we caught up over last years endeavours, and then went to the top of Mount Wellington, which is the largest "mountain" around Hobart rising 1270m. Initially, there were a few clouds around the top which looked like it might obscure the view, but once we got there the clouds were gone and the views were stunning. After the mountain, it off to Heathers place to settle in and let her get ready for work. She works as a Radiologist at the hospital and is shift work so while she got ready for her 3pm shift, I set up for an afternoon walking around the town.
Being only a town of around 200000 people, the downtown core isn't that big and you can pretty much walk anywhere you need to go in short order. Heather dropped me off at
From the Top of Mount Wellington
This is the town of Kingston just south of Hobart. Can also see where the Derwent River runs into the Tasman Sea. the visitor info center and I proceeded to wander around town seeing all there was to see. Heather's brother was looking for something to do with the free time he had on his hands so offered to give me a tour that evening so took him up on the offer. He took me out to where the Cascade Brewery was located and to the Sandy Beach suburb where there is a nice beach within the city and also where all the multi-million dollar houses are located. We finished that up with the supposed best wood-fired pizza ever! and then called it a day for some much needed rest.
It was kind of refreshing to have Heather and her brother go out of there way to show me around their home town since that is how I would be with anyone coming to my place back in Canada. Whenever I'm not working, I would be showing something else to them and try and make sure they had an easy go while in my town...I was even going to book time off work and rent a car when a friend was coming over to visit but that ended up falling through
From the Top of Mount Wellington
Initially it appeared that the clouds would obscure the views from the top but you could see surprisingly far and make out everything the panoramic info boards pointed out. at the last minute. Everyone always says that they would love to show off thier home town to you and are eager for you to get there but then it almost seems like you're too much effort for them to spend more then a couple hours with you once you're there. Not that I'm complaining or anything since I know they have their lives and what not and I'm more then capable of seeing things on my own, it's just nice to know other people mean what they say and aren't just saying things to be nice.
The next day was sleeping in for me and it was fantastic...comfortable and quite for a change! Heather was now on a morning shift so after a lazy breakfast and enjoying the view out her balcony for awhile, I decide to walk down to the main city and see more of the sites. After walking through the historic battery point, I was walking along the wharf and saw a sign for free whiskey tastings of all things! The Lark distillery is quite young, only being around since 1992, but that is mainly due to legislation from 1901 which made it illegal to
Top of Mount Wellington
This interesting rock formation on top of Mount Wellington is known as the Organ Pipes. distill anything in Tasmania. In addition to Whisky, they have different types of schnapps and liquers as well as pepperberry gin and vodka which had an interesting taste. The tasting put me towrds the evening when I finally made it out of the shop and Heather and I planned on having a nice seafood dinner out somewhere along the docks that night.
Everything about eating in Tasmania starts off with saying you have to eat the seafood first and foremost because it tastes much better when it is caught fresh everyday so that's what I told Heather when trying to decided where we were going to eat. It is actually possible for residents in Tasmania to get a license that allows them to catch there own seafood and hold up to around 10 of the different types. This includes crayfish (similar to lobster), abalone (delicacy I would liken to and oyster I guess though cooked) as well as all types of fish and what not, not a bad deal I say. She ended up picking a place called the Drunken Admiral where we both got seafood samplers and a bottle of Devil's Corner Pinot Noir which was a Tasmanian
Heather's Pad
I was staying at my friend Heather's place and this is the view of the downtown core of Hobart from her balcony. wine that tasted great. The food was fantastic and I even got to try a Blood Mary Oyster shot....yep, you guessed it, a bloody mary shot with an oyster dropped in it! 😊
January 26th is Australia day to which most people tend to celebrate with a bbq and drinks at or near a beach. After doing a little more site seeing during the morning while Heather was unfortunately working, being one of those professions not allowed to have days off, I met her at the hospital and then it was supermarket, liquor store, house party! One of the people from the hospital had a house near the beach and alway had the co-workers over to celebrate so it was essentially me with nurses and other hospital like people....very nice to say the least. The only slight damper on the night was that I needed to be up by 7am the next morning to catch the tour around Tasmania I had booked but 6 or so drinks later and that became a thing for fate to decided whether I made it on time or not! 😊 At the party, there was a "nurses" outfit...don't think I've ever seen a
Heather's Pad
Also from her balcony, this is the Sandy Beach suburb which boasts a nice beach inside the city and pretty much the only building over 5 stories outside the downtown area being the casino. nurse wearing a tight white outfit with a short skirt before other then on a doll but they do exist!!!! All the girls ended up trying it on at one point or another until it wound up on Heather and "Naughty Heather" as she is known at work took over. Basically Heather is still the same as she was in Europe, always having a great time whether on her own or with a group...don't ever change!! Not sure how we ended up getting home or at what time, but the next morning I was still drunk I figure and hadn't felt like I had slept at all..Happy Australia Day!!!!
As you can see by me just explaining Australia day that my goal of keeping up to date with my blog isn't working too well. The internet across Tasmania is quite expensive so was going to leave it till after, which would have been just fine, but the week I built into my travels where I was back in Melbourne again before coming to Adelaide got all screwed up by food poisoning or some virus that prevented me from straying too far from a bathroom. Needless to say, instead of
Tasman Bridge
5 lane bridge essential to get to eastern shore and airport. The bridge is slightly off center due to an accident that saw a ore ship take out a couple supports. spending the days at a computer, I didn't even leave the hostel and am once again playing catch up for stuff that happened over a month ago. Good thing I have a good memory and have conditioned my brain to keep the new info and dump the old...I believe now I am dumping all that stuff I learned about thermo dynam-i-something...useless stuff in any case! 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.117s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0463s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Heidi
non-member comment
Yo!
Garrett, where's the next update?!