Advertisement
Published: December 5th 2009
Arrived Tasmanian
It was quite cold... considering that Sydney was 40 degrees the day before we left.This trip was a bit last minute for us. It has only been a week since we booked our flight. From booking the hotel, learning the places and planning the trip, the whole thing was planned under stress, argh, not so fun!
Day 1 - Hobart
The night before our trip, my parents arrived Sydney from Hong Kong with the tour. Of course, that same night, we went to meet them at Kings Cross, where their hotel was located, hopefully to have a late night meal together. That was the first time we've ever been to that area around 11pm on a Saturday. Having been warned by friends about the horrible traffic there on weekend, we headed out from Holiday Inn towards China Town mentally prepared for slow traffic. Still, to our amazement, we got to Chinatown about an hour after we picked up mom and dad, which was supposed to be only 10 minutes drive. Failed to find a parking spot after 20 minutes, parents decided to give up and so headed back to the hotel, which took us another hour! At the end, we spent two hours in the car, not achieving anything. However, it was a
Walking to the airport building
Of course, it is a domestic airport nice chat with parents. We were also glad to find out that there IS some sort of city live in Sydney.
After all that, we got home at around 1:30am.
Our flight to Hobart, Tasmania was scheduled to depart at 6:30am the next morning. Reluctantly we woke up at 4'ish / 5am the next morning (or I should say, the same morning) and decided to call a cab. We don't have a lot of experience with calling cab, especially at this time of the day. It turned out that the call centre was closed! Ha, but there was an online option to order a cab, so Carlos entered the information and asked the cab to be here at 5:15am. Doubtfully, we waited at the front door while thinking about all sort of backup plans in the back of my mind. IT CAME!! I was amazed.
Anyway, so we arrived Hobart around 8am. Being in the South part of Tasmania and very south (to me, at least), it was about 10 degrees colder than Sydney. So glad that my parents brought us two warm jackets from Hong Kong!! Even though it was a bit cloudy, I was a
little glad to feel the breeze and crisp in the air, which was something I've missed for awhile in Sydney.
After picking up the rented car, we headed to Salamanca Place for breakfast. Back in around 1830, this place used to be a storage / trading centre for whales. Today, it is full of arts shop, cafes and restaurants. A large market is also being held here every Saturday.
After breakfast, we drove South to visit the Port Arthur historic route to see the Tasman National Park lookout and the various rock formations including the Tasman Arch, Devil’s kitchen and the Blowout. The views are quite stunning! After seeing the blowout, we decided to head back to Hobart as we are not interested in seeing the convicts, again. Afterall, how different can a Tasmanian convict be?
Even though we have only got here for a couple hours, we couldn’t wait to try the famous Tasmanian oysters!! We’ve been waiting for couple days, hehe. Tasmania is one of the largest suppliers of Aussie oysters. Barilla Bay is only a few minutes away from the airport, so it is one of the popular place for tourists who want to
pick up a few dozen to take on board. Take out oysters are $10.50 per dozen, pre-packed in box. They taste quite fresh, but too small. We'll try again tomorrow!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0664s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mon
non-member comment
envy!!
I'm soooo envy about your trip when I see ur pics....and all the good food! >____<:: Looking fwd to see u my dear!