Tassie!

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So just back in Melbourne this morning and as promised here's our update for Tasmania.

Flew on Sunday with Virgin Blue to Hobart (thanks Murray!). We were flying standby on Murray's staff ticket rate so wern't sure until part way through the day which flight we were going to be on. This resulted in far more time at the Melbourne airport than either of us ever wanted to spend but thankfully there were bookshops and lots of bars etc that we could move between so as to look like wern't living there. Ended up on the 7:45pm flight and arrived in Hobart 9ish.

Once we got into Hobart picked up the car and managed to downgrade to a cheaper one which was automatic. Pam can drive!! Also found out that we were going to be in town for the last day of Regatta weekend and the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.

Accomodation the first night was rather exciting as the hostel we were supposed to stay at had managed to mess up the credit card number. We were given a code to the back door and told that when we got in there would be an envelope with our key.... No key... With nowhere to stay we were starved so after making about 15 laps of Hobart managed to find a pizza joint where the guy lent us a phone book. Also in there were a couple of proper tassies who were doing their best to be helpful but as tired as we were it was pretty much beyond us to unravel their accents. Hobart isn't a huge city so most of it seems to shut down by around 10pm. Luckily we managed to get hold of a hotel that was just closing and agreed to wait 15min before locking up for us to get there!

Next morning we found a hostel and parked our packs before heading down to the Wooden Boat Festival. This was amazing! Oldest boat we saw there was 170 years! All kinds that were being showed off by the guys who built / designed them in their own backyards also. Couple replica ships as well. One was of a dutch spice trader which I think was the first ship to reach Australia? Not sure on that one or what the name was. Also there was a full size replica of the HM Bark Endeavour - Cook's ship. We spent about 4 hours wandering around the harbour before heading up to the top of Mt Wellington (just about 3500ft) overlooking the city. Amazing view from there of Hobart and right across the Tasman peninsula to Port Arthur (our nest days stop). That evening there was a live band and a fireworks display to finish of the Regatta Weekend down at the waterfront.

Fireworks were nuts. At home they seem to have a problem with sparks / burning chunks falling on the crowd. Not so in Australia! The fireworks were literally exploding overhead. The last one was a huge golden shower that was landing all around the crowd. I think the intention was to make it look like we were in a curtain but maybe they just shot a little low? After the fireworks they had a F-111 flyover in the dark doing what was called a 'dump and burn'... pour fuel out the back end a light the afterburner = huge flame = calls all over the radio the next day about the UFO flying through the harbour the night before.

Going to break the rest of Tassie into a different post so Pammy can get working on the pictures.

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Photos

Draw Bridge in the Hobart Harbour
Mike says, "Sweetest Draw Bridge EVER!"

Dump and Burn
'UFO' over the Hobart harbour. Does kinda look like it's on fire though?

Pam Driving
Pointing Camera's at People While Driving Isn't Safe Michael.

Comments

[Madeleine]

eff i want to be somewhere cool
take me there! i want sun again k?