Tasmania, Australia

We didn’t actually see any real Tasmanian Devils – this one was in a museum, stuffed, but we thought he looked less vicious than the photos we’ve seen.

 

Loved Tassie!  Six days was nowhere near what we should have spent here.  Reminded us of New Zealand and Canada’s east coast. Very laid back, great local food and wine – just about every restaurant we visited did the local thing.

Between 1788 and 1868, approximately 162,000 convicts were transported to the various  Australian Penal Colonies (Tasmania was one of them), by the British government.  Many of the convicts didn’t commit major crimes, sometimes just stealing a loaf of bread, or other necessities, and of course others did commit murder, etc.  Many of the towns were built by the convicts and now they are historic towns with beautiful stone buildings.  We stopped off in Richmond as well as Ross, and the most prominent and quite impressive, Port Arthur.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We flew into Hobart on November 12, stayed one night in this beautiful city.  Unfortunately for us we couldn’t see Mt. Wellington that day for the clouds but we saw it at the end of the trip from various perspectives.  Hobart is situated in such a beautiful setting and apparently it has the second deepest port in the world, next to Rio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a night in Swansea which is just northeast of Hobart on the eastern coast, had lunch along the way at the beautiful Frogmore Vineyards.  We had a lovely view from our hotel (cottage) room overlooking the bay and mountains of Freycinet National Park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we drove to Launceston, another lovely city with great architecture, in the Tamar Valley wine region.  Spent 2 days/nights here to relax a bit in the Clarion City Park Historic Hotel, and although you can’t see the detail in the third photo, there was stained glass all around the top; enjoyed another amazing winery lunch at Josef Chomy Vineyards (wineries have been our best lunches – always local food, cooked to perfection), and the wine was pretty darn good too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the highlights in Launceston was the gorge right in the city.  It was so beautiful.  We hiked in, very easy, flat hike, but stunning views, and then we hiked up to a look out – not so easy but really beautiful.  Then ‘we’ took me out of my comfort zone again by crossing the gorge in a chair lift.  I thought it would be fine, and if you didn’t know me you would have thought that all was well, but Gary knew better.  You’ll notice in the photo that I’m all smiles but personally I think the smile looked a bit phony (scared!).  I have to admit that it was beautiful.  I don’t mind heights if I’m completely enclosed and prefer that my feet aren’t dangling in space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were trying to make it further to the west coast where the real mountains are but we realized that we had already been driving for far longer than we wanted to so we headed back down to Hobart to spend our last two days.  We couldn’t get accommodation right in town so opted for another historic property about 10-15 minutes from Hobart city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hobart has a wonderful art gallery, MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), on an absolutely spectacular setting, with a wonderful view.  The exhibits were also very interesting and I couldn’t help but include some photos here.  The ‘rain’ exhibit at first looks like there is a stream of water falling, but on closer look you realize that only each word is raining – really remarkable.  There was even a vineyard on the property and a trampoline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And as mentioned previously, the main convict/prison attraction was Port Arthur village.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flew into Perth on November 18.  Talk soon.