Hobart is a small city that does not have
much of a night life. After arriving at the airport, one of the smallest
airports out side of Africa I have seen and definitely the smallest airport to
call itself an International Airport. You leave the plane, walk across the
tarmac to the terminal and as soon as you get in the door there is the luggage
carousel. So I got my bags and got on the airport transporter with a bunch of
other people. We drove through the downtown at about 9:30 PM and there was no
one walking around and no businesses open. By businesses I mean bars and
restaurants. So I checked into my hotel and watched a little TV and went to
sleep. Unfortunately the hotel is renovating and the location of my room caused
it to be quite loud. During the night people walking down the hall made noise
and in the morning it was construction.
The next day I went to the
waterfront, which is small but quite nice. Lots of sailboats and fishing boats
docked all over the place and a number of larger tour ships departing. I walked
over to an area know as Salamanca Square. This is a trendy area with some nice
restaurants, bars and little shops. I stopped at one place for breakfast then
walked a several blocks to pick up my See Tasmania card, a card that would get
me into a lot of places and some tours. Unfortunately the place I was supposed
to pick it up, it was pre-paid, no longer was part of that program. They
directed me to the place that now handled it, about a mile away. So I headed
over there to get it. When I got the book with all the activities listed I only
saw a couple that were interesting to me. I headed back to the hotel and made a
reservation for the harbour boat tour at 2:00 PM. This turned out to be a nice
cruise for about 75 minutes. Sat outside watching the scenery and trying to
hear what the captain was saying. A couple sat next to me and it turned out
they were from San Francisco and had lived in San Mateo. Small world. After
the cruise I walked over to the maritime museum and used my card to get in
there. It was interesting but pretty small so I walked down to the small
distillery. Once there I got a pint of the local Moo Beer and some cheese. I
was looking for the book on activities that came with the card but I couldn’t
find it. I remembered there was a pub tour that sounded interesting and it
started at 5:00 but I didn’t know from where. I asked the woman who was tending
bar about it and she told me to turn around. The guy sitting behind me was the
guide leading the tour. So I got that sorted out and joined the tour at 5:00.
The tour was pretty interesting, of course
the first stop was the distillery that I had just left. We samples some of
their different alcohols like a pepper berry gin, some apple vodka, and a bush
liquor that they made. It was pretty tasty. From there we walked a few blocks
as the guide told us about the history of the building and pubs in the
waterfront area. We ended up back at Salamanca where we heard about that area
and its history as warehouses for the whaling industry. We also went into a
couple pubs there, the last one being an Irish place that also used to be a
brother, what else. It was pretty interesting. After the tour I walked over to
the waterfront and go a dinner of calamari and chips from a little floating
restaurant. I was a bit tired so I headed back to the hotel and ended up
watching the Academy Awards and falling asleep.
Got up the next morning for my Hobart Deluxe City
Tour. I had no idea what I would end up seeing but I was game for anything. It
started out with a bus ride to the Cadbury factory, hell for a person on a diet
(yes that would be me). We spent about 90 minutes surrounded by chocolate of
all sorts. It smelled so good I bet I gained 2 pounds from just inhaling. Of
course they drop you off at the gift shop where in addition to the regular
chocolates they sell the rejects from the line for a very good discount. I
bought some and it should make it home as gifts, emphasize the word should
J.
I did learn one interesting tidbit of information. The reason that Cadbury
chocolate from Australia tastes different from that in the US and England is
that in Australia they use sugar from sugar cane, while in the US and UK they
use sugar from the sugar beet. It makes the Australian chocolate sweeter.
After the Cadbury tour we got back on the
bus for the ride to a winery and brewery called Moorilla, where they make the
Moo Beer. Unfortunately we only stayed there for about 20 minutes before we
caught the boat back to the harbour. I stopped by the gift shop and bought a
nice bottle opener. I also ended up talking to a few of the people on the tour
who were from the U.S. Coast Guard ship the Polar Sea. They had just come from
a 3 month tour of the Antarctic. Very nice people. When the boat came into the
dock I realized it was the same one I was on yesterday and I was going to have
the second half of the tour again. No worries, I stayed inside to hear what the
captain was saying. I learned that in 1975 a large ship hit the main bridge and
knocked out a 110 meter chunk of the roadway killing 7 on the ship and 5
motorists.
At the end of the first half of the tour
we caught the same bus for a ride out to an animal park and then onto a small
town. The park was very cool. They give you food when you get there to feed to
the Kangaroos and Wallabies. There are hundreds of them wandering around all
over the place and they know the two legged animals have food on them. They hop
right up to you looking for a snack, and then eat it right out of your hand. It
was very fun. We also got to see the Tasmanian Devil up close as well as the
Koala’s which we could pet but not hold. I think we all had a fun time at the
park but we didn’t get to stay long enough. From there we were off to a small
town whose name escapes me. Perhaps the reason the name escapes me is that once
we stopped for the 50 minutes of sightseeing the Coast Guard and I hit the pub
for a couple of the local brews. They were quite tasty and hit the spot well.
After that is was back on the bus and back to Hobart. The coast guard told me
that were meeting at the distillery at 7:00 so I said I would see them there.
Around 7:00 I headed to the distillery and
found out they were closing. So I waited a few minutes and when I didn’t see
any of the coast guard show up I headed to a restaurant in Salamanca. I had a
pint while chatting with a couple patrons and then spotted the people from the
tour. I joined them at a Mexican place for dinner and a few drinks (Tequila is
not very good in Hobart). After dinner we walked down to the Irish bar for
another beer and chatted until I decided to head back to the hotel. An
international evening with some really cool people.
Got up this morning and headed back to the
airport for my flights to Auckland.
Hobart Harbour
The U.S. Coast Guard ship The Polar Sea, an ice breaker just returned from the
Ant Arctic
A squid boat in the harbour, it didn't catch fire, that is squid ink
Kangaroo looking for some food
Nice sedate Koala just watching everything
The Tasmanian Devil, he just spun in like a tornado...