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Tag Archives: Hobart
Australia day 16 – Hobart to Darwin
We fly out of Darwin at 16.20 having said our farewells to Helen and Adrian. It is a long and convoluted journey involving three flights: Hobart to Melbourne 1hour and 15 minutes; Melbourne to Brisbane 2 hours; and Brisbane to Darwin 3 hours. The whole journey is runs improbably smoothly with the exception of the connection at Melbourne where the departure gate is changed twice in the space of half-an-hour and involves us going through security twice. On the second time, we have to forfeit a set of camping cutlery which has inadvertently found it’s way into the hand luggage. We arrive 15 minutes late into Darwin at 12.45am; a remarkable feat in itself given the complexity of our itinerary. The fact that our luggage does too is nothing short of miraculous particularly as we had only a 45-minute turn around in Brisbane. The airport shuttle drops us at the transit terminal about 30 metres from our accommodation. We are staying at Melaleuca on Mitchell – a backpacker hostel right in the centre of the city. My arm is still very painful and has been aching all day. Some physio may be necessary it doesn’t improve soon.
Posted in Australia, Northern Territory
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Tagged Australia, Darwin, Hobart, Northern Territory, Tasmania
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Australia day 15 – Lake St Clair to Hobart
Lake St Clair is situated in the south of the Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair National Park. Surrounded by mountains, it is Australia’s deepest lake as well as one of its highest and certainly one of the most beautiful. There are a number of short walks from Cynthia Bay from where there are good views across the lake and of Mounts Oympus, Rufus, Ida, Hugel, Little Hugel and the Traveller Range. The weather is grey and surprisingly cold when we set out to do the Watersmeet, Larmairremener tabelti Aboriginal cultural walk and Platypus Bay circuit which takes us about 2-and-an-half hours. The Watersmeet walk follows the crest of a glacial morraine for part of the route and passes through eucalypt and rainforest to the junction of the Hugel and Cuvier rivers. The Aboriginal walk recognises the indigenous people of the region through a number of information boards and is rather disappointing in that respect, but not in terms of the natural flora and fauna. The Platypus Bay circuit runs alongside the lake and the mouth of the Cuvier River and a small waterfall. There are some hides for viewing platypus carrying extensive information about these notoriously shy and peculiar creatures which only come out in the early morning and evening – so no chance of us being able to spot one today. The 90-minute circuit takes us two and half hours as we take our time enjoying the diversity of the area.
We drive as far as Ouse another x km along the Lyell Highway before we find a shop where we can buy some lunch. Where do people shop around here? There is just enough time to make a brief stop at the Mount Field National Park to do the Russell Falls walk. It is only a 25-minute walk through rain forest but well worth the stop as the falls are amongst the most magnificent we have seen – the water cascading from a great height across several tiers of rocks.
The drive towards Hobart takes us down the Derwent Valley through rolling paddocks and crosses rivers that have been harnessed for hydro-electric power, the enormous silver pipes cutting a swathe down the hillsides. This is an area of opium poppy growing (for medicinal purposes), orchards, hop fields and oast houses. This area provides the hops for the whole of Australia. We arrive back in Hobart around 6pm for our last night with Helen and Adrian before we leave Tasmania for Darwin tomorrow. Suitably marked by a delicious Indian at a local BYO restaurant.
Australia day 8 – Hobart to Shearwater
We spend some time looking around Hobart city centre and taking advantage of MacDonalds’ wifi before picking up our hire car from Europcar and heading back to Shearwater. Europcar are charging us more for fewer days because they have created a new booking at the current rates rather than simply amending the existing booking that we made on the internet when we were still in New Zealand. It’s a pain because we will have to provide them with a copy of our original email confirmation in order to get a refund when we return the car. The drive to Shearwater is through rolling farming country. The weather which was grey this morning is now turning to blue skies and sunshine as we travel further north. We stop along the way at a cheese factory shop on the side of the road, which has been recommended by Adrian as making the best cheese in Tasmania. They have a tasting table and we work our way through nibbles of all the ‘English’ and not-so-English variants they produce. Most of which, it has to be said, bare only a passing resemblance to their namesakes back home. Nonetheless we buy a very nice French-style soft cheese, a wasabi flavoured cheddar (yummy) and a low-fat cheddar for Andy (not so yummy).
Australia day 7 – Shearwater to Hobart
We are lunching with Ben and Anna (Helen and Adrian’s son and his wife) who live across the estuary on the edge of the Narawntapu National Park. Despite being quite close as the crow flie, it involves a 20 minute drive around the estuary to get to their house. On the way we drive into the National Park to stop at Bakers Beach, a 10 km stretch of fine soft sand borded by grassy dunes. Ben and Anna live on a remote three-acre bush plot with newly-arrived Lily who is just 7 weeks old and has a shock of black, sticky-uppy hair which reminds me of Matt when he was a baby. There is no piped water here and they rely on a tank filled from rain water off the roof and if that fails water has to be delivered. Lots of pine, a stove and day bed lend the interior a slightly scandinavian feel and there are two pretty bedrooms in the eaves. Outside are a number of sheds, a ‘chook’ house in need of some tlc and a number of trees. A lovely spot, secluded but not completely isolated as there are 30 or so houses in the surrounding area.. Helen and Adrian are returning to Hobart this afternoon while we stay on in Shearwater until Thursday. The plan is that they will drop us in Devonport before they leave so that we can pick up a hire car. But just as we are about to leave Ben and Anna’s we realise that we’ve left our driving licences in Hobart! That puts paid to any possibility of getting a hire car today and means we have to change the hire car arrangements and travel back to Hobart with H&A . We will pick up the car in Hobart tomorrow and then drive back to Shearwater. And we thought we had it all so well organised! We return to Hobart via the Great Lake in Tasmania’s Central Plateau. Great Lake is 22km long, is the highest freshwater lake in Australia and is renowned for its brown trout. We pass the ghostly remains of countless eucalypt stumps in the rolling paddocks, their branches left just where they have fallen giving the landscape a curiously haunting beauty. Continue reading →
Australia day 4 – Hobart
Helen isn’t working today so the three of us drive into Hobart for a morning’s sight-seeing. We start at Salamanca Place, restored row of Georgian sandstone warehouses dating back to the 1830s and now converted into cafes, craft shops, galleries and restaurants. We wander on round the harbour front which is home to a large number of yachts as well as the temporary berth of the Steve Irwin, the whale defending ship previously known as the Sea Shepherd. We have a quick stroll along Elizabeth Street and Macquarie Street and then turn back to Salamanca Square for a coffee. The square is surrounded by cafes none particularly well frequented and with a modern metal edifice which we think might be a dragon, but could be anything really. Adrian takes a break from his ‘hectic’ schedule to join us as we relax and indulge, in my case in a ridiculously cholesterol-laden iced chocolate heaving with whipped cream, mmmm!
We spend the afternoon researching camper vans and airport transfers for Darwin, but make little progress.
In the evening we pick Adrian up from work, and after a delicious fish and chip supper from a very popular chippie on the harbour front before we make the three-hour drive north to Adrian and Helen’s new house in Shearwater on the north coast. They have just bought a new-build, two-storey house overlooking the Rubicon estuary. It has an open planning living area with an enormous picture window and large balcony with stunning views and master bedroom suite on the first floor. We’re on the ground floor where there are a further two bedrooms, bathroom and sitting room with patio doors onto the garden …oh, and the integral garage. All ultra modern and with a similar layout to their previous home in Blackman’s Bay.
We arrive in Shearwater around 10.30 pm and have a convivial evening with a bottle of wine and sit chatting until 1.30 in the morning.
Australia day 3 – Hobart
Another lazy day, just taking time to slow down and chill after what seems to have been a hectic few weeks chasing round New Zealand. The weather starts with a wonderful sunrise; the sun reflecting on the estuary and filling the kitchen and living room with dazzling light. Helen and Adrian are both working today so we decide to spend some more time planning and researching the next part of our trip.
In the afternoon we catch the local bus into Kingston to do some shopping for dinner and to visit the Online Centre in the local library where they have printing facilities. Adrian’s enthusiasm for the ‘top end’ and the Kimberleys has persuaded us to fly to Darwin and drive across to Broome on the west coast. While we are up in Darwin we’ll also visit Kakadu. We book the flights for the 31st March – a three-legged route via Melbourne and Brisbane taking a whopping 7 hours; there isn’t any direct flights from Hobart. We also sort out some car hire for Tas so that we can spend next week exploring the north coast, Cradle Mountain and the Gordon River.
The wok cookbook which has proved so indispensable as we travelled round New Zealand, comes into it’s own again as I rustle up a prawn pilaff in the electric wok…
Australian day 2 – Hobart
A very lazy day. The weather is warm but cloudy most of the day although the sun makes an appearance in the late afternoon. Adrian has kindly lent us his car, which seems enormous after the hire car we have been driving round New Zealand for the last 38 days. The quid pro quo is that Andy has to be up and ready by 7.30 am to take Adrian to work in Hobart some 20 km away. Not such a hardship as our body clocks are telling us it’s 9.30am; Australia being two hours behind New Zealand.
We spend some time looking round the local shopping centre in Kingston, a few minutes drive from the house in Blackman’s Bay. We’re looking for internet access and a hairdressers – I haven’t had a hair cut since we left the UK last August – but there are no internet cafes in Kingston and none of the hairdressers appeal. Helen mentioned yesterday that the local MacDonalds has started to offer free wifi, so in the afternoon we steel ourselves and make our way to MacDonalds. For the price of a cup of coffee and a tea (and against a backdrop of children’s tea parties) we can research the next leg of our trip and pick up our emails. We plan to hire a car and see some of the north and west of Tasmania as Helen and Adrian have generously offered us the use of their new house in Shearwater for a few days. We will then spend a few days making our way back to Hobart via the west coast. We’re then going to make our way to northern Australia and do some touring in the Kimberleys – the ‘real’ Australia. We end up making two trips to MacDonalds as Andy’s laptop runs out of power almost as soon as we arrive, and MacDonalds, probably deliberately, don’t provide any sockets for recharging.
A misunderstanding about arrangements for picking up Adrian from work compounded because, unbeknown to us, my mobile sim isn’t working so Adrian can’t make contact. By the time we get back around 6pm Helen already made the trip into Hobart to collect Adrian much to our embarrassment and contrition.
Both Helen and Adrian are in fine form and we have an entertaining evening over a delicious fish curry supper.
Australia day 1 – Auckland to Hobart
We leave for the airport on the 4.30am shuttle bus to the airport to catch a flight to Melbourne on the first leg of our flight. There are no delays and the four-hour flight is uneventful. We then face a long process to clear immigration, collect baggage and clear customs. The latter involves sniffer dogs searching passengers for prohibited animal or vegetable products. As we have already declared on our entry card that we have been in fresh water recently we have to unpack all the footwear and clothing we used for our canoe trip on the Whanganui for inspection. Our shoes are taken away to be washed to prevent any possibility of bringing didymo spores into the country. Didymo is a highly invasive brown fungus that chokes fresh waterways and is near impossible to irradicate. It hasn’t reached Australia yet and that’s the way they want it to stay. As we wait for our shoes to be returned we are amazed by the amount of food some passengers have in their luggage particularly in the way of food and spices – bags full! One customs officer is examining a holdall full of bags of powder that have been slashed open spreading powder everywhere. We are also entertained by a film crew filming for a regular TV programme called ‘Border Control’. By the time and have grabbed some lunch, the check-in for our flight to Hobart at 1pm is open. It’s only a short hour’s hop from Melbourne to Hobart and with no further entry formalities we are straight into the arrivals hall where Adrian – looking much the same as ever – is waiting to meet us.
Helen and Adrian are house-sitting a property right on the shore of Blackman’s Bay and the views from kitchen and living room picture windows stretch across the wide expanse of the Derwent Estuary to the suburbs on the other side. The house itself is lovely; full of light and wood floors. Adrian has to return to the office so we take a walk along the beach and up along the cliff walk which runs up from the beach and along the front gardens of the properties that are perched on the hillside. There are some good views of the rocky coastline below as well as the back of one rather modern, industrial-looking house. Mostly he hillside is built up with single and two-storey homes of brick or weatherboard. As we go furthe along the cliff public footpath runs through the front gardens of several houses which is rather disconcerting and as rain threatens we turn back to retrace our steps.
The main reason Helen and Adrian are sitting the house is to look after a rather ancient and rather decrepit Burmese cat with a rather penetrating meow and a sneezing problem. At first we didn’t fully understand Helen and Adrian’s antipathy to this poor creature who seemed only to crave attention. Until, that it is, it sneezed snot over our duvet; the cat is now barred from our bedroom in addition to the living room and has been dubbed the ‘snot machine’ by Andy!. .
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Posted in Australia, Tasmania, Uncategorized
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Tagged Auckland, Australia, Hobart, New Zealand, North Island, Tasmania
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