Saturday, 7 April                              Hobart

Robyn writes:  Another busy day! We slept very well in our comfy studio unit in Battery Point, and were able to make ourselves breakfast before heading out just after 8.30 to the Salamanca Markets, just down our road. These are absolutely huge and packed – very, very popular and deservedly so. We had a wonderful time wandering around looking at the hundreds of food and craft stalls. Lots of woodwork (of course – Tassie is big on wood), fresh produce, clothing – just about anything. We bought a selection of several different types of apples we hadn’t even heard of to try over the next week! (First one was ‘Big Henry’ – an interesting flavour, perhaps a bit dusky, not too sweet. Went well with cheese.) It was easy to spend several hours there. We were glad we’d gone early, though, as it got more and more crowded and rather hard to move.

Lex outside the front door of our building (circa 1850)

 Salamanca Markets and Mt Wellington behind

 St David's Park - this grave was of a Baronet who was an early Lieutenant-Governor of the colony

Lex at the docks - behind him is the Aurora Australis, the Australian Antarctic Division research ship

We explored a bit of the area around the markets too – St David’s park at the top of the hill, we discovered, was the site of the original church in the settlement, until in the 1830s they built the huge cathedral even higher up a few blocks away. In the 1920s, the site was redeveloped into a park, but they kept the huge, ornate graves of the great and the good (premiers, government officials, nobility etc) and set the more ordinary tombstones into the wall surrounding it. Very interesting reading (and sad – such a high infant mortality rate in those days) and a much better idea than early Brisbane where they cheerfully ground up the tombstones from the original cemetery at Lang Park and used them as road fill!

We walked around to Constitution Dock and checked out the restaurants there before deciding on lunch at ‘T 42 Degrees’, the tavern there. Lovely views over the dock and very nice food. Lex had oysters followed by a calamari salad – so far, he’s enjoyed Tasmanian seafood every day we’ve been here (his personal holiday mission!)

 Nice lunch views!

Today was originally supposed to be showery, but amazingly once more the rain held off for us. We’d been keeping an eye on Mt Wellington and decided that this afternoon would be our best chance to see it and the view from up there, so after lunch we set out on the half hour drive up there. Foolishly and recklessly, this was without forethought and appropriate clothing. We got there to discover that it was 7.5 degrees with a wind gusting straight off the Antarctic! It was absolutely freezing. Had I worn/taken my furry tights, fur hat, gloves, several more jumpers, boots and scarf (all of which were sitting uselessly in our unit) I would’ve been fine. As it was, even with three layers on, we were chilled to the bone! Anyway, the view was spectacular, and it was possible to really get a good idea of the geography of the area. We visited several of the lookouts before I declared defeat and leapt back into the car. Lex was made of sterner stuff (and had his ski jacket, sensible man) so he continued for a while. It was absolutely packed up there – carloads and two buses of shivering tourists scrambling over the rocks. The lookout is so high (1271 metres) that it’s above the treeline, and the only vegetation is stunted little bushes, lichens etc.

 It says 7.5 degrees!

 Cold! So very bloody cold!

 Spectacular views though

 

At least some of the lookouts were enclosed and warm!

 

After this we slowly descended back to warmer (17 degree) climes, and back to our unit for a much-needed cuppa. We enquired about a harbour cruise and decided to do that this evening so rang and booked our tickets ($59 each for a two-hour cruise, dinner and two drinks), and really only had time to get changed and head back down to the harbour. We bought our tickets then went across the road to the Custom House Hotel for a drink while we waited to board. When we got on board, we discovered that Rhonda, my principal, her husband and friends including Dallas and John McLellan were also taking the cruise! Half of Emerald seems to be here at present – we also saw Ross Grierson, the past ESS Chaplain and his wife at the docks this morning. The cruise was good value – nice food and views (of course, most of it in the dark). It finished at 8 so we were glad to get back after another long day. Once more, the weather gods have smiled on us (Lex’s theory is that we’ve brought our own mini-version of the ‘Emerald Dome’ with us. Let’s hope that continues!)

 View as we were sailing out of the bay. There's actually a navy submarine to the left of the Aurora.

 Tasman Bridge, which we later sailed under

Wrest Point Casino - much prettier by night than by day! (below)