From Bicheno we moved on to the capital, Hobart. The drive was very nice with good views over beaches along the way. Coming into Hobart was amazing, the city is at the base of Mt Wellington and overlooking a spectacular harbour. We had lots of ducks and rabbits to keep us company at our caravan park. On our first day we headed out to the historical town of Richmond to check it out and also for Jacob to visit the doctor (he had a cough and wanted to make sure not on his chest before we went over to the west). He was okay - nothing that a good dose of fresh garlic and vitamin C powder can't cure.
Next day it was off to Port Arthur. It was about an hour and a half drive from Hobart town. Port Arthur was a convict colony which was first settled around 1830. It also has a checkered past due to the massacre in 1996. The remains of the convict village are great and there really is some history in the site. The boys really got into the history and stories of the convicts - they bought a book each of the lives of the convict at the end of the day. There's a school lesson done for the day. We were there for the full day and did not get back to the van until around 7.00pm. A beautiful picturesque place but very sad.
We visited the Cadbury factory. Unfortunately, you do not get to do a tour through the actual factory, but get a video and detailed talk on what goes on inside instead. You do, however, get to purchase Cadbury goods at a greatly discounted price, which we did. The boys and Vicki had a hot chocolate made on real chocolate, but it was too rich for them and they all felt a little sick and couldn't finish them. Even so the boys still reckon this was a real highlight of our trip so far.
In the afternoon we decided to head up to Mt Wellington, which overlooks Hobart, to check out the view. The mountain is 1,270 metres above sea level. A week before it had snowed on the mountain and we found a few patches of snow still remaining and stopped to check this out. From there things quickly turned into a snowball fight of boys against dad. Up at the top of Mt Wellington the wind was something else. I have never experienced anything like it. Trying to put on your jacket, or even trying to close the car door, was near impossible. And it was bitterly cold. But the view was spectacular, even if we couldn't stay out for too long to enjoy it. That evening we went down to Constitution Dock and had a seafood dinner at one of the seafood outlets. Vicki wanted to try a scallop pie, as Tassie is know for them. It didn't live up to the hype, but we latter discovered Richmond Bakery is where we should have got one.
On our last day we went to the Salamanca Markets. Kind of like Eumundi markets, but maybe a little bigger. Setting is also pretty impressive, with all the old original buildings around the Harbour bordering the markets. Nate bought the 3rd Harry Potter book and read it in a 2 days. After that we toured around a few other sites of the inner city Hobart area to finish off our time in the capital.
No comments:
Post a Comment