Welcome to Tasmania

Hobart Harbour Buildings


View of Hobart from "our" house


Mt Wellington from the house deck


Lady Nelson leaving Hobart


Mt Wellington Observatory

We left our beautiful B&B on the Mornington Peninsula and headed into Melbourne to take the ferry to Tasmania for six weeks. It took far less time to get to the pier than we thought it would, so we ended up hanging around the area, walking in the drizzle and just waiting. Around five the loading process begins, and it is a process. First you go through security and drop of your gas tanks, propane tanks and they look under the bonnet. You drive a bit further and wait again for it seems another hour. Then you get your boarding pass and cabin key, and wait for another hour. Then you board, park and go upstairs. We finally set sail, or under steam at 7:30. By 10:00 we were finally out of the harbor, by 12:00 am we were supposed to be passing the return ferry, and by 6:30 Sunday morning we had landed in Devonport Tasmania. It wasn’t a bad ride. There was the initial rocking to get used to after we left the harbor, but I have to admit, I slept quite well.

After leaving the ferry, we had to go through quarantine, just as strict as entering Australia, Tasmania is still pest free for many agricultural crops, so there is strict enforcement upon arrival. Finally, and I mean finally, we get to pick up our gas tank and off we go, heading south towards Hobart where we will be house sitting for a fellow gardener and garden writer for our stay. First, we stop in Elizabethtown for coffee and breakfast, then continue on south to Campbeltown for another coffee. We then took a detour to Oatlands that was one of the towns that we might have stayed in for three weeks. The town has a historic wind driven grain mill that way back when ground all the local grains for bread. After many years of restoration, today was the grand hoopla, so as much as we wanted to stay, we put it on our to-do list and continued south.

We finally arrive in S. Hobart and found our house and got all the scoop for our six weeks stay. It will be excellent. I have a garden to play in, an excellent kitchen to cook in, and from the deck off the kitchen looking to the right you get a view of the harbor in Hobart, and to the left, Mt Wellington looms out of the clouds.

So far the weather has been fine, although that is going to change in the next day or two. We have walked into the city along a park path that follows the ‘rivulet’, a beautiful walk with historical notes alongside, visited the old town along the waterfront, tasted whiskey at the local Lark distillery, driven up to the top of Mt Wellington for the views, stunning, and just in time before the clouds rocked in.

Oh it is so nice to have a base. We have unpacked Em, who took a deep sigh as the load was lifted off of her, and we are just going to enjoy the moment, no rushing about, hah, but no unpacking and repacking the car for the next month! Yeah. Enjoy Steve’s photos of the surrounds. Allie