Hobart 2016

What's covered?

The first stop on our tour of Tasmania.

On our previous visit to Tasmania, we very much enjoyed Port Arthur. I am sure it was not as beautiful when it was a prison but now it is a lovely place that we wanted to visit again. Thus Hobart was added to the itinerary.

10 October

We were an hour and a half late leaving Melbourne as the previous flight had been delayed by a failed to board passenger and bad weather. At Melbourne our Hobart flight was also late leaving by about an hour and a quarter. I was wandering around while we waited and suddenly spotted Tony Self. Because he had not been able to meet us when we were staying in Melbourne, he took the time to come out to the airport while we were in transit!

At Hobart the Avis lady was very helpful and I explained that the Toyota Camry we had booked didn't have sufficient boot space. She offered us a couple of upgrade options. We settled on a Mitsubishi Outlander which she let us have for just an additional $7 per day.

We eventually arrived at the Travelodge at 11.15pm. Travelodges in the UK are OK for an overnight stop but they are not really where you would choose to stay whilst on holiday. I had been assured they were different here but that was not the case. It was clean and the bed was comfortable but small, particularly the bathroom where you had to manouvre carefully. To be fair to Trailfinders, this was the only accommodation that was below what we expected.

11 October

On our previous visit to Australia, we only had a brief visit to Port Arthur so today we wanted to go back and take our time. The site is so beautifully maintained, it is difficult to realise just how harsh life would have been. The introductory talk was very good and then we explored most of the site and its buildings.

On the way back we went through the Tasman National Park and visited: