Tasmania is gorgeous! As part of the project I was working on, I had to travel down there and conduct two research sessions, and was lucky enough to schedule it so that I could spend the weekend as well.
I flew into Hobart on Saturday morning and spent the rainy cloudy wandering around the city and doing a bit of window shopping. There is a gorgeous market down by the wharf in Hobart on Saturday's, but because of the weather most of the stalls packed up early and people sat hiding under the umbrellas of the cafes and bars watching the poor people without umbrellas wander through the streets (i.e. me). So, I hopped in the car and headed towards my hotel which was about an hour away. (Because there was some mysterious sporting event going on, all of the hotels in Hobart were fully booked so I had to look farther afield to a "resort" south of Hobart in Huonville). On the way, I stopped at Mount Nelson, which overlooks the city for some views, and as could find to be typical, after driving for 10 minutes, the weather went from rainy and cold to sunny and warm. And then 10 minutes later is was cold and foggy. And then 10 minutes later it was sunny again. Which is where, I believe, the local saying comes from, "If you don't like the weather in Tasmania, wait 10 minutes." So true.
And then I was back in the car and driving south towards Huonville. I had booked a Deluxe Teepee at the resort and had high hopes for this interesting location. I had assumed Teepee would be one of the more well appointed rooms. As it turns out, it was. The "resort" was essentially a campsite and the Teepee, was, well, actually a teepee! Surprised the hell out of me! The bathroom was a toilet block with a fairly unpleasant shower block attached and the only source of food within 20k was the camp kitchen, if you had brought food. I had not thought to bring my dinner to the "resort" so bought a frozen dinner from the "resort" manager. It really was a lovely place which I was completely unprepared for. (more pictures here and here) I did manage to go for a brief bush walk to a barely flowing waterfall and saw some magnificent trees. No joke about them. They were HYUGE! One was so big, it had a tunnel which I could walk through standing up. The top half of the tree had fallen off after a lightning storm a few years ago and the remaining trunk was still taller than most of the trees around it!
In the morning, a bit weary, I woke up with gorgeous sun streaming through my teepee window. I rolled out of bed, quickly packed, got dressed, and stepped out into.....the rain. I don't know how the weather does it. Like Houdini! But Sunday was a good day. I drove around a bit in the valley getting gorgeous views when the sun peeked through, went to a little cafe and had what I thought was the best hot chocolate ever, went to the Home Hill Winery which was delicious and might be my new favorite, and then drove back up north towards Hobart with a side trip driving up Mount Wellington. Mount Wellington overlooks Hobart, and the weather patterns at the altitude are, shall we say, changeable. When I arrived at the top, it was sunny and cool. When I left it was snowing and hailing and darn near freezing.
There are videos here and here and some pictures here and here.
Aside from work the highlights of the rest of my stay in Hobart was fantastic sea food and a quick stop at a distillery to try their entire selection of spirits. It was quite a feat.
That seems like a lot already so I'll save the drive to Devonport for part 2.
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