Tasmania 2014 Day 11 – Arrival in Hobart

Woke up feeling cold and tired. The heater in the room wasn’t working like expected. Quickly we got ready, shivering, as we had a flight to catch in 2hrs time.

The walk to the domestic airport was a little shorter. Checked in by using the self service kiosk first as requested by one of the Jetstar staff. The boarding passes and the luggage tags were printed there. Then we proceeded to the counters just for the bag drops which made things pretty fast.

Going through security took some time as there was already a long queue waiting to go through the X-ray machine. Once through, we went to another queue in front of Giancarlo coffee for some ham and cheese croissants for breakfast.

The boarding required us to go in the open and take the portable stairs up the small plane. It was still unbelievably cold but we managed. The plane was airborne early and we arrived early at the small Hobart airport.

The luggage was sent out on a small belt in this airport which we picked up quickly. Proceeded over to Bargain Car Rentals and found that nobody was in office yet so I called the number that was on the door. Talking to the staff on the line and reading through the details, I found that I have chosen the pickup location set in Hobart city instead of the airport, and was advised that I had no choice but to get to the city where the car was prepared for us.

Checked with one of the staff from Tasmania tourism to ask about the way to the city and the suggestions were either by bus which she thought the service has not started for the day yet and thus she advised the taxi which was almost the same costs and less effort required. So we hopped onto one, where the driver kindly gave us a small intro of Hobart as he drove us to our car rental location, and that costed us a whopping audacious 46Aud.

We did the paperwork and got our Suzuki Grand Vitara and GPS that led us to our accommodation Fountainside hotel. We were there at 9am and weren’t expecting a room but the staff tried to push one for us and after housekeeping completed their work, we got our room on the 5th floor. The room was pretty impressive, nice and warm, spacious with a huge window to the city and free wifi. There was complimentary parking but limited and thus I needed to circle around and wait for a lot before parking in, that wasn’t too difficult as guests started leaving after breakfast.

Our first stop today was to visit Old town Richmond. Getting there could be confusing with the changing directions on the bridge road if utilizing during office hours. Had to follow the GPS intently to avoid getting lost. 25km away and we arrived at the beautiful and quiet little town.

Were at the Richmond Gaol but didn’t enter as we didn’t budget for this. Went over to the see the oldest bridge in Australia, the Richmond Bridge. Walked around a bit more to snapped photos before popping into the Richmond Bakery and Cafe for lunch with a quiche and pie.

The next stop was Mount Wellington, and it was a good time since the weather was getting sunny, and that is not a frequent event in this period of time. Furthermore, with the snow cap on the mountain top, roads could be closed and today seemed like a good time that the roads would be opened because of the improving weather.

Driving back the same way to Hobart and then further on towards Mount Wellington was pretty easy until when we were going up the mountain. The roads became narrower and we had to keep an eye on the oncoming vehicles. The roads were slightly wet too and at then top, there was even snow. However, as long as we observed the speed limits, it was safe.

Along the Pinnacle Road, there was one stop before the final one at the top near the telecommunications station. We went all the way up and the blistering wind with the huge fog and freezing temperature was painful to take. I went around to snap photos before I had to get back to the car to avoid the cold. It was difficult for any scenery viewing due to the moving fog.

Going one level below, it was much better where the view of the city could be seen and photographed. There were plenty of snow everywhere and people all over was playing and building snowman, which we did too. Spent some time before making our way back down and back to the hotel.

After checking with the reception on places to visit in Hobart town, we went back to our room to rest for a bit before walking to the port in Hobart. Went past Mawson’s hut and again didn’t chose to visit. Proceeded to Salamanca square, Kelly steps and Battery point and then back to Salamanca, where we went into Vietnamese Kitchen for some overly expensive food (food in general mostly was).

A while after finishing dinner, we trekked back the 25mins to our hotel, in windy low temperature, now with the sun gone.

Spend the rest of the evening in the hotel room, tired from the lack of sleep in Melbourne. Prepared for more exploration of Hobart area the next day.