Hobart

We found our cottage in Hobart and settled ourselves in for the evening. Mt Wellington was visible from our lounge room window… sitting proudly in the sunshine. Because the mountain top is often covered for days on end, we chose to immediately drive to the summit for a look. On the way up, we passed many cyclists pumping their way up the never-ending slope. We also passed smarter ones who hire utilities to carry their bikes to the summit to enjoy the enthralling descent. The top was bathed in golden light from the setting sun perfectly captured by the light brown dolerite spikes. Great photo opportunities! We watched a stately white cruise ship wend its way through Hobart’s massive harbour (3-times the size of Sydney Harbour). From a height of 1.2 km, the town of Hobart appeared small. The vista showed the Derwent River meandering up to New Norfolk (so called because it was formed by residents from Norfolk Island the first time it was abandoned). It was hard to image that Hobart is Australia’s third most dry capital city. It is so close to the west coast that receives 2 meters of rain each year. As it turned out, we were lucky to have made the trip that evening. The peak remained clouded for the remaining of our time in Hobart.

The next day we spent fossicking around Hobart town. There are areas near Salamanca Markets that preserve the original town buildings. The first building of interest was St George's Church where Joye’s great-great grandparents were married. Both had histories of substance abuse, insubordination and petty crime. Mr Lane had the unfortunate habit of deserting his post in Her Majesty’s Corp. It is surprising that what could be referred to as the common-class were allowed to marry in such a large prestigious church. Joye talked to the presiding minister, but all the early records had been transferred to the Hobart Archives. She discovered no new information.

We visited the Hobart Museum and were surprised at the quality of the exhibits. In particular its dioramas showing indigenous peoples and their dwellings, boats and hunting skills showed lots of new and interesting details. Similarly, the wildlife displays were great. The museum has just located additional film of the Tasmania tiger originally belonging to the London Zoo… very interesting.

Our walk-around continued visiting Arthur’s Circus, the waterfront, the Shipwrights Arm (historic hotel) and other historic places.

Later in the afternoon, we visited Bellerive Cricket Ground and paid our respect to the statue honouring the great David Boone (who still holds the record for sinking the most cans of VB on the Sydney - Heathrow flight).

We had dinner at Richmond village where we closely examined the Convict Bridge and Catholic Church. Richmond is a lovely place but now overly populated by single mums and disillusioned youths looking for new answers to old questions. We met them all while dining at the local pub.


We finished our touring for the day with a short stop-over at the Hobart Botanical Gardens. Both Joye and I had clear memories of the time we spent with Joye's Mum in the hot house there on our trip some 32 years ago. She was a keen gardener and really loved Hobart's gardens, especially the begonias, fuschias and petunias cultivated in the hot house.

Next day we explored the south tip of the state. We tracked along the Huon Valley, across to Geeveston [where there were some interesting life size carvings of previous identities] and onto Hastings Cave. The road is narrow and winding, but the country refreshes the scenic appetite with each turn in the road.

Our first stop was the Tahune Airwalk in the Forest Reserve that offered a selection of tree walks and swinging bridges… all good fun as long as you are not acrophobic. Johnny showed great courage in tackling all the challenges placed in his way… even though he had to close his eyes when walking the cantilevered section of the tree walk that hung 1,000 feet above the river. The trees are truly amazing... up to 80 meters tall with next to no lower branches. The Huon River is most impressive… even so far upstream it carried a large volume of water.

  

We hurried to make the 4:00 PM guided tour of the Hastings Cave. Now caves are caves and this one had the usual array of stalactites, stalagmites, curtains, organ pipes, etc etc. The most interesting feature of the Hastings Cave is that it is carved through dolerite rock. This rock only dissolves at warm temperatures. The warmer the temperature, the faster the formations are put in place. By looking at the ‘growth rings’ in the deposits, scientists have a record of temperature changes and can more accurately date the age of the formations. In particular, the mini-ice-age of 10,000 years ago is clearly visible a very thick ring in the formations. Surprisingly, even thin short formations have been shown to have ages dating back thousands of years.

After our afternoon tea of scones and cream, we went on the platypus walk. Being late in the day, the other tourists had gone and we hoped the quiet surrounds would encourage the platypus to come out and feed. We walked around the path on tippy-toes without speaking. When we came to the bridge, there was nothing to see. We all waited being as still and as quiet as possible. Finally were saw one stirring up the mud on the creek bed seeking some food. The click of Joye’s camera alarmed the timid creature who hid in the creek bank. We waited and waited with no result until one of us decided to creep away. When that happened, another platypus came our from his/her burrow only to disappear when the people on the bridge were noticed. We tried the same trick once more. One of us walked away and another platypus come out.  We told the people at the restaurant of our success and were told we were most fortunate because platypus had not been sighted for some time.