I have to admit, I probably wouldn't have gone to Tasmania if I didn't know somebody who lived there. But I'm so glad that I do, and that I did! :-)

I flew into Hobart from Sydney, and even from the air it was easy to see how beautiful Tasmania is. Hobart is right on the coast, at the foot of a mountain, so it really couldn't look much better if it tried. :-) Add to that the fact that there aren't really any skyscrapers (okay, there's one, and then they decided that they didn't want to have any more), and it's a really unique and gorgeous city. The evening I arrived was Easter Saturday, so Margie and I and her parents went to the Easter Vigil mass, and that was pretty much all I had the energy for - the 22 hour flight from Toronto pretty much knocked me out!

The next day was Easter, and we drove up to the top of Mount Wellington and took in the amazing views from up there. It was a gorgeous, clear day, so there were lots of other people with the same idea. Coming back down, we drove around the city, stopping in at the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were very pretty, although we arrived too late to go inside any of the buildings. We had dinner down at the pier, and I had really awesome fish and chips! :-) The following day we went out for coffee in the morning with one of Margie's friends, and then did some shopping down in Salamanca Market. The rest of the day was spent mostly in the house - watching lots of Australian TV and videos of Australian theatre-related things. :-)

 

The next day, April 2, was extremely busy! We woke up very early, collected Margie's friend Lizzie and, along with Margie's mother, drove out to the Tasman peninsula. We stopped along the way at several beautiful natural wonders, including the Tessellated Pavement, Tasman Arch, Devil's Kitchen and Blowhole. We also passed through "Doo Town", a little town where each house has a name with the word "doo" in it. Very cute!

Our first destination on the Peninsula was the Tasmanian Devil Park. I had never seen a Tasmanian devil before, so it was pretty cool! They are nasty little things! They had two adult ones, and then three smaller ones, who looked adorable when they were sleeping, but as soon as they woke up, proved to be otherwise. They fought with each other, and then they tried to bite the keeper as well when he went in to feed them! However, I did love the kangaroos, who were very friendly and posed for numerous pictures for us. :-)

             

The final destination for the day was Port Arthur Historic Site. That was really, really interesting - we toured all around the ruins and through the interpretation centre. One really neat thing was right when you came in, they handed you a card from this special deck of cards. I had the King of Spades. Then you enter this ship, and each card has its own corresponding convict, and you follow them through the course of their conviction, original sentence, and whatever happened to them in the end. Anyway, it was an absolutely glorious day - about 30 degrees - and we must have wore ourselves out, for we pretty much collapsed upon our return home.

For the last day in Hobart, we did a tour of the Theatre Royal, which is Australia's oldest theatre. After a bit more shopping and sightseeing downtown, we went to a movie and out for coffee with several of Margie's friends. And that took us to Thursday, when it was time to leave for Melbourne!