A long (birthday) weekend in Hobart

The sun’s out! Finally we are enjoying some sunshine and warmer weather.

We arrived in Hobart on Wednesday, then because of how wet everything was, spent Thursday unpacking, washing, cleaning and sorting absolutely everything out. Because we have access to a shed where we are staying, and we’re here for two weeks, we unpacked the lot, which will give us a chance to clean the car a bit.

Plus, as luck would have it, a friend from Brisbane, Rach D, was in town too, so I managed to sneak off to meet up with her for a drink and some dinner in a nice warm pub in Salamanca.

By Friday we were ready to give the chores away and head into the big smoke. We both decided we loved Hobart almost immediately. For me it is a lot like Wellington with the city right on the harbour, lots of nice little bars and restaurants, and lovely old houses all over the hills. We had a good look around town then took a spin up to Mt Wellington which was quite spectacular. As Hamish said on the way up “it’s like we’re taking off in a plane!”. You could see for miles, and we got another perspective on Bruny Island, our previous destination.

Saturday was Hamish’s 8^th birthday, and we’d made sure that we’d be in Hobart for it, in part because I needed to be somewhere with shops to sort out the all-important gifts, but also because the restaurant of choice was (unfortunately) the golden arches so we needed to be near one of those!

After opening presents and having a pancake breakfast we headed into town to the famous Salamanca markets which did not disappoint. There was a stall for almost anything you could imagine, and with plenty of free tastings of whiskey, gin, beer and wine, we could have rolled out of there if we’d wanted to. As it was, (and being 10am) we showed a bit of restraint, although we did buy some nice local beer and the hottest chilli sauce Jim could find.

There was no avoiding it any longer though, lunchtime rolled around so we had to head off to McDonalds. Hamish had told us his order days earlier so he was all sorted. All I can say is that I’m pleased we only have to go there once a year or so.

After that, we’d organised for the kids to try indoor rock climbing, which we thought they’d enjoy, but we had no idea that we’d be there for about three hours with them climbing non-stop. There were also a series of tunnels which to me looked tiny, dark and horrible, but the kids found a couple that were quite fun and did them over and over again.

After that we headed for home where we had some dinner and birthday cake and everyone flopped into bed after a successful day celebrating turning 8.

On Sunday the weather was even better so we headed for town again. This time we did a quick spin around the foodies market, then tried to go out to the Botanical Gardens. Try as we might, we could not find a car park anywhere, so bailed out on that and went out to have a look at the Cascades brewery, which is a beautiful old building with nice gardens of their own.

After that we decided to give the gardens another go, and after stalking a couple of people we managed to jag a carpark not far from the entrance. As we drove in though we realised that there was an open day at Government House (hence the crowds) so decided to go there instead of the gardens. Having been to Government House in Brisbane (which is only a few minutes’ walk from our house), we expected something similar but were very impressed with what we found instead – basically a castle that could have been anywhere in the UK which amazing furnishings and a spectacular ballroom. There was also the navy band entertaining us, and we had a play on the tennis courts as well.

Following that, we had intended to go back to the gardens, but the kids hit the wall so we decided to give that a miss and go back another time. So, it was back home where we cooked up a bbq on the campfire to share with our hosts. All in all, a top weekend, made better with the spectacular weather we’ve waited all these weeks to see.