Tasmania – Hobart and Surrounds

Our next stop was Hobart where we based ourselves to visit the city and surrounding area.

Hobart

We really liked Hobart. What a beautiful city all surrounded by water and mountains! The downtown has some pretty old buildings:

and a lovely wharf area:

Mount Wellington is 1,271m high and overlooks Hobart. We drove up to the top where the temperature dropped to zero degrees! I think it has ice or snow on it most of the year. The view from the top is amazing!

While we were there, a huge cloud blew in and the effect was pretty cool.

Bruny Island

One day, we took the ferry out to Bruny Island and drove all around exploring the island. There were a couple of nice places to taste various foods and a couple of good views (especially ‘the neck’ which sort of joins what will eventually become two islands). But overall, we felt that it was a bit overrated.

Food:

The Lighthouse:

The Neck and Adventure Bay:

Port Arthur

Port Arthur is about an hour’s drive from Hobart. It was the site of a convict prison in the 1800s, and unfortunately, also the site where in 1996 a guy pulled out a gun and killed 35 tourists and staff and wounded another 23. This massacre led to fundamental changes in Australia’s gun laws and the gun buy-back scheme.

Your entry ticket includes a 30-minute tour and a 30-minute boat ride around the harbour. You then have the rest of the day to walk around the site and visit the various buildings. The area had a lot of personalised stories of the convicts and when you buy your ticket, they give you a card relating to a particular convict. You can look up the convict’s details in their museum and then follow your convict’s story at one of the various buildings at the site.

We really enjoyed spending the day here – it was very interesting and well done.

Franklin

We stopped at the lovely little town of Franklin for a night on our way further south to visit some friends in Geeveston. The caravan camping in Franklin is right on the river and it was beautiful. We even had a seal float by on his back (with his flipper sticking out of the water!).

After spending the weekend with our friends, we headed into the center to visit Cradle Mountain.