Australia Road Trip: Hobart Tasmania Day 42-43

March 17-18

Hi All,

We are now back on Mystic Moon as I write these blogs. We had a great time in Tasmania and arrived back on Mystic yesterday late afternoon (March 24) pretty tired. We set a pretty fast pace in Tasmania trying to see as much as we could in our 7 days and that certainly was not close to enough time…..heavy sigh….so much to see, so little time!! I’ll be getting out several more blogs over the next few days!!

Sydney may be one of our favorite cities in Australia but if you have to drive versus taking mass transit it is ugly, ugly, ugly. We left the marina with plenty of time but what is a 50 minute drive with no traffic was double that in morning rush hour traffic….ugh!!! And on top of that the route Gigi sent us on there was no gas station near the airport to fill up the rental…..arghhhhhh and $$$$!!

We did make it to the Hobart airport about 30 min late but getting the luggage (all there and no damage!!) and rental was very quick. So, we get in the car, take a deep breath and John asks, so what do you want to do….hmmmm…..don’t know….so out comes the books and we plan our attack of Hobart!!

First stop, 7 minutes away is the award winning Sullivan Cove distillery, home of the 2014 WORLD best single malt whiskey award. There are 2-3 distilleries we want to try and this was one of them!!! So, in a very relaxed atmosphere we have a very nice tasting with a young man giving us a lot of pointers on how to taste and the history. These are single cask malt whiskies and they derive 60-80% of their flavor from what oak barrel they are aged in….they had American Oak bourbon, American and French Oak bourbon, and a French oak port. We liked the latter very much and when I went up to buy a bottle I was shocked to hear the price at USD300…..gulp, really, hmmmm…this was very good, but quite honestly, not that good….how can you charge such a (I’m thinking outrageous) price…..the man says…it’s simple, you win an award and voila, we can charge what we want and we even have a waiting list at that price….oh, whoa, and good for you…..capitalism at its best I guess, but no thanks…..whaaaaa!!!

The weather was great….very sunny and quite warm….so we decided to go to the Mt Wellington lookout….wow, what an incredible view…see the pics on the webiste!!! Mt Wellington is about 4200′ (1270m) high, looks right over Hobart and the Derwent estuary….just lovely!!!

From there it was on to our little private boutique hotel in the Battery district with a nice view of the harbor, rest up a little, then on to meet up with Terry (from Calypso) and two of his mates…..oh boy, were we in for a night Aussie style. Now mind you, Kathy was one woman with 4 males and quite frankly, did all the American/Aussie woman proud:))) Terry brought his Selene 60 down from the Bobbin Head marina (where Mystic is moored) to Tasmania a few months ago and has been part time cruising since then. And Terry loves his wine….John asks….so how are the Tasmania Pinot Noirs….oh, Terry says with a twinkle in his eye…I thought you’d never ask….we then proceed to have a private wine tasting while sitting on a boat in the middle of Hobart harbor….what could be better!!!

The party then moves on to dinner at one of the local seafood restaurants on the harbor. John then asks…..so how are the Tasmanian oysters….Terry answers, not as good as the Sydney rock oyster, of course, but not bad….shall we taste a few….and yes, they are as good as their reputation….oh boy, this is going to be a good week!!

We wake up the next morning and the weather has changed dramatically….cold, windy and rainy….joy!!! So out comes the rain gear and away we go…..there is a famous shopping area called Salamanca which we try first….it was nice but maybe not up to its reputation….meaning, Kathy did not buy anything:)))) After a few hours we stop and think maybe we should go to a museum and get out of the cold/rain….sounds good…so we look up to find a street sign and what do we see but Nant cellar door….John asks….well, we could continue to the museum a mile away and get more soaked or we can duck into this whisky bar and get warm, dry and have a wee dram or two….my lovely bride says….duh:))))

I had first tasted this whisky at a restaurant in Port Fairy and wanted to see the distillery in Tasmania. We had a great tasting and liked these whiskies more than at Sullivan….still pretty pricey but worth the value!!! We indeed got warm and dry and when we left the rain had stopped….but still cold and windy. We then went to the Tasmania Museum which was excellent. We spent several hours looking at both the aboriginal and European settlement history as well as a good natural history display of a lot of the animals in Australia.

We then went for a very late lunch at a pub built in 1807. In fact, it seemed Hobart had many 200ish year old pubs close to the wharf….you can just picture the jocularity at the end of the Sydney to Hobart race and NYE!!!! The Hope and Anchor Pub was one of the oldest and it was like eating in an antique store as it was also a museum…and oh, the food was good too!!!

Stats:
Traveled:
Car miles: 25 miles to Sydney airport, 50 miles Hobart; 4275 miles total
Air miles: 650 miles to Hobart; 2100 total
Train miles: 1600 total
Total traveled miles: 7975 miles
Wrong turns: 3 total
Kangaroo/”Roos”/Skippy count: 1 this leg; 328 total!!!
Skippy roadside warning signs: 1 this leg, 154 total
Koala count: 0 this leg; 49 total
Emu count: 0 this leg; 120 total
Echidna count: 0 this leg; 5 total
One Way bridges: 0 today; 19 total
Speeding Tickets: 0 today; 1 total
Hotel: Grand Vue Hotel; renovated 1906 Queen Anne style house; lovely and nice views; but they turned the heat off at night…..brrrr!!!
Food: Fresh Tasmania oysters, scallops and fish….yummers!!
LIG!!!! Hope all is well!!

John
Mystic Moon