Hobart

Although we had 3 nights in Hobart, we didn't do much conventional sightseeing.

The first part-day, after an early afternoon check-in, was mainly devoted to catching up on the sleep that we lost in NZ before setting off for the airport. 

In the evening we went out to familiarise ourselves with the local geography and find dinner. The motel was on Sandy Bay Road, and a short walk to the West found us surrounded by shops and cafes. As we were reading one of the menus a lady passing by strongly recommended the establishment. “I always get my takeaways here.” It was Asian fusion cuisine under the unsophisticated name, “Yummy Kitchen”. It was indeed yummy, and it captured our custom for all three dinners.

We can also recommend Daci & Daci Bakers for coffee that really hits the spot and memorable edibles. Their croque monsieur was especially awesome.

The motel was very shabby. It looked as though nothing but critical maintenance had been done since it was built. The stair carpets were worn through to the concrete in places. The bed was comfortable, the room was clean and the plumbing worked, so those essentials were covered. The Wi-Fi worked in the reception area but not in our room. These days good access to the Internet is also an essential, so this has to be regarded as a significant failing. There was no lift and our room was on the top floor, two levels above reception. Climbing all those stairs was healthy for us no doubt, but we didn't enjoy it.

The motel itself wasn't much, but it provided a fine view.

We think the building lit up in blue is a casino.

To our surprise, Bill's occasional employer contacted us. He wanted Bill's opinion on an unusual audit matter. To avoid huge international call charges Bill sat in the reception area and called back using Skype. Fortunately, the area was deserted so no confidential information could be accidentally revealed. At the same time Eve went out and bought an Australian SIM card so we could communicate with the world at reasonable cost.

We learned to get around on the buses. Passengers aged 70 or older get concessionary fares. Thank you, Hobart. The Botanic Gardens, though, are not convenient for bus travellers. You can get pretty near them on a bus from the city centre, but if you miss the stop the bus goes sailing over a huge bridge into East Hobart. And there's no corresponding stop in the other direction because it's a major arterial road. So we didn't visit the Botanic Gardens.

Hobart's big Saturday attraction is the Salamanca Market. As at the Nelson and Motueka markets you can find local produce, craft items of all sorts and various foods and drinks. But the Salamanca Market is very much bigger than Nelson and Motueka combined. It took a long time to amble up and down the street taking in what was on offer. The first stall we saw was selling nothing but “scallop sticks”. These were long kebab sticks with scallops and pieces of vegetables. We went back there at lunch time. They tasted as good as they smelled. Delicious! We also bought Heritage brand honey. It wasn't offered by a previously unknown relative, they just liked the word. And Eve was impressed by 3 pairs of merino socks for $30. They were men's sizes, so Bill will have warm toes this winter.

Much of Tasmania's history since European settlement is related to the convicts transported there. In Hobart there is the site and remains of the Cascades Female Factory, where women were incarcerated. We got there in time for a guided tour, Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls. This not only explained life in the 'factory', but related the lives of 7 of the inmates. The title of the tour was rather misleading. They were unfortunate women rather than notorious.

The wall at the back is original.  The low, reddish walls are to illustrate the size of the rooms the women lived and worked in.

An extract from the list of babies born to the inmates.  Few of them lived beyond toddlerhood.

Getting to Tasmania

It wasn't, technically, a difficult journey but it was memorable nonetheless.  We drove to Christchurch and spent a couple of nights with Eve's brother and sister-in-law, Russell & Ivy.

For reasons beyond our ken, the airlines schedule flights from Christchurch to Australia very, very early in the morning. Ours was programmed to leave at 06:10. The Qantas web site was uncertain about what time we should arrive at the airport, so we telephoned the 0800 number for a human's opinion. “Between 2 and 3 hours before take-off.”

That gave us any time between 03:10 and 04:10. We opted for 03:30 and booked an Uber to pick us up from Russell and Ivy's house at 3:15am.

Set the alarm for 2:45? No, better make it 2:30. Bill has only recently bought himself a new 'phone so he sensibly tested the alarm function. It went off at the right time, but with such a feeble, whispered sound that wouldn't wake anyone. Much time was then devoted to adjusting settings and looking up advice on the Internet. More testing gave no better results. This was raising the tension levels for no good reason because Eve has a 'phone with a proven, reliable alarm.

But the tension levels had been raised and neither of us slept well. We estimate that each of us got an hour or so's sleep before giving up just after 2am. We were dressed and zipping up our cases well before 2:30. At the scheduled hour both 'phones delivered maximum volume wake-up calls. If they woke up Russell & Ivy as we feared, they were too kind to say so.

We were delivered to the airport in good time. Despite checking-in online and having printed boarding passes ourselves we had to queue and go through an old-style at-the-airport check-in. Apparently the online check-in is really only useful if you have no checked bags.

Up the escalator to departures to find that security screening only opens at 4:00am. At least we found somewhere to sit down. Because of all the Australia-bound flights there was a huge queue when processing began. As usual, Eve's artificial hip had to be explained when she walked through the 'door'. Then Bill's cabin bag was tagged for further investigation. To avoid packing batteries in his checked luggage he had removed them from a camera and put them in the cabin bag. Apparently there is a proper way to pack them. Luckily we found a workaround by jamming them all in his hearing aids container.

Beyond security there was roughly an hour and a half to wait, but at least there was coffee!

We set off on time. The 'plane climbed to cruising altitude and the seat belt signs were extinguished. At last, we could tilt the seat back and catch up on missed sleep. Except. When the seat back was tilted back the bit you sit on was moved forward. This jammed Bill's knees into the seat in front. It was the most uncomfortable aircraft seat he had encountered since a Lufthansa sector from Singapore to Frankfurt in 2011. Not quite as bad as South China Airways.

We tried to doze, but neither of us got any serious sleep.

At Melbourne the only contretemps was not realising sooner that we had to ascend to the departures level for our flight to Hobart. This we attribute to sleep deprivation. Christchurch had issued our boarding passes for this sector, and the checked bag tags had the necessary bar codes for Hobart so we only had to go to the bag drop. It was as easy as we had been promised. And at Melbourne Airport we had more coffee. Try to avoid this if you are ever at Tullamarine Airport. It was dreadfully expensive.

The 'plane to Hobart was another Qantas 737, with the same knee-destroying seating. We did not get even the catnap that we craved.

Hobart Airport is not a forgotten backwater with two flights a day. It even has direct international flights nowadays. Much busier than Nelson Airport. But it only has 2 baggage conveyors. When we arrived they were both busy with the bags of Virgin Australia flights that had the good sense to land just before we did. So the concourse was crammed with passengers from at least 3 large airliners. Eventually one of the boards signalled QF1005 and hundreds of annoyed Australians surged forward.

We recovered our big bags without incident. The issue now was that our motel didn't accept checking-in until 2pm and, despite 4 hours on the ground in Melbourne, it was still only about 1pm local time. Eve found a seat and guarded the luggage, while Bill went in search of the Uber pick-up point. No worries there. But the airport Wi-Fi didn't work outside the building and we needed to use it to request a ride.

Bother arriving early. We decided to go. The Uber was requested from inside the arrivals hall and we set off. Bill went ahead to hopefully get to the pick-up area before the Uber driver gave up on us. Eve followed as fast as her luggage would allow. It wasn't a dazzling example of efficiency, but we did make contact with the driver and we did get delivered to the Blue Hills Motel.

Never mind that it was before 2pm, we were checked-in immediately. There is much to criticise about the motel – maybe in another post – but it did provide a bed so we could lie flat, stretch out and get some sleep!