Summer Saturday in Manly Beach

We wake early (not on purpose!) and have a relaxing morning in our apartment here in Sydney.  Connie slept well on the rollaway bed that we had obtained for her.  Our first objective today is to find the bronze statue that had been sculpted by Rob's cousin, Arthur Sherman.  It is in an outdoor area by the Darlinghurst Post Office on Oxford Street.  As it turns out, we had walked right by it on our first night in Sydney without seeing it.  It is a little off the street, so you wouldn't usually notice it if you weren't looking for it.  The statue is a representation of the birth of Australia and is very impressive.  Here are two photos that I took.  Rob took plenty more.

Our next objective is to visit Manly Beach, so we get ready and head for Circular Quay, where we will catch the ferry that will take us there.  As we walk across Hyde Park, which is really lovely, we are waylayed by the central monument, which is a tribute to the fallen and veterans of World War I, called the ANZACs.  It is built in the Art Deco style and is very nice inside with a small museum.  We continue walking through the park, admiring the giant fig trees, Hills Figs.  We stop for more photos at the fountain, then onto Circular Quay.

Manly Beach is on the ocean, just north of North Head, which with the opposite South Head is the entrance to Sydney Harbor from the Pacific Ocean.  The ferry ride is nice and provides good views of Sydney.  It takes about one half hour to reach the Manly ferry station.  The boat is somewhat crowded as we realize that going to the beach on a sunny Summer afternoon is naturally what many Sydney residents would want to do themselves.  That's okay -- it is not too crowded and kind of makes for a festive atmosphere.  When we arrive, we walk along the street called the Corso which connects the harbor side of Manly, where the ferry terminal is located, to the ocean beach.  The beach is beautiful!  Lots of people enjoying this day!  We find a restaurant on the street overlooking the beach where with can have lunch.  Rob has a smoked chicken salad on pita (which is really a tortilla), and Connie and I each have fish and chips.  After lunch we walk up and down the beachside promenade, then head back to the harbor.  

The harbor area has a lovely waterside walk that Rob and I partially walked in 2006 and were looking forward to walking along again.  Connie was eager to do this walk, too!  So we walk along with the water and smaller beaches on one side and house and apartments along the other.  We see a swimming area that is blocked in to stop the waves and the sharks, where people can swim laps.  We we walk along, I stop to take a picture of the opening in the land where the Pacific Ocean meets the harbor:

When we finish our walk, we board the ferry for the return ride to Sydney.  As we experienced on our ride here, the ferry ship experiences some pretty big rolling from the large waves coming into the harbor from the Pacific.  It is a little thrilling and a little scary, but we are in no danger.  It is nice to know there are personal flotation devices underneath our seats.

Back in Sydney, we decide to take a roundabout walk back to the hotel and head for the Sydney Botanic Gardens.  As always, the gardens are beautiful and immaculately maintained.  We exit the gardens and cross into the next park known as the Domain.  From here we can cross the street and head back into Hyde Park.

For dinner tonight, we stop at the grocery store and get an assortment of foods to enjoy in our apartment with Australian wine and the women's final of the Australian Open tennis tournament (Serena Williams wins over Maria Sharapova).  At about 9pm, we hear the sound of fireworks and leap to the window to watch a great fireworks display at Darling Harbor.  What a treat!

Waking up to Sydney

Today is Friday, January 30 (in Australia, anyway), and we are in for a treat!  Connie Pinder Barr is joining us from faraway Atlanta!  We wake early and have a leisurely morning.  Shortly after 9am, Rob heads down to the lobby of our building to await Connie's arrival.  Her plane from Los Angeles landed at about 8am.  And then ... Connie arrives!  Woo Hoo!  Our plan (if Connie is not too exhausted) is to walk around central Sydney and enjoy today's perfect weather.

We set out and stop to have lunch at the Queen Victoria Building (QVB), and older, historic shopping arcade that is home to fancy shops and nice restautants.  We stop at one that has a nice display of salads and we each order the tuna salad with beans.  We walk around the arcade and admire the giant clocks.  We walk north along George Street and then we spot the Sydney Tower.  We make the spontaneous decision to ride to the top of the tower!  There is a 4D movie to watch before they let us up that is actually pretty entertaining!  At the top, the views are perfect thanks to today's perfect weather.  Here is a picture that I took:

After this, we continue north towards the main harbor, known as Circular Quay.  We walk along the quay and head to the view of the opera house from the Park Hyatt hotel -- gorgeous!  Heading towardss the Botanic Gardens, we don't quite make it there.  We stop at a waterside bar called Buckley's for refreshing beer or two, or three, maybe four.  We're in vacation mode for sure!  Soon enough it is time for dinner, so we head back the area called The Rocks to dine at a restaurant called Sailor's Thai.  For staters we have some steamed dumplings that are blue for some reason and tod mun (fish cakes) with quail eggs in the center.  For mains, we enjoy barramundi, spicy greens, and outstanding chicken in a red curry sauce.  The food tonight is even better than we remembered it from 2006.  Our wine today is a New Zealand pinot gris from Te Whare Ra (a winery in Marlborough that Rob and I have visited).

Walking home, we pass a restaurant in an alley that has a selection of hanging cages that I am compelled to photograph:

Well, we didn't do a tremendous amount of sightseeing today, but we sure had fun!

Blue Mountains in the Sun ... then, Sydney

We wake to a beautiful blue sky and look forward to seeing the Blue Mountains in the sun!  Our first stop this morning is a park with the unimaginative name of "Scenic World."  It seems a bit of a tourist trap, but truthfully, as a tourist, it is not something one should pass up.  Since our time is limited today (we need to drive to Sydney this afternoon), we arrive at the opening time of 9am.  As advised when we bought our tickets ($35 per adult), we first take the Skyway over the canyon to view the Katoomba Falls.  They are really impressive and really this view from the Skyway provides us probably the only opportunity to see them from top to bottom.  Here is what the Skyway looks like from the ground:

It is pretty high up!

Next, we take the Railway down to the valley floor.  This railway started as a way for miners to get down to thier mines, but gradually got taken over by tourists.  Well, today, the mine is long gone, and the railway has been replaced by a more modern system, but it is still a little harrowing as it is the steepest railroad in the world!  It is a short ride, though.

At the bottom, there is a nice 45 minute walk through a rain forest,  We are in the shade for the entire walk as we are under the canopy of the rain forest. 

Several of the trees are identified for us in signs.  The most beautiful is called the Blue Mountain Gum (Euchalyptus), which is a very large tree with gorgeous white bark.  We ride back up to the top in another enclosed car, called the Cableway.  We enjoy views of a rock formation called Orphan Rock.

After leaving Scenic World, we stop at a nearby park to take a short walk to the Katoomba Cascades (term for small waterfalls).

We still have some time to do a little more sightseeing before we need to head to Sydney, so we decide to return to Blackheath to admire the views we had seen yesterday in the rain and fog.  This was a good decision!  The views of the Grose Valley (as opposed to the Jamison Valley, which is what you see from Echo Point and Scenic World) are stunning in the sun.  The waterfall known as Govetts Leap is super good!  It is the tallest waterfall in the Blue Mountains.

We admire other views of the valley from a spot called Evans Lookout.

Well, that's it for the Blue Mountains -- glad we had enough good weather to enjoy them!

Driving to Sydney is mostly uneventful.  What is amazing is that the divided highway called the M4 ends about 12 miles from the city center and then one must take streets to get the rest of the way!  Seems like someone should do something about this!  As we enter Sydney, I of course make a wrong turn, but Rob's navigation skills get us to the Budget rental car return place.  The map provided by Budget at the airport is not helpful!  Anyway, we return the car and take a cab to our rental apartment at 528 Kent Street.  We check in and are very pleased with our one bedroom unit.  It is on the 49th floor with stunning views way off in the distance and Darling Harbor up close.  We can peak at the Harbor Bridge between buildings from the bedroom window.  Before we relax, we go the Cole's grocery store about two blocks away to stock up on supplies.

Researching restaurants on Yelp, I find an Italian place not too far away called Berta.  The reviews are very positive including raves for the friendliness of the staff.  The downside is that it is supposed to be difficult to find.  Well, we find it and it is quite busy (and small), but we are accommodated at the bar overlooking the kitchen.  The food we ordered is meant to be shared plates, and it was fantastic!  The descriptions on the menu are as follows:

"fiore di burrata red cabbage parmesan" -- Burrata cheese served with toast and some type of spread (the parmesan?) and pickled? red cabbage, very good.

"cauliflower walnuts mustard" -- Unbelievable good, roasted cauliflower drizzled with lemon aioli with walnuts; I guess the mustard was in there somewhere.  We could eat this every day!

"ricotta caramelle fennel sumac" -- This was a pasta dish with pasta filled with ricotta and spinach?  twisted and served in an asian flavored sauce with fennel, super inventive and incredibly delicious!

"snapper almond picada marjoram thyme tomate" -- Very nice piece of fish in a tasty sauce.

We also have a side of a Leaf Salad.  The staff, as adertised, was very friendly.  We make the acquaintance of Stuart who provides some restaurant recommendations for us in Sydney.  That is most appreciated!

We return to our apartment and watch Andy Murray defeat Tomas Berdych in an Australian Open semifinal, then to bed.

The Blue Mountains

About two hours west of Australia,the Blue Mountains rise over 3,000 feet over sea level and provide an attractive side destination from Sydney.  We drove here yesterday in terrible, rainy and foggy weather and have yet to see anything really.  We hope for better today.

We awake to the same weather, unfortunately -- very rainy and extremely foggy -- kind of like a winter day at the end of Partrick Road!  After breakfast, we consult with the front desk on advice for our activities today.  She suggest we could do some walking around at the top (Cliff Trails) and also visit the neighboring city of Leura which has a charming shopping area.  Well, I didn't come here to shop, so it is not certain what we'll do.  Anyway, the most beautiful viewpoint in the Blue Mountains, called Echo Point, is a short walk from our hotel, so that is what we decide to check out first.  We make the short walk there, but there is nothing to see.  A gorgeous vista lies behind this fog, so we are led to believe.  We consider taking the cliff walks that set out from here, but it turns out that will involve walking through muddy areas, which we are not equipped (shoe-wise) to do, so we decide to consult the nearby tourist information office.  The woman there is very helpful and suggests that we drive to the next town to the west called Blackheath.  At the tourist office there, we can take a paved ("sealed" as the Austrailians say) walk through a wild area.  We decide that sounds like good idea.

At Blackheath, there is a very helpful woman there as well, who tells us about the walk and warns us not to step on any "Red Triangle Snails."  She shows us a picture -- they are whitish/yellowish with a red triangle on their backs, hence the name.  We promise not to step on any:  why would we want to?  This is a nice walk with interesting vegetation to look at.  We see pretty pinkish red flowers and some small pine-type trees with yellow flowers.  We also see several of the snail and do avoid stepping on any.  Near the end of the walk is a viewpoint of a rock formation called Pulpit Rock, and we can actually see it!  Hooray, the fog is lifting a little.  This is our first view of something/anything in the Blue Mountains.  We continue on to the end of the trial, which terminates at a spot called Govetts Leap Lookout.  "Leap" is the Scottis word for waterfalls, so Govetts Leap Lookout provides and view of a beautiful waterfall that is also known as Bridal Veil Falls.  It is impressive, even in the partial fog.  A sign directs us to an even closer overlook which it says in 15 minutes away.  We decide to take this walk.  The rain is not too heavy at this point, but also not completely stopped.

This may be a mistake.  As it turns out, 15 minutes does not seem to be an accurate estimate for this walk.  Secondly, the "walk" is really just a giant staircase down.  Thirdly, there are enormous amounts of standing water on the "trail," which gets our shoes pretty wet.  Fortunately, there is little mud.  As we are getting close to the end (I can hear the waterfall), Rob really wants to turn back -- his shoes are getting too wet.  However, I insist on finishing the walk; a decision that Rob is not happy about, but he relents.  At the end, the payoff isn't really worth it.  We do see the falls up close, but the fog is thick and the view is just okay.  Time to head back.  As we climb (all upstairs at this point) back up, we are treated with a view of a heavyset female hiker with her pants pulled down and urinating.  No additional comments here needed.

Well, we are pretty wet at this point, so we have no choice but to head back to the hotel to dry off.  With this weather what else is there to do anyway?  This is very discouraging.

Back at the hotel, we entertain ourselves by playing Words with Friends in the hotel lounge while enjoying some sauvignon blanc.

Sometime around five o'clock, a miracle happens:  it begins to clear.  We grab out cameras and head back to Echo Point.  We can actually see the Blue Mountains, and they are gorgeous!  We are at the rim of a large valley (Jamison Valley) looking down at an ocean of green trees with impressive rock formation along the rim.  The most famous of these is the Three Sisters.  We take lots of pictures (Rob with his camera and me with my phone).  What a treat.  This is the best photo that I took:

Soon, it is time for dinner.  We are eating in our hotel tonight.  Nothing fancy, a steak for me and rack of lamb for Rob.  Our wine tonight is delicious.  It is a Cabernet Franc Merlot from Ross Hill, located in  Orange, New South Wales.  I would definitely drink this again!  Tomorrow should be more good weather (I hope, no guarantees), so we will hopefully get some additional sight seeing in at the Blue Mountains before we head to Sydney.

Our Wine:

From Tasmania to the Blue Mountains

We will miss Tasmania ... It is a beautiful place with such lovely outdoor landscapes that we really enjoyed driving through and admiring.  The people here have been super friendly and very welcoming.  Oh and that salmon!  Yum!

Today, we rise early and head to the airport for our flight to Sydney.  The flight is uneventful with one annoyance in the process.  When a flight is nearing departure time in Hobart, anyone who needs to get on the plane but has arrived late to the airport is told to jump to the front of the check-in line.  Similarly, these latecomers are able to jump to the front of the security screening line as well.  For those of us who arrived early to the airport for our own flights, it is a little exasperating to have to wait while those who are late are processed first.  In the USA, if you can't get to the airport on time, you will miss your flight -- here, you get first class treatment.  Not fair!  I spend the flight researching the Blue Mountains and reading the book that I bought about the history of Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula.

Anyway, we arrive to a rainy Sydney, but quickly collect our bags and obtain our rental car.  I wish the remainder of our journey today would be so uneventful.  We get plenty of directions for how to get on the highway (the M5) that will take us west, but when we leave the airport, there are no signs for any highways.  So of course, we make some wrong turns, then retrace our steps and Rob is able to navigate us in the right direction even without any signage.  I have to say that based upon our experience today and when we initially landed in Sydney, this airport is kind of a mess.  Finally, we see the signs for the M5, but one direction takes us to Botany Bay and the other to Canberra.  Neither seems correct to us.  Why can't they just say "East" or "West"?  Ugh!  Rob quickly consults the maps and Canberra seems the right choice.  Unfortunately, it is too late to get in the correct lane, so we drive on and figure out a way to backtrack on get on the highway (which is really backed up, by the way).  The drive to the Blue Mountains is relatively uneventful at this point, if you discount the downpouring rain and fog.  Isn't Australia supposed to be a dry place?  The rain and the fog continue all the way to our destination.  It is pretty dismal.

We reach the town of Katoomba, where our hotel is located, but we have no idea where.  We pull over to try to use the Garmin GPS that we had rented, but either it doesn't work or we're stupid.  I'm pretty sure it doesn't work (I hope).  Rob jumps out of the car to consult a shopkeeper who gives some type of instruction, so we follow a hunch and luckily find the hotel.  The fog is still really thick at this point, so it is difficult to say the least.  We check in and have lunch in the hotel's restaurant:  caesar salad for me and quinoa salad for Rob with sides of chicken satay and steamed vegetables -- pretty good with a glass of Dalyrimple sauvignon blanc from Tasmania.  It is now about 3pm and there is literally nothing to do, given the weather.  Can't do any sightseeing (try admiring mountains in the fog) and won't do any walking (no real attractions in the town here, all the attractions involve shrouded scenic viewpoints).  It is disappointing since we had come here to view the sites and do some hiking, neither of which are possible today.  We'll hope for better conditions tomorrow, but not feeling very hopeful about that.  This afternoon, I guess we'll just lounge in our very nice hotel room and watch Rafael Nadal lose in the Australia Open.  The hotel, but the way, called Lilianfels, is really nice, too, not just our hotel room.  Not much to do until our 7pm dinner reservation at the restaurant called Echo, a short walk away at a sister property of our hotel.

Dinner at Echo is very fancy and rather expensive, but very good.  It has an Asian theme to its food.  Rob starts with a fig salad, which features figs stuffed with goat cheese with frisée and melon.  I start with a salad with grilled octopus.  It tastes similar to calamari.  Underneath the salad, however, is some type of seaweed that I absolutely cannot eat.  Other than that, it was very good.  For mains, we each have grilled John Dory filets that are served with sugar snap peas, broccolini, cabbage, and little potato in a ginger broth.  Extremely good.  Our wine is a pinot grigio from Pipers Brook in Tasmania.  We retire to watch Andy Murray defeat Australian Nick Kyrgios in a quarterfinal match in the Australian Open.

Happy Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day, everyone -- celebrated every January 26!  This date is celebrated as the anniversary of the day in 1788, when the British sailed into Sydney Harbor with its first fleet of convict ships.  This date has been celebrated since early on in Sydney and New South Wales (the Australian state that includes Sydney).  However, other Australian states did not have a history of celebrating this date, because it was not their history.  All of today's states in Australia were for a long time independent colonies.  Even after the colonies/states were federated together to create the nation, Australia, in 1901, there was not broad agreement that this date should be selected as the day for celebrating the nation.  Several alternatives were proposed by the states.  However, by the 1930's, consensus was reached, and today's national holiday, Australia Day, was officially born.

Our celebration plan for today is to explore the Huon Trail.  This is an area to the south of Hobart that is well known for its natural beauty and fruit orchards.  We head south and drive through lovely seaside neighborhoods until the houses become more sparse and the view is more rural.  Our first stop is the recommended Inverawe Native Gardens, a private estate run by an elderly husband and wife in what is clearly a labor of love.   Margaret, the wife, provides us an extensive overview of the property, including a map.  All the plants in the gardens are native to Australia.  Their accomplishment is impressive, and the location is very scenic.  The property sits on the D'Entrecasteaux Channel at the mouth of the North West River near the town of Margate.  I take note of one plant that can either be the size of a bush or grow to the size of a small tree call Melaleuca Nesophiles.  It has charming little pink poms poms, similar to the bottle brush tree (another Australian native plant), although we are informed that they are not related.  I plan to see if this is available in the United States.  Rob likes the annuals called Paper Daisies, native to Western Australia.  Seed packs are available for purchase, but I don't think we would be allowed to bring them into the United States.  Too bad for us.

We continue driving south along the western shore of the channel until we reach a town called Woodbridge, where, just to the south, we stop at the Grandvewe Sheep Cheesery, Australia's only organic sheep's milk cheese producer.  There is a small cafe there, so we enjoy lunch called "toasties."  These are grilled (sheep) cheese sandwiches, combined with either ham or roasted vegetables, very good.  We each enjoy a glass of sauvignon blanc produced under the Grandvewe name.  The coastline here is very scenic, and as much as we enjoyed driving the Tasman Peninsula yesterday, we are enjoying this more.  The landscape is just so charming with its rolling green hills and blue water.  We make additional stops in the small towns of Gordon and Verona Sands to admire these views.  Verona Sands lies just at about the bottom of this peninsula.

After Verona Sands, the highway turns back towards the north as we drive up what is now called the Huon River valley, which is, of course, an estuary at this point.  We stop at a scenic pullover site and take some nice pictures of Eggs and Bacon Bay, yes, that is the real name.  

We also drive through a charming town called Cygnet as we make our way north to Huonville, which is the top of this valley.  The agricultural specialty of this valley appears to be apples, and there are any roadside apple stands.  Huonville, itself, appears to be a very nice larger town, but we pass through.  We stop just north, however, at a place called the Apple Shed, where I hope to see some of the local apples.  We are disappointed to learn that this is actually more of a restaurant.  It does offer apple cider tasting, though.  We pass on this and continue north.  One more picture of the Huon Valley at its northern end:

Our final stop on today's drive is the top of Mount Wellington.  This mountain towers over Hobart and the surrounding areas at 4,170 feet elevation.  A fairly good road take you to the top, but it takes a while to get there.  Once there, it is colder, naturally, but the views are amazing.  You can see a great distance, and many pictures are taken.  Here is one I took with the city of Hobart in the center:

You can see Hobart is not that close, and certainly far below!

From here we return to the hotel to watch a little tennis and prepare for our flight to Sydney tomorrow. We have dinner reservations at the restaurant Rockwall, where we ate on our first night in Hobart.  Both of us are certain to order the Tasmanian Salmon again.  This may be our last chance to get it, since its availability in other parts of Australia is uncertain.

Dinner does not disappoint, we both order the same salad and same Tasmanian Salmon that we did last Wednesday.  We also order a pinot noir from a town called Granton and a winery called Stefano Lubiana.  It is not a light style and actually seems as if it could age a while.  Everything about this dinner was perfection.  I feel a little sad (maudlin, actually) at the end, as there may not be another chance to enjoy this delicous fish.  This particular Tasmanian Salmon is from the Huon River area, where we had just toured this afternoon.  Hopefully, I am wrong, and we will find this on the menu in Sydney.

Walking back to the hotel, I get the idea to walk past the hotel, even though the street sign says there is no outlet.  My hunch is based on the fact that every time I look our our hotel window, I see someone walking in that direction.  As soon as we pass the hotel, we see why:  there is a lovely small park called Princes Park that one can stroll through.  It connects to neighborhoods on the other side.  I regret not coming through here before, but we are glad we did this evening.

We go back to the hotel to turn in and watch a little more tennis.  We have to get up early tomorrow.  As I write this, I can look out the window and see the Dawn Princess come into and dock in Hobart Harbor.

Day of Driving and the Tasman Peninsula

We are leaving Freycinet National Park today to return to Hobart, but with detours.  What changeable weather these Tasmanians have, though.  We wake this morning to a real downpour, which we dash through to get to breakfast at the main lodge.  Fortunately, we get a break when it is time to load our luggage in the car.

We start driving, and the weather is nice.  There are some clouds but nice breaks of blue sky and sun.  The temperature is cool, though, about 60 degrees farenheit.  We retrace our path from the drive here passing through the towns of Swansea and Orford. However, when we reach the town of Sorrell, we don't head to Hobart but south towards the Tasman Peninsula.  There are three sights to see on our agenda.  The peninsula is beautiful and a little different from where we had come from up north.  The grass is a little greener and the trees a lot fuller, very pleasant rolling terrain.  We soon arrive at our first destination: the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park.

Tasmanian Devils are endangered.  There is a facial cancer for which there is no cure, and given that the Devils tend to bite each other in the face, the cancer will likely wipe out the entire species.  There is a plan to prevent this, however.  The Tasman Peninsula is isolated from the rest of Tasmania by a man made canal.  The Devils on the peninsula do not have the cancer, so they are protected so long as they do not come into contact with the other Devils.  Over the next 15 years, the Devils on the mainland will likely all die, then the Devils on the peninsula can be used to repopulate the mainland.  The Conservation Park is working on the effort, as well as providing a place for the public to come and see the Devils.  We arrive at 1pm and we are in luck.  There will be a feeding of the Devils at 1:30pm that we can watch.  The Devils are not large, about the size of a small dog, but they have vicious teeth and as we watch, two of them begin to bicker and release a large hissing sound.  All of us viewers jump in fright!  Here is the best picture of a Devil that I took:

They have red ears and a white stripe n their chests, not entirely ugly.  

The feeding provides a lot of information on the Devils.  Here is what we learned:  they are slow, have bad eyesight, and are terrible hunters at night when they are active.  So they are scavengers, which means they eat things that are already dead, preferably a wallabee, but really anything.  They eat all of their victims, including bone, fur, teeth, and anything else.  There is only one part of the corpse they won't ear:  the intestines.  They don't like the intestines since they are likely full of grass or other vegetable matter, and Devils only want meat!  If they find a large victim, they will signal other Devils with their voices to share -- how nice!

One other comment on the feeding:  the ranger pulled out chunks of wallabee to give to the Devils using her bare hands.  With blood on her hands, she then continued the presentation, kind of gross.  The two Devils in the enclosure that we saw fed were one male and one female.  They were named Chumbo and Missy!

Our next destination of Port Arthur.  It is not really a town, but a historic site.  Port Arthur was one of the original settlements of Tasmania, which means it was established to incarcerate transported convicts.  It has a brutal history and was used as some sort of prison for decades.  Later abandonned, it was almost lost to history, but the government stepped in and established this historic site in order to preserve what was left of the buildings, which are mostly just ruins at this point.  The site is rather large and takes a few hours to walk around and read the signs that explain the various buildings/ruins.  Our luck is not so good, though, as the weather has turned rainy just as we are about to set out on our tour, so we walk around in the rain.  Fortunately, we do have umbrellas.  Most of the Australians, for some  reason, do not.  I wish I could provide more detailed information on the history of this place, but I have not yet done my reading!  When we departed, I bought a short book on the history of Port Arthur which will educate me.  Here is link to the official web site, if anyone would like to do their own reading, or just look at a few pictures (which I have failed to provide in this blog):

http://www.portarthur.org.au/

Finally, we drive a few miles farther south to view White Beach, which Fodor's guidebook describes as Tasmania's most beautiful beach.  Who can pass this up?  It is really at the end of the world, which is what the end of the Tasman Peninsula feels like.  It is a long crescent beach with gentle waves and, of course, the advertised white sand.  Now it is time to make the return drive to Hobart.

Back in Hobart, we return to Maldini's Italian restaurant (third time here) for dinner.  We share starters of a local grilled calanmari salad with citrus and fennel and tomate bruschetta, which is fantastic.  For mains, Rob has spaghetti and meatballs, and I have a seafood risotto.  Both portions are large, and neither of us can finish.  Our wine is a Bream Creek pinot noir, which is a light style wine.  We return to our hotel room to watch some Australian Open tennis.  Today was a lot of driving -- all on the wrong side of the road!

My Two Favorite Australian Birds

My favorite Australian bird is the Australian Magpie, not because it is a nice bird, most probably consider it a pest, but the song is incredible.  The birds always sing in duet.  Check out his page for pictures, but even better you can hear the song:

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/bird/24

Here is the link for the Laughing Kukkaburra, check this out, too!

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/bird/37

Freycinet National Park

Yesterday, we spent our time in the park relaxing; today, we will be exploring.  But first: a little Tasmanian history.  Tasmania was discovered by Europeans in 1642 by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman.  He mapped the area and named it for his patron, Van Diemen's Land.  Then, he moved on to New Zealand.  Nothing much happened after that until 1802 when a French fleet came exploring in 1802.  A lieutenant on the expedition was named Freycinet and the peninsula which contains this park was named for him.  There is also a Mount Freycinet on the peninsula.  The French checked out Tasmania but decided they had no interest in it.  The British, then at war with the French, decided in 1803 that they would claim Van Dieman's land for their own and shortly thereafter began transporting convicts from England to prison facilities on the island.  Of course at some later date, the decision was made to rename the island, Tasmania, after the original explorer.

The Freycinet peninsula connects to the mainland in the north and then extends south into the Pacific Ocean.  Our accommodation, the Freycinet Lodge is located in the northern part of the park on the bay (west) side of the peninsula.  The main attraction in the park is known as Wineglass Bay, named for the shape of the inlet.  There are only three ways to see the bay:  get in a plane and fly over it, take a cruise to see it from the water, or hike into the area.  We elect to hike it.  A side note on Australian terminology:  what we call a trail is called in Australia at track.  Those who use the tracks are not hikers, but are called trampers.  The hike to Wineglass Bay is about 4 kilometers one way, about 2 1/2 miles, but we are going to hike (tramp) a loop trail which takes us to Wineglass Bay, then across the peninsula and back up the other side for a round trip of 11 kilometers, just under 7 miles.  The initial part of the hike is mostly uphill from the car park as we must ascend to cross a pass between two of the mountains in the range called the Hazards.  The track is very well maintained and can be hiked by most people as long as they can complete the climb.  The first viewpoint is back toward Coles Bay, which is very scenic.  Then the track keep climbing to reach the viewpoint of Wineglass Bay from on high.  This view is stunning.  Everyone on the track will take a pause here to enjoy this.  From here the track descends down to the beautiful beach in Wineglass Bay.  Many hikers don't go this far; it seems they just check out the viewpoint then turn back to the car park.  Being in the bay itself is just gorgeous.  Of course there are other hikers, but not as many as one might suspect, so it is really a treat to get to enjoy such a wonderful example of nature's beauty in a complete unspoiled and private environment.  We stay here for a while, snapping pictures and enjoying a snack.

We tear ourselves away and set out west across the isthmus track.  This is a relatively flat path with interesting vegetation.  We see a gorgeous deep pink flower that seems to be completely out of place.  The only other blooming plant we have seen is the Smoky Tea Tree, which has lovely small white flowers.  They are common along the path.  Regarding the pink blossom, though, we later learn from a ranger at the visitor center that it is a hyacinth orchid.  We see three examples on the path.  The flower has not foliage, reminding us of the August blooming flower in Napa known as a Naked Lady (in the lily family).  We come near to a marsh area and are complete confounded by a sound emanating from the marsh.  It sounds almost electronic in a middle to low tone.  We have never heard anything like it.  Is it a bird or what?  Again, the ranger at the visitor center fills us in.  It is the Eastern Banjo Frog.  Strange.  The next stage of the path takes us to a long beach on what is called the Promise Bay.  It is called Hazards Beach.  We also weren't expecting part of the trail to be on a beach, but are pleasantly surprised.  I see a few shells to pick up and take along with me.  We also stop to enjoy our packed lunch that we had purchased this morning at the lodge.

The final part of the trail is 6 kilometers and is not our favorite part.  It follows the coast to the north, but does not offer a lot of variety.  Rob is spotting small lizards along the way, however, which we learn are called Metallic Skinks.  Also, there are no markers on the trail to mark your progress, so you keep thinking you must be getting close to the end, but in reality have quite a ways to go.  Still we make it back in 4 1/2 hours total, which is not too long for this distance.  This was definitely a great hike, even if it was a tramp!

It is only 1:30pm in the afternoon, leaving us ample time to hit the other two major sites in the park.  The first stop is a short hike to Sleepy Bay, which features Gravelly Beach. This area on the Pacific Ocean side of the park provides rocky vistas to enjoy, plus another opportunity to finds really unique and beautiful shells.  I find some in blue, violet, green, and white!

The final stop is a short hike to the lighthouse point, also on the Pacific.  The attraction here is to be at a high spot where you can see all of the tall mountains on the peninsula in one vista, as well as see into Wineglass Bay in the distance.  It is a little reminiscent of Big Sur, back home in California.  We end our day with a stop to the visitor center where we are able to talk to the rangers about the things we had seen, which they were able to identify for us.  Very nice staff here, but it goes without saying that everyone here in Tasmania is beyond friendly!

We head back to the lodge for some needed downtime after several miles of walking today, possibly as many as twelve!  We go to the bistro for a light snack and a beer.  Then it is time to clean up!

After a break, we head to the lodge for dinner.  We both start with the Greek salad again.  It is very good.  For the first time on this vacation, neither of us opts for a seafood dish, but we both choose a pork loin main dish.  It is okay and is served with cooked red cabbage, which is nice.  Less nice is the canned pineapple ring served overtop or the crackling which is served on top of that.  What is that, I ask the server when the dish is presented.  She tells us that it is fried pork fat.  I'll pass, although I'm sure it is delicious.  Best to avoid things like that.  Our wine is a pinot noir from Milton.  Milton is located in Cranbrook, a small town north of Swansea nearby that we had driven past on the way to the park.  This evening is sunny with no clouds, which is very pleasant.  We end the day, sitting on our deck admiring the sunset on Richardson Beach.

Drive to Freycinet

As we leave Hobart and begin driving, both Rob and I are thinking about the remoteness of where we are.  Even the name Tasmania conjures up some distant place that in normal circumstances one would not think of traveling to, yet we did.  It is not such a foreign place -- everyone speaks English here after all -- yet it is so far away from everywhere else.  Now, as we drive, we realize the way out can only involve a drive back to Hobart, and departing Hobart can only mean a flight back to a major city in Australia, and then one can fly hours upon hours to get back to North America.  We are in a remote location!  World events have an impact here, no doubt, but it seems like perhaps the local residents could stop following international news with little consequence to their daily lives.

Today we are leaving Hobart to drive north and east to the Freycinet National Park.  This park is situated on a peninsula on the Pacific Ocean.  We awake to the beautiful sounds of the Australian magpie.  These birds have an amazing song that is always sung in a duet, very unusual, but pleasant.  I am reminded of the kookaburra that I heard when we were in Richmond, not because of the song, but because these are birds that are only in Australia.

We check out of the hotel, but not before asking the front desk staff if they had any recommendations of things to do or see on the way to the park.  One recommends an establishment called Kate's Berry Farm for a place to get a nice sweet.  Another recommends a restaurant in the town of Swansea for lunch.  It is called Salt Shakers.

We drive east on the A3, which is a nice four lane divided highway, until you pass the Hobart airport, when it becomes a two lane road.  Australia does not spend lavishly on highways, I don't think, but they are adequate.  Speed limits are generally 100 kilometers per hour, equivalent to about 62 miles per hour.  Following the Prosser River to the coast, the biggest town we come to first is Orford, where we meet the ocean and proceed north along the coast.  We stop at Raspins Beachin in Orford to admire the view.  There are several nice beaches farther north that we pass along the highway, and we stop at one called Kelvedon, which has the most amazing shells.  We stop to collect a few to take with us.  The next sight we see is called the spiky bridge.  This is a convict constructed bridge that has stone spikes arising along each side.  No one knows exactly why the bridge was built this way, perhaps to stop cattle from going over the side, perhaps to strengthen the construction, or simply because someone thought it looked good.

We next reach the resort/tourist town called Swansea.  It seems very nice and very clean, in fact, it has proclaimed itself the "tidiest town."  It has a nice park along the shore.  We locate the restaurant, Salt Shakers, that had been recommended and enjoy a nice lunch.  I have really good fish and chips made with a Tasmanian white fish, and Rob has an Asian beef salad.  We continue on to the park.

A note on the terrain:  as we drive, the landscape is rolling hills with some forested areas and some open areas.  There is no apparent agriculture beyond the occasional vineyard or orchard.  We do see quite a few sheep from time to time, as well as a few cows, but mostly sheep.  The ocean is a beautiful blue color with some areas of green, which provides kind of a tropical feel.  However, the land seems somewhat arid.  The trees are green, and the grass is green, so clearly it rains here (unlike California in the summer), but the trees seem very sparse, not lush.  Many of the trees are gum trees, or eucalyptus, which do not have a lot of foliage.  When you see water and beaches that seem so tropical, you expect the landscape to be tropical, too, like the Caribbean or Hawaii, but that is not the case here.  We are reminded of what we saw when we drove the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, or even the landscape on Hayman Island in the Great Barrier Reef.

We arrive at the park and follow the signs to the Freycinet Lodge, where we will stay.  The main attraction here in the park is called Wineglass Bay.  It can be reached in only three ways:  you can hike in, you can view it from a plane, or you can take a lunch cruise, which will take you there.  We arrived at 1pm, so it is probably too late for a hike for us today, so we will plan to do that tomorrow.  We check into our room, and it is above expectations.  Beautiful furnishings, spacious bathroom and a fantastic deck that overlooks Richardson Beach -- what a view!

We're going to take it easy today.  After we settle in, we take a short walk to Honeymoon Bay, which has some nice views of the mountains in the park, then we decide to head back and enjoy Richardson Beach.  It is a warm sunny day, perfect for the beach.  The sand is nice, and the beach is very gradual -- you can walk out quite a ways in the water and only get your legs wet.  The water is very cool.  There are some swimmers, but mostly people just getting their legs wet, like us.  The sun is too intense to stay our here too long, so we had back to our deck and relax with a few card games.  Our deck faces north, and we both comment that one of the interesting things to adjust to in the southern hemisphere is that fact that the sun is in the north, not the south.  This can be a little disorienting at times.

Dinner is, of course, at the lodge, where the food is known to be good, at least that what the guidebooks says!  We head over early to enjoy a glass of wine in the lounge before dinner.  We choose a chardonnay from nearly Freycinet Vineyards.  It is very good.  For dinner, we start with oysters, a local specialty, grilled with bacon.  They are okay, but too over-flavored for my taste making it difficult to taste the actual oyster.  Next we each have a Greek salad, which is perfect.  For mains, we each have the salmon.  It is good, but not great.  The salmon is farmed, not sure where, so does not have the incredible flavor of the Tasmanian salmon that we had at the restaurant Rockwall in Hobart.  With dinner we enjoy a pinot gris from Bay of Fires Vineyard, also very good.  Bay of Fires is to the north of the park.  Our waiter, interestingly, is from Alabama.  He is here on a one year work visa that Australia offers to foreigners who are under 30.

After dinner, we have a taste of the Cabernet Franc that we had purchased at Frogmore Vineyards.  It is not good, I'm afraid.  It is like drinking liquid green peppers (or capsicum, as they call them in Australia).  Cabernet Franc is a difficult wine to make, and unfortunately, this was not a success.  We have a big day of exploring the park tomorrow, so we turn in early. 

Thursday, January 22, Hobart and Vicinity

Our plan today is to tour some of the surrounding sites around Hobart, but first a cultural observation.  It turns out the Progressive insurance sells auto insurance here in Australia and reproduces word for word the American commercials that feature the nutty, always-dressed-in-white Flo.  However, in an interesting twist, here she is named "Kitty."  For those Flo fans, don't worry, Kitty gives a valient effort, but she is no Flo!  Back to the sight seeing ...

Our first destination today will require a little driving.  We are going to the nearby historic town of Richmond.  Of course, a few wrong turns are made, but with no disastrous results, just a few extra trips over the Derwent River bridge, then we are there.  Richmond was a very early settlement here in Tasmania, which of course means that its history is tied up in Australia's history of convict relocation from England.  It was a natural stopping point between Hobart and Port Arthur on the East Coast and has many preserved old buildings.  The most famous landmark in Richmond, however, is the bridge over the Coal River, which was constructed by convicts in 1823.  It is Australia's oldest bridge and its second most photographed (bonus points for anyone who can guess number 1).  It is a very scenic spot as evidenced by the following photograph:

After viewing the bridge, we visited St. John's Catholic Church, also Australia's oldest (Catholic) church.  There is a very interesting cemetery behind it, including a restored grave of Bartholomew Reardon, who was relocated in 1810 and died in 1847.  This is most probably one of the oldest graves in the cemetery, if not the oldest.  Descendants restored the grave in 1995.

We walked through the town and our next stop was the Richmond Gaol (jail).  Paying the admission price, we got to see what incarceration looked like circa 1850.  The attendant at the gaol provided us with a walking map of the town and we followed it for a while, seeing older homes, called cottages, and various other buildings including churches and an old school.  The town is very well preserved as an example of what early Tasmania looked like, well worth the visit.

The area also features various wineries, at least six that I noted, and the Fodor's guidebook recommended having lunch at a winery called Frogmore, so that is what we decided to do.  We had earlier passed it on our way to Richmond.  We pulled in and the tasting room was as nice as any in Napa.  Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed due to a private event scheduled for later that day.  No worries, they were offering a tapas menu on the outdoor deck ovelooking the vineyard.  This would turn out to be perfect!  We each ordered a glass of chardonnay and it was crisp and delicious.  For lunch we ordered four dishes to share:  a rocket salad with couscous and feta, Thai fish cakes, Morrocan chicker skewers, and spicy chicken thigh soft tacos with pickled red cabbage.   All dishes were executed flawlessly and could not have been enjoyed more!  This was the perfect experience.  The weather today is warm, but not too warm and mostly overcast.  One might think a lack of sunshine would give cause for complaint, but after yesterday, neither of us had any interest in sitting out in the sun!  We liked this weather.  The only outstanding question was:  would I be able to drive back to Hobart on the wrong side of the road after a glass of wine?  No worries!  Check me out enjoying the chardonnay on the deck with the beautiful scenery in the background:

Aftter we return to town and park our car back at the hotel, we proceed to the Brooke Street pier to catch the catamaran ferry to Hobart's popular attraction the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA).  The ferries run each hour and take you north up the Derwent River to the museum, which is on the water.  The ferry ride is about 25 minutes long and gives us the opportunity to see Hobart and the environs from a water view.  The weather has taken a turn for the worse, however, and has become very overcast and drizzly.  So the scenery is not at its best, but that's okay.

The museum is impressive and lies mostly underground in very large rooms for extremely modern installations.  The temporary exhibition, and the museum's largest, is by artist Matthew Barney and is called the River of Fundament.  This features modern sculpture combined with Egyptian artifacts which were inspired by and featured in a film entitled River of Fundament, which in turn was inspired by a book by author Norman Mailer called Ancient Evenings.  The whole thing was, quite frankly, a lttle over my head, but did feature some interesting pieces.  Other parts of the museum had quite a bit of video art/installations.  The most interesting piece we saw is called Artifact by artist Gregory Barsamian.  It is a giant brass head turned on its side, with "windows" that allowed you to look inside and see things like birds emerging from a womb and then getting snapped into a book or a piece of fruit that falls into and then through a hand before landing in a hat -- freaky, but cool!  Check out this photo, found on Flickr:

We were there about one hour and then took the boat back to the Hobart harbor.  The weather is actually quite cool at this point, and we find ourselves underdressed as we disembark.  Given that it is still drizzly, we elect to take a late afternoon break to rest and watch a little Australian Open tennis on the television in our hotel room.

For dinner we decide to return to the Italian restaurant where we had lunch called Maldini.  We had noticed earlier when we walked by that they had a special dinner of a fish called blue eye trevalla, somehing we had never heard of, but wanted to try.  We arrive at 7pm, but with no reservation they are unable to seat us.  However, our lunch waitress from before told us to come back in one half hour and she would fit us in.  She also advised us to go down the street to a place called Grape (a wine bar) to have a glass of wine, so we did (a glass of Barossa valley shiraz, winery label forgotten).  When we arrived on half hour later, we were seated at a lovely table inside.  We would have sat outside even though it was drizzling and cool.  It seems all of the restaurants at the Salamanca Place have great umbrellas with heaters.

Dinner for Rob was a special salad with broccolini followed by a seafood stew.  It had mussels, shrimp, some whitefish, and Moreton Bay "bug," a kind of Australian lobster type shellfish.  I had a rocket salad with parmesan (lots of parmesan as it turns out) and the blue eye trevalla as my main.  The fish was a firm white fish, a little dry like a Hawaiian ono, but not as firm, very good.  I came with a potato saladwith  greans., which was a little too rich for my tastes.  This is a very good restaurant; pasta dishes served to nearby tables looked quite good.  All in all, a great day.

Note to readers:  I will be writing in the next few days, but not necessarily publishing to the blog as our next destination may not have wifi internet access.  Stay tuned.

Beuatiful Aboriginal Art

This is the piece of art that we saw at the ArtMob gallery on Wednesday.  It is by Fabrianne Nampitjinpa Peterson and is called "Wangunu: Bush Damper."

 

At Long Last Tasmania

After a journey that began on Saturday's drive to San Francisco's airport,  on Wednesday we will finally arrive in Hobart, Tasmania on Wednesday, January 21.  Before we get to Wednesday, though, we will spend one night in Sydney.  We are staying at a Sydney airport hotel, Rydges.  The hotel is a short walk from Sydney's international terminal, incredibly convenient.  The restaurant there was not bad, both of us had the baramundi fish special for dinner that was quite tasty.  Nothing was wrong with the room except for the fact that neither of us checked to see if the air conditioning had been turned on, so we woke up in the middle of the night rather warm with no idea of where to find the thermostat in the dark.  

Not so convenient was our trip from the hotel to the airport this morning.  Thinking we could just walk back to the airport to catch our flight to Hobart aboard Jetstar airlines, we learn that we would need to take a shuttle bus to the domestic terminal.  Okay, that is not a big deal except for two facts (1) the bus ride takes us all over the airport -- I'm not 100% sure it is not going to take a detour through Sydney's central business district, and (2) we have to pay $5.50 each for the privilege of riding this bus -- unheard of to me anyway!  Yikes, that seems wrong!  Anyway, we make our flight no problem, and it is uneventful (with one exception -- halfway through the flight I notice that the elderly woman sitting across the aisle has only four toes on her left foot -- four very fat toes!).

Arriving in Hobart, we rent our car and face the stress of re-adjusting to driving on the wrong side of the road in a car with the driver seated on the right side.  Having done this before in Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, it comes back quickly, and the stress is relieved.  We find our hotel, Lenna, with only a few wrong turns -- nothing major.  Hobart is a small city and seems fairly straightforward to navigate.  After checking in, we set out to walk around the main harbor area.  Before we get too far, we stop at a restaurant in the Salamance Place area for a late lunch.  We're hungry!  We eat at Maldini, an Italian restaurant on the open patio in the front.  Before describing our lunch, I must digress by saying it is a very warm day with some level of humidity (while we were at the airport waiting for our bags, there had been a great downpour).  We are wilting a little bit.  Lunch is delicious, however.  We share an appetizer of bruschetta, which is simply toasted Italian bread drizzled with a bit of olive oil and piled with really flavorful cherry tomatoes in three colors and topped with fresh basil.  We each order the same main, which is simply grilled chicken strips over rocket salad and balsamic vinagrette garnished with prosciutto and really sweet and delicious grilled peach halfs.  For our wine, we start with a glass of the very local Bream Creek sauvignon blanc, then a glass of pinot grigio from the same winery.  The sauvignon blanc was super crisp and delicious.  The pinot grigio needed to be crisper.  What a treat to get great summer stone fruit in January!

The following is a photo of Salamanca Place:

We continued walking around Hobart harbor, checking out the various piers and seeing all the restaurants that are in the area.  We also stopped at an Aboriginal art gallery, called ArtMob, that had wonderful art.  We really admired one piece, but it was over $2,000.  We were really melting at this point, so we decided to return to our hotel for a rest, then we'll have to figure out where to have dinner.

Later, dinner was awesome, to use a cliche!  We walked only about two blocks to a restaurant called Rockwall, where we had noticed earlier that they had Tasmanian salmon on the menu.  We weren't sure we could get in, but a waiter went to check on a table, then the owner or manager told us to "come on through."  We weren't sure what he meant, until the hostess told us to follow him!  Regarding the food, Tasmanian salmon is something I have only had once before in 2006 in the town called Port Fairie, on the mainland, but also on the Tasmanian sea.  In my memory, this was possibly the most delicious piece of fish I had ever eaten.  Would the dinner tonight live up to my memory?  Well, this was one of those occasions where the answer was yes!  This fish, although sharing some flavors with North American salmon, is so much better.  The fish melts into your mouth and almost has a sweet flavor.  Tonight's portion was generous and came with steamed vegetables and jasmine rice with a little soy flavoring among others.  It is not often that I slow down the pace of my eating to make sure that I am savoring every bite, but this was one of them (actually the only one that I can ever remember).  Our wine was a pinot grigio from Tasmanian from a winery called Bay of Fires from the Piper Valley area.  It was just as we would want, crisp and fruity.  Our waitress, as it turns out, is  Canadian, and we enjoyed a nice conversation with her.  After dinner it was 9pm, time to turn in and try to get a better night's sleep than the night before.

Long Flight to Sydney

Somewhat Long Flight to Sydney

Today, Monday, January 19 (Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!), we leave Honolulu (after less than 24 hours -- what were we thinking?) to fly to Australia.  The flight to Sydney leaves at 11:55am and is approximately 11 hours of flying time.  Checking out of the Embassy Suites (Thanks Hilton -- thanks to the use of Hilton Honors points, our bill is exactly $0), we request a cab to the airport and are instructed to ride a super long, white, stretch limo.  Our faces say, "What, are you sure this car is for us?"  Anyway, we get in and enjoy a luxurious $45 ride to the airport.

My objective during the flight is to plan out what we will do while we are in Tasmania.  We will arrive in Hobart on January 21, Wednesday early afternoon.  Our plan for that day is to tour around the city center.  Suggested sights to see from our Fodor's guide book include:

- The harbor area, including Constitution Dock, home of the big Sydney to Hobart boat race, nearby Hunter Street, where the original British ships anchored, Brooke Street Pier, where you can catch a harbor cruise, and Elizabeth Street Pier, home to trendy restaurants and shops and the tourist office  Also worth checking out are Salamanca Place for shops, etc., and a Saturday market (our hotel, the Lenna is located here), and Arthur Circus, where you can see charming old houses.

Thursday is a full day for us in and/or Hobart.  We thought we might drive to nearby Richmond, which is supposed to be a charming old town for tourists.  Other things we might do include climbing Mt. Wellington (need more information on this), visit the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, walk around the Carnelian Bay Beach (will need to drive to this), which features a popular trail, the Queen's Walk, take a harbor cruise (?), and/or visit the MONA, fancy new art gallery just outside of town.  Other sights in central Hobart include a Penitentiary Chapel and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (includes aboriginal content).

Friday, we depart Hobart and head for the Freycinet National Park, where we will be staying two nights.  Our activities here will be based on what is recommended to us, but will no doubt include Wineglass Bay.

Sunday, we will leave the national park and return to Hobart with planned stops in Port Arthur and the Tasman peninsula.  This will feature historic sites related to Tasmania's penal colony history.  The penal history is less interesting to me, but the Tasman National Park Lookout sounds like a can't miss sight.  There is a Convict Trail map one can follow.  There is also a Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park.

Monday is another full day we can use for seeing more sights around Hobart.  The initial plan is to explore the Huon Valley and also drive to the town of Southport.  The area is know for its forests (Huon pine) and coastline/beaches.  We might also catch up on a few sights that we might not have had time for on Thursday.

Sounds like a good plan.  Too bad the flight to Sydney still has over seven hours to go!

The Journey Begins

It is going to take a while, but we will be in Tasmania very soon.  We left our house on Saturday, January 17, to go to the San Francisco airport.  The Black Tie Taxi service of Napa picked us up at 3pm and delivered us to the Hilton  San Francisco airport hotel.

On Sunday, we rise early to take the 6:40am shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport.  We are the first on the shuttle and the last off, getting to the international terminal which serves Hawaiian Airlines at 7:10am.  It is early enough to check in for our 8:45am flight to Honolulu.  The flight is about 5 and 1/2 hours long, but it is pleasant.  We are seated in the first row behind first class which provides lots of leg room.

Arriving in Honolulu,  we take a cab to the Embassy Suites Waikiki, which is very nice.  We arrive at 1pm, too early to check in for our room, but we are able to drop our bags and change into swimsuits to lounge at the pool with frozen Cadillac Margaritas!  Shortly after 3pm, we check into our room and go for a walk along Waikiki beach.  It is a beautiful sunny day (we later learned that there were record setting temperatures), maybe even too sunny -- even though it is January, the sun feels very strong.  I am very hungry, so we stop for Mahi Mahi fish tacos at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, very tasty.

We continue walking, trying to find the casual Thai restaurant that we had enjoyed on a previous trip to Oahu, but it seems to be gone.  Oh well.

After a short interlude at the Embassy Suites' manager's reception, we head to Roy's for dinner.  We had previously called for a reservation, but could get nothing before 8:45pm -- too late for us.  So we just showed up and they were able to seat us at 6:30pm at what they called the chef's table, a bar overlooking the extremely busy kitchen -- perfect!  Here's a photo of the action:

I enjoy my dinner of opakapaka, and Rob has a dinner of a sushi roll, spicy tuna, followed by a salad, and then a smaller portion of butterfish.  The dinner was especially delicious!

We are very tired after a long day and head back to our hotel room to turn in for the night.  It will be another long day tomorrow with a 11 hour or so flight to Sydney, Australia.  Fortunately, we won't have to get up too early as our flight doesn't depart until 11:55am.