Hobart

After recovering from my very thorough wine tasting and subsequent whisky appreciation at a local pub I ventured forth to conquer Hobart. Everywhere you turn there is some old building, point of interest or convict thing. The Taswegians are very proud of their state and rightly so. Anywhere that can make coffee as consistently well as Tasmania deserves high praise indeed. 

The Museum of Old and new hasn't worked out so well, it was closed on the day I intended to go. I have rearranged my schedule to do Port Arthur first then have another crack at seeing it. I have finally caught up with an old buddy of mine who moved down here over ten years ago. He now serves on the Break of Day Council having become a local politician. So we are having dinner in a night or two, I feel another big hangover coming on. 

Caught the big red bus and did a quick tour around Hobart. You may have noticed the Cascade Brewery in the background (sadly they don't give out samples). I then went and did the whole history thing and visited the Hobart Penitentiary Chapel. This was quite an amazing place, it served as Tasmania's Supreme Court until the 1980's I believe. It also served as the place of execution by hanging  with the last person being despatched in 1946. It was way past creepy standing on the trap door knowing that 31 men and 1 woman met their maker there. Going below and see where the bodies were removed from only added to the macabre fascination. 

I also got to walk up into the prisoners dock from down in the bowels of the court just like you see in those old English movies. Not having had enough history I then headed to the Maritime Museum to see all the news that's fit to consume in regards to Tasmania's convict, whaling, ship wreck, ferry and any other kind of nautical endeavour that I can't quite think of now. All great stuff and extremely diverting of you are into that sort of thing.

I finished the day carrying out some quality control at the Lark Single Malt Whisky Distillery. All very gullet warming stuff (it's been a tad chilly here in sunny Hobart).

Port Arthur is worthy of an entire post in itself. So I will harangue you with that at a later stage. Off to St Marys tomorrow night to catch up with an old buddy before steadying myself for the return journey across Bass Strait. Tasmania has been a fabulous part of the itinerary and one that I would not hesitate to do again.