March 24

Awoke to another sunshine day and mild temps day.  Had a few spits of rain yesterday but didn’t last.  Breakfast at the hotel and then time for a walk about Hobart. Nice little town with some surprises. Arcades off the main street with all manner of shops and restaurants.  We find a map store with every kind of map we could want (real fold up travel maps) which is a rare find these days.  Nice finds at the Australian Geographic store and walk through a local antique shop.  On the bus to the airport, good-by Hobart/Tasmania and Mt. Wellington looming overhead.  One hour forty minute flight to Sydney.  Everyone is talking about the bombing in Brussels; Pat and Chuck know someone from Hudson at that airport but they made it out okay.  Sydney, sunshine and lighter temps and humidity from when we are here before.  Easter weekend and the city is busy and kids are out for a break.  Our hotel, the Menzies, is located in the center of town shopping district.  Came here with Phyllis to see earlier.  A large city park sits across the street and the train station is there as well.  The hotel is very pretty and old. The room is okay, no drawers for unpacking and the bathroom is retro fitted, small and with a leaky shower.  We change clothes and bus over to the Sydney Tower, dining in the revolving restaurant over a thousand feet in the air.  We have a short menu to choose from and revolve twice, 360 degrees, around looking at the city lights. Would have been nice to be here at sunset to see the city in day to night, but alas not.  Very pretty and luckily we are able to recognize many sights.  Time for bed.  Two more days here with activities and free time.  Weather will hold until we leave and then they get rain (needed).

March 23

Tasmania, the heart shaped island. We awake to sunshine and cool but nice temps.  Breakfast at the hotel; take the bus out of town south east.  We pass over areas that should qualify as islands as they are joined by bridges, but don’t.  Tas has small islands and a couple big ones included in their boundaries.  Finally we end on what they call a peninsula leading to Port Arthur.  We stop off at the ‘Unzoo’ where we observe Quolla’s a kind of little catlike marsupial and some rescued Tasmanian Devils.  They are the only meat eating marsupials in the world and the only remaining wild TD’s are here in this peninsula area.  They have developed a facial cancer that is transmissible through saliva.  The tumors start superficially and eventually take over the internal organs. They are feisty animals who eat carcasses only, they are not hunters.  When they find carcasses they call out and they gather to eat every last bit of the animal.  But they bite and snarl at each other, passing saliva.  They are solitary and active at night.  Their babies are the size of a grain of rice and must gestate in the pouch.  Out of 50 only 2 or so survive; they live for 6 years in the wild.  We watch the feeding and the TD eats everything, bone, sinew and claws of a wallaby leg.  The conservationists have quarantined this one isolated portion of land to try to find a cure and or let the infected animals die out.  We are able to feed small kangaroos and wallabies, they eat right out of our hands.  One of them has a baby joey in its pouch.  We continue to Port Arthur to the world heritage site where one of the original penal colonies in the early 1800’s has been conserved.  The grounds are beautiful sitting on a small harbor.  Many English trees had been imported. Hard to believe so much pain, death and sadness happened here.  We learned much about the early penal system and how England used it to help colonize Aus.  There are remnants of old buildings built by convicts with locally made sandstone bricks and chiseled sandstone block; each block has the worker’s mark so they could be monitored for production.  The crimes that brought men, women and children were oftentimes menial but all required at least a 6 year term and only one on record made it home to England.  The system changed to be more understanding of mental illness and a special hospital unit was built.  They had to use semi-fore method of communication up and down the coast line, averaging about 15 minutes for relay.  We take a boat ride out into the bay where it gets deep fast.  We are so far south, next stop Antarctica.  The children were put on a special island to protect them from the adults.  And there is an island for the dead, where they buried prisoners.  We have lunch, all locally homemade and delicious. The gift shop has very different products, all Tasmanian.  They grow lavender here.  Back on the bus and stop at the Blow Hole and Devil’s Kitchen to see the crashing waters coming through huge eroded areas of sandstone.  Ice cream and seafood trailers have been set up out of the blue!  Arrived back at the hotel.  Pat and Chuck set off for the marina where they eat an incredible seafood dinner at Murre’s (long established and catch their own seafood).  We eat locally grown oysters that are huge, so good we order more!  Some of the toppings are unusual, all good.  Chuck gets a huge seafood platter including pickled eel that is delicious.  Pat has the blue eyed Trevallie, a local white fish that is excellent.  Walk back to the hotel the night is mild with some wind.  Tomorrow heading for Sydney and will catch up with Knights one last time for dinner

March 22

Awoke to sunshine and blue skies, mid 60’s.  Late start that gave us time to readjust packing etc.  Breakfast buffet at the hotel.  Set off for the airport via bus. Melbourne airport is privately owned and operated and is no more efficient or traveler friendly than city run airports.  Flight to Tasmania is about 1 hour on Qantas.  We were on the Timor Sea when in the top end, now we are on the Tasman Sea.  We have visited the coastal range from north to south on the east coast. Starting in the rain forest at Cairns, the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and now the Dandenong mountains west of Melbourne.  The Dutch found Tasmania before the English landed who then created the penal colonies.  Tasman was the Dutchman who first settled.  We fly over the parched land of Victoria and then fly over Phillip Island where we were last night with the penguins.  There are no reefs off this coastline, there is a brief shelf and then it drops off into dark blue deep ocean.  Tasmania appears mountainous covered by trees and parched, needing water here too.  The largest city and capital Hobart (200, half million in the whole state) we are in the state of Tasmania, that has been confusing; it is its own state.  Hobart sits on the Derwent River and a harbor.  Fishing is still a trade but logging is less these days, there are sheep too and some mining.  The Aboriginals are not prevalent or readily recognizable; they have blended in with the Europeans who relentlessly tried to annihilate them.  Although there are comments from Aboriginals in the local paper over land use, so they are still a force here. Tasmania Hobart is the second oldest settlement in Aus, second to Sydney; both began as penal colonies.  The city sits at the foot of Mt Wellington, very pretty.  Battery Point is the oldest section of the city with lovely Victorian bungalows and wrought iron.  Errol Flynn was born here.  The city is a blend of old England and 1960’s arch.  There is building going on here, a pedestrian shopping area with high end shops and department stores.  Lots of flowers and lovely benches.  Our hotel the Hadley is very central to everything. It’s very historic nearly 200 years old.  Very charming with Victorian flare. We are located across the street from a huge sandstone Anglican church of St. Davids  d.  Many old buildings are locally quarried sandstone, carved by convicts who were treated cruelly.  Each block has markings by the individual so their production was monitored. It is high 60’s – 70’s, signs of autumn are in the air.  We walk down the hill to the port and visit the Custom House Hotel. This was where Knights stayed a month ago.  Very old and charming.  They brew their own beer and it is some of the best we have had in Aus; pints under the umbrellas on the street.  We walk over to Salamanca, the old warehouse district. Stone row buildings with tiny boutique shops are original and very charming, could be lifted out of an English or Scottish village.  We find a consignment with wood work and wool products.  Talk with some of the locals and they are very nice.  Walk back to the hotel for early dinner of buffet foods.  The evening is very mild. We take a walk around the shopping district.  Everything closes at 5PM so it’s quiet and relaxing.  Our room is nicely decorated but small so must adjust our movements.  A day out in Port Arthur tomorrow where we will learn about the penal colony and then on to meet a real Tasmanian devil!  Everyone’s luggage is getting heavier and there seems to be more bags as we travel! The exchange rate is still in our favor but not as good as when we first came.  Off to bed.