Tassie Adventures: Day 1

We woke up at the crack of dawn in order to catch the first flight out of Melbourne to Hobart. As we were walking out towards the baggage collection point, I suddenly wished that there was somebody waiting to welcome us to Hobart. And there was this lone person standing at the doorway. He was holding a piece of cardboard with a name written on it. It took a while in my groggy mind to realise that the one syllable word was actually MF's surname. Someone actually did come to greet us! Wheee!!! We actually felt so good that someone came to pick us up. Pathetic, eh?

He was actually from the car rental company and we were taken to their office to register ourselves and collect our nice sedan - the brand new Nissan Tiida.

Our Tiida at Bays of Fire, Tasmania

One of the first cuties I met was this fella. Meet the frisky Gizmo, the resident cat of Redspot Car Rentals, Hobart. He was a sight for sore eyes. Active, sprightly and seeking for a spot of fun.

Gizmo the Cat

Only three of us had valid driving licenses that can be read by the car rental admin. Rina's drivers license was stored in her Mykad. There was no Mykad reader thereabouts (or even in the whole of Aussieland) and so, she wasn't allowed to drive. We discovered that clicking the Specials section of the car rental website didn't actually give us the best rates. There was another better deal with unlimited kilometres at a cheaper price hidden somewhere in their website links. Since we have paid in advance, they couldn't reimburse the difference in cash but they gave us unlimited kilometres. At the end of the trip, we discovered that we did not exceed the miles that was alloted by the web specials anyway. But it did lift a burden of counting our kilometres every single day.

Once we got our car thing settled and armed with the map given by the car rental company, we made our way to Hobart Hostel at Barrack St. It was the first backpacker place that I've ever been to and I was amazed at the fully equipped though dirty kitchen. The kitchen's filled with dirty dishes, cutleries and pots and pans. It says a lot about the occupants there. At almost every corner of the room there were messages posted by the management who were "heartily sick and tired of having to clean up after the backpackers. It's your job to clean up after your own mess, not ours." Oooooh. But at least we could do our own cooking. Yep, we brought some dried packed foodies from home. So yaay.

The dining room was spacious and warm and the shared shower rooms and toilets were clean - as were most of the toilets in Aussieland.

This was also the first time I slept on bunk beds. I think that they are one of the most evil (though necessary) things ever invented for klutzies like me. My head has a bump for each of the 11 days of my travels in Tassie because of these evil bunkies. It doesn't matter where I position myself be it the top or bottom bunk. My poor head still gets hit by either the bed frame - metal or wood - as well as the low ceiling. Gah.

Staying near the city center has its downpoints. All the parking spots near our hostel were metered parking lots. We have to constantly feed the hungry meter machine.

Where we stayed:

An okay place lar

Hobart is a pretty little town with a nice pier, classy streets and historical architectures. MF and I decided to maximise our first day there by visiting the Information Center to enquire about places of interests nearby and to gather pamphlets of places that we intend to visit post-Hobart. It was wonderful to walk in the nice streets in such lovely weather that day. The sun was shining brightly. The sky was blue. The winds were cool, gentle and soft. It felt like it was about 20 Celcius. Little did I know that poor dad at home was checking the weather forecast for Hobart everyday and fearing that it'll be too cold for Malaysian me. On quite a number of days, he was right. But on that first day, the weather was perfect.

Walked along the Elizabeth St Pier (there are heaps of Elizabeth Streets in almost every town in Tassie!) and visited the Hobart Art Gallery. The gallery was nice but rather smallish. Here are some pics taken during our walk.

Pier near Salamanca

Church walls

The church which looks like a bishop chess piece

Hobart's clock tower

We bought our lunch supplies at Woolworth's supermarket (Woolies for short). Whole roasted chickens going for Aud8 each. After a hearty meal of chicken and noodles, we bundled into the car and headed to Richmond. Where The Woodcraft Shop and the oldest bridge in Tasmania were located. It was a quaint and quiet town.

A cute pair of teddy bears made their home in the Woodcraft Shop

First bridge in Tasmania. Built by convicts.

I love it when ducks do this headdive!

A church building in Richmond

After Richmond, we wanted to catch the evening view of the whole of Hobart over at Mt. Wellington. Unfortunately, a heavy cloud hung over the peak of the tallest point in Hobart, making everything look grey, grim and misty. We didn't manage to have a great view of Hobart city after all. The disappointment over the grey weather was also a sign of things to come.

Misty tundra of Mt. Wellington

We managed to get a brief glimpse of the city just before hitting the peak of the mountain

Grey weather or not, there's always opportunities to strike a silly pose!