Hobart

Whenever there's a write-up of an epic adventure to be had, it's usually up to me (Paul) to ramble on about it and this one is no exception.

On the wee early hours of Sunday morning, Stephanie's Dad took the three of us to Tullamarine airport so we could use our cheapskate $9 Jetstar fares to Hobart. Stephanie had booked the trip some time ago and it was nice to finally be going, especially as we haven't really had any time off since Adam and Macy's wedding at Daydream Island. The flight itself was pretty easy and when we arrived at Hobart Airport we picked up our rental car, which we upgraded to a Lancer for an extra $4 a day and set off in search of the Huon Valley.

To get there you actually have to go through Hobart so the car trip gave us our first look at the gloriously snow-capped Mount Wellington and the beautiful old city of Hobart itself. Hobart was quiet, being a Sunday and all, and the drive south was very casual and laidback as Stephanie enjoyed the magnificence of cruise control and the natural landscapes. Perhaps she was a little too laid back about it all because pulling into Kingston, Stephanie was clocked doing 70 kph on the 60 kph off-ramp into town. The policeman pulled us over asked Stephanie if she'd seen the two 60 kph speed signs and Stephanie said no, she hadn't... and that we'd just come down from an early flight from Melbourne and she was too blown away by the gorgeous scenery to have seen them. The policeman must have found her excuse reasonable as he issued her with a warning and we were on our way into the heart of town. At Kingston we went to a cool little market where Bennett bought some bouncy balls, I bought a couple of CDs and Stephanie bought some chocolate-coated ginger.

Getting back to the car, Bennett started his first of many "I don't want to do that" rants when told him what we were going to do next. He always end up enjoying whatever we did, but it was always a "crappy idea" before we got there. All he wanted to do was to go back to the cottage" (read: hotel) and swim. The next activity he couldn't complain about (because he was asleep when we arrived) was an old train in Margate that had been converted into a shopping train, with each of the different carriages being a different store.

After a look through a 2nd hand book shop, a new-age hippy shop, a children's clothing shop and a fruit shop, we had delicious pancakes in the pancake carriage. Bennett enjoyed his choc-banana pancakes and iced-chocolate as well as going outside and having a play on some of the old play equipment.

Further south we found another small market at a town called Snug where

Bennett picked up a few more trinkets. Off down the road a bit further in search of a layground, and then after a swing and a slide, it was time to go to the Grandvewe cheese farm to sample their rural wares. Bennett had a go at tasting the cheeses but was distrusting of the lady behind the counter after he tasted the blue vein cheese. Jilted, he went off to play with his bouncy balls as the testing continued and ventured into wine and dessert sauce territory. After the tastings we went and had a look at some little lambs, baa-ed at the sheep and then set off again. We drove for a while, listening to the tunes picked up in Kingston as Bennett fell asleep again and Stephanie and I called "roadkill" whenever we spotted a dead native animal on the roadside. We let the boy have a well earned rest as we drove through various towns and we woke him up as we checked out the apple tourist centre just north of Huonville.

Navigating on the way back to Hobart we realised we weren't too far from Mount Wellington so we took a little mid-afternoon detour and commenced the drive up to the top of the hill. The views on the way up were splendid, particularly those which included snow, cliff-faces or majestic views over Hobart and the Derwent River.

We stopped a short distance from the top to put on Bennett's wellies and mittens so we could throw snow around for a while. Then we continued up to the very top where there were

plenty of people enjoying the snow, building snowmen, throwing snowballs, loading snow into the back of their utes etc.

Bennett decided to make a "snow angel" and thankfully didn't get too wet in the process. On the trip down the hill I tuned into the radio to hear the mighty Saints finish off an excellent win over the dirtbag Crows, sealing a place in the final series. It was the finishing touch on a wonderful daytrip and we head back into Hobart in search of Wrest Point Casino.

We were all pretty tired and hungry by the time we arrived so after checking in we went off in search of the bistro for all we could eat. Bennett's dinner solutions were what you would expect from a 4 year-old boy.... ham, soup and cheese, finished off with some desert, all the while entertained by the Keno on the television... the boy loves his numbers! The food was OK, but nothing flash, and I did my best to steer clear of the Casino eateries from there on in. Back in the room, Bennett and I enjoyed some quiet time as Stephanie won back the cost of our meal playing roulette at the Casino, and then it was time for bed.

On Monday we slept in until 8am and took our time, realising that there was no point getting into the city too early, because the shops wouldn't generally open until 9 or 10. We stopped for breakfast and coffee at Banjo's before venturing into the city where in addition to the obligatory trips to music shops, book shops and arty scrapbooking shops, we also found our way to the Greens Shop (where we picked up a couple of cool t-shirt for the boy), Chickenfeed (The Reject Shop done Tassie style), a few clothes shops and the Cat and Fiddle Arcade... although we never seemed to be at the Cat and Fiddle display right on the hour in order to see the mechanised show. After lunch there was a bit more shopping, more pestering from Bennett to go back to the cottage for a swim, and then driving over to Salamanca Place to see Tassie's own royal, Queen Mary of Denmark (no, really!) and her hubby and princely son out and about shopping.

We weren't quite as pushy as the photographers there in terms of getting a photo, but we were tactical enough to order an alfresco coffee at the cafe next door to the fashion store in which the princess was bunkered down in.

After all that celebrity hullabaloo we quietly checked out a few more shops at ye olde Salamanca, Bennett's favourite being the

fairy shop where he picked up a few small goodies including a lipbalm in the shape of a purple ladybird and a little pirate treasure chest for him to claim his forthcoming tooth-fairy booty.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Woolworths for some supplies and then went for Bennett's long awaited swim. Over an hour later the little swimmer was ready to leave the water and we went in search of dinner at the renowned restaurant strip in North Hobart. Our first trip down the strip narrowed us down to a Mexican cantina and an Indian restaurant, and we settled on Annapurna's Indian Restaurant for dinner. The food was reasonably priced, mega tasty and although Bennett was initially rather objectionable about our presence there, he was well appeased after stealing Daddy's mango lassie (downed in record time according to the waitress), and enjoying his garlic and cheese naan. These travelogue summaries may make it sound like Bennett was a bit of a grump, but given all the walking and travelling we were doing, he was actually a real champ and certainly pulled his weight for a 4 year old, and was generally happy, cheery and amenable.

Tuesday took us in the direction of Port Arthur, which took a little longer than anticipated due to some creative navigation and unforeseen scenic detours on my part. Nonetheless, it was a good chance for the boy to rest and for us to listen to some of the quality tunes I'd picked up in Hobart the day before. On the way down, we stopped in at Pirate Bay (yarr!) to check out the very cool Tesselated Pavement.

An excellent time was had by all, except for when young Bennett fell over (as he would do a

few more times before the end of the trip) and needed cuddles in order to feel better.

The next landmarks to check out were the Tasman Arch, the Devil's Kitchen and the Blow'ole... all of which were pretty impressive feats of long-term geological transformation - nice work, nature. Next, after a couple of failed attempts at finding lunch we stopped in at the Federation Chocolate Factory to sample their chocolates and buy a few blocks, including two blocks of their yummy apple-flavoured chocolate. On the road again and we discovered a country bakery that was open for lunch, wherein Bennett enjoyed a pie and some dessert.

Finally we arrived at Port Arthur with clouds overhead.

As we paid our entrance fee, the woman behind the counter gave us each a playing card which we had to match to a box downstairs which would reveal the identity of a random Port Arthur inmate, giving details of their age, history, punishable crimes, length of punishment and how they fared within the Port Arthur compound. Bennett thought this was brilliant and even when we'd matched our three cards, he wanted to look up the fate more prisoners.

The grounds at Port Arthur are surprisingly large and Bennett did as much walking as he could, telling us stories about the criminals along the way (e.g. your criminal died there, my criminal died there), until we had to scoot over post-haste towards the ferry for a trip around the harbour.

It was a decent enough ride that become most excellent for young Bennett as five or ten minutes from the berth, the captain gave the wheel over to the young lad who became captain of the ship. Bennett became increasingly confident in his role as captain of the ship and was soon bossing people around, making sure they were doing their jobs properly and to his lofty standards. After being captain, Bennett felt like king of the world, as we headed back to the card-matching convicts and a video tour of the main buildings at Port Arthur, which had to substitute for an actual real-world tour of these landmarks, because Bennett was too tired and the weather was getting too shabby.

We drove back in the rain and Bennett did an excellent job of not putting his thumb in his mouth for virtually the whole day... thus, he was rewarded with more swimming back at the hotel and input into the dinner selection process, which resulted in us (despite Stephanie's early protests) heading in search of The Drunken Admiral! Yarrr! This pirate-themed restaurant by the docks was decked out we ye olde maritime paraphernalia, skulls, pirates, beer barrels, empty bottles and random antique nicknacks which Bennett found fascinating. The breaks inbetween courses were well filled by young Bennett through typing on an old manual typewriter and checking out the thematic miscellania. The food was also most excellent, and except for the corporate snobs who were put on the table next to us, it was an all-round excellent nautical feasting experience.

Our last day involved a morning detour to the Female Factory, punctuated again by Bennett falling over an hurting himself and requiring lollipop therapy, before battling through the Hobart traffic in the direction of Richmond.

En route to Richmond we went into what could well be the world's craziest zoo. Amongst all the standard run-of-the-mill country farm/zoo shenanigans such as feeding and petting the animals there we some real oddities! Firstly, there were lots of mother kangaroos around, many of them carrying little joeys in their pouches. Very cute, and the mothers were very trusting of the humans. Ditto for the sole koala at the zoo who was so placid that was it not for his pooping, it would be hard to tell if he was alive! Nonetheless, it was possible to pat the koala, and it was very tame and placid and not at all shirty, like koalas are renowned for being.

The real craziness however commences once you go on the safari bus into the emu enclosure. The emus hunt at the windowless bus poking their heads into the buckets full of feed that the tour guide was holding in the middle of the bus. This was a little too close for comfort for me, so I was glad I was well away from the edge of the bus. Bennett thought this was great, and only got better at the same process was repeated, this time for the ostriches who were even bigger and more mad than the emus. I tossed a bag of food out of the bus at the ostrich, getting him in the neck, but it didn't even seem to register what had happened - either they've got very strong necks and/or very dumb... probably both. We alighted the bus to feed some sheep and goats before getting back onto the bus and going into another closure where the bus was set upon by some kind of buffalo (I think that's what it was) and some camels.

Camels have ginormous beastly heads, filling up much of the bus, and once again they were poking their way into the food barrels in search of their lunch. Once the bus stopped, it was then time to venture over to the racetrack where three ponies, with toy monkeys strapped to their backs were raced around a track. I was a little disappointed they weren't real monkeys, but it was still pretty cool nonethless. Here's a pic of the boy with the winning pony.

Leaving the zoo, we went to ye olde Richmond for lunch at ye olde bakery and to check out some of ye olde sights and wares. After lunch, and after days of excessive eating, I felt like all my bodily organs were packing it in so we finished up killing some time at the park, resting lazily as we waited to return to the airport. We got the airport, returned our car, checked in, hung about for a while, and jetted off home to Melbourne. Bennett's Pa picked us up from the airport and by the time we got home we were all pleased to be there, as of course were Penny and Jumble who went crazy. Bennett reacquainted himself with him music collection and front-room dancefloor, as he danced the final dance to conclude our most agreeable and highly amenable holiday.