Hobart, Tasmania

-

A concrete tunnel at the extraordinary Museum of Old and New Art

 If we didn't know people in Hobart, I am not sure that we would have made the effort to travel the extra distance.  We would have missed out on a gem.  So thanks to Matt, Melissa, Sophia (8), Ben (5) and Elise (2) for luring us here with promises of fun stuff.  They have only moved here in the last couple of years from Sydney, seeking some more fresh air and some less city hectic-ness.  And it would certainly seem that they have found it.

Hobart is a city of around 240,000 dotted around the many hills and valleys that rise up from the river and the harbour.  Looming behind the city is Mount Wellington at over 1100m, and it's lower slopes are criss-crossed by hiking and biking trails.  Matt and his family live a few kilometres from the city centre below the mountain and with the trails literally at their back door.

Having landed from Melbourne on our very civilised middle of the day flight, we dropped our things at our Airbnb and headed down the winding road to their house for a bbq and some wildlife spotting.  They are currently renting just across from the place they recently bought but are now renovating.  In the backyard we saw pademelons and wallabies as well as a possum.  Pademelons look a lot like mini wallabies, who themselves are very much like mini kangaroos.  And the pademelons love grazing the lawn just after dark.    

Possum

This patterning set provided hours of enjoyment

Felicity went on a pom-pom production frenzy for all her friends

The next morning we took a walk down to check out their new place and share the excitement of gutting a house to renovate.  They are just about to paint the new drywall and hope to move in by mid-winter (i.e. June/July here).  

Walking the trail from our place to the Willson's new home through their nearby forest

Thursday Matt and I managed to get a forest run in before we drove up Mt Wellington.  It was one of those cloudy with sunny breaks days but by the time we reached the summit (after a strategic cafe stop at the midway point) it was just one of those cloudy days.  The kids had a ton of fun scrambling around on the rocks and we got a bit of view on the way back down.  Fish and chips in the harbour was on the menu for dinner and we got to appreciate the old wharf buildings that are now pubs and restaurants.

Out for a run

Natural playground at the summit of Mt Wellington

Apparently the view is behind us

They have constructed this formidable viewing platform so there must be views... just not today

From sky to sea, we checked out the Hinsby beach on Friday which is a lovely rustic spot 10 minutes out of town.  We had them back to our place for an afternoon bbq before a planned stop at the free Friday night music at the Salamanca Arts Centre.  Sadly rain stopped play but again we enjoyed the downtown vibe and the kids got to see a breakdancer and have their own moment with Marilyn(?).

The freedom of the beach

The power of the ocean

Marilyn? With ears?

Saturday morning we gave our hosts a break and soloed MONA.  The Museum of Old and New Art is hard to describe, the brainchild of the wealthy David Walsh who made his fortune as a professional gambler no less.  The museum certainly houses some fascinating and compelling art but it is also an architectural artwork in its own right.  Built largely underground and carved out of the sandstone, it is a maze of bare rock walls and concrete tunnels, complimented by the metalworks, green grass and windswept brightness of the sprawling outdoor spaces.  Sex and death are two of Walsh's preoccupations and there is plenty of both, but there is also a ton for the kids too.  At the end we sent them into the mirror room maze all alone and they came out unscathed despite coming across a picture of a dead woman on one of the walls.  MONA is the kind of place that warrants regular visits and fortunately for Tasmanians it is free.  A definite must see if you make it to Hobart.

Heavy machinery, industrial materials, delicate art

The musical trampoline

The underground

Something to do with the bloated nature of consumerism

Into the light

The outdoor spaces are set on top of a hill and are windswept and open to the elements in stark contrast to the underground world of the indoor museum

Everything is so cool here!

Our time almost up we enjoyed a meal and some live music at the Cascade brewery, a beautiful spot complete with an expanse of gardens for the kids to go wild in (and even scare a couple of grazing wallabies).  Tomorrow I have a final run date with Matt and we have a golf lesson from one of James Newton's former coaches who has relocated to Tasmania (this small world), and hopefully a final playtime with the Willsons before our early morning flight to New Zealand on Monday.

Toby and Ben, the old men listening to the musician

The outdoor grounds of the Cascade brewery

Crystal went hiking and enjoyed some spectacular views up towards Mt Wellington

Golf lesson

Hen handler

Hobart: small, mighty, urban, rural, wild and wonderful. A real treat, thank you Tasmania and Willsons.    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tour du Mont Blanc

-
Image
 Straight off the top, we didn't complete it.  We did about 150 of the 170km, although we did get in 9600m of elevation gain (and about the same of downhill).  There were a few reasons for this: (i) we had to dodge thunderstorms on day 1, greatly curtailing that day's plan; (ii) we were cooked by day 7 and there was no way we were ascending 1200m from the valley floor after a 15k hike; (iii) we should have start/finished in Les Houches to minimise the extra elevation involved in getting on/off the trail; (iv) we are old and weak.   That out of the way, this was an awesome hike!  A week of splendid scenery, hard, hard hiking, at times challenging weather, cozy refuges, local food, full immersion in everything Alps and hiking; a real feast.  The generally accepted timeframe for hiking the TMB is 10-11 days which would give you around 17km and 1,000m of elevation change per day.  Sounds just about right to me!  The record for running is 22 hours which is simply inconceivable but I
Read more

An Alpine cycling adventure - Part II

-
Image
Day 6 - Barcelonnette to St Dalmas, 123 km (76 mi) Cols passed: Col de Cayolle (2326 m), Col de la Couillole (1678 m) Despite the brooding skies we left Barcelonnette cheered by dry shorts, confidence that we were within touching distance of our goal and enjoying the atmospheric effect of the wispy mist, high clouds and soft sunlight. Our hopes for the newly adapted route were met and surpassed as we wound our way up a stunning gorge towards Col de Cayolle. Despite a brief hailstorm as we approached the col we stayed dry and enjoyed a pit-stop and blankets amongst the snow pack on the col before negotiating over 1500 m of patchy wet descent to Guillames at 793 m. The high Alps now behind us we climbed back up through the ski resort of Valberg and on to the Col de la Couillole up at 1678 m and rolled back down to 500 m where we expected to spend the night. Our ever-supportive support team had other ideas however and let us know by way of text message that they had found a fantastic ca
Read more

A wild weekend

-
Image
 Sometimes the weekend is just epic.  We're on the Costa Blanca, favoured holiday spot of literally millions of British people every year, plus a whole load of other northern Europeans in need of a shot of Vitamin D, or more likely in search of sun, sangria and, let's be honest, sex.  Most of them are here for everything that happens within a hundred metres of the beach.  But just a few kilometres further back, there are some quite dramatic mountains, rising over a thousand metres, looming in the background, providing some added drama to the daily sunset show as the heat of the day gives way to the sultry night. Oops, back to the blog Milton. We figured out what this mountain was, and that unless you had a full mountaineering rig with you, you were not likely going to the top, likened as it was to the mythical Cuillin ridge on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.  However, we did find a tantalising route around the mountain, and so off we went on Saturday morning, parking the car arou
Read more