The next morning I left the hotel for the airport at 5:00AM for my 6:50AM flight to Hobart. Since I had purchased a roundtrip ticket on the airport shuttle I felt compelled to use it so as to not waste money. The shuttle arrived about ten minutes past my reservation time and made 12 stops on route to the airport. Total travel time was about an hour.

April 1, 2004
Sydney to Hobart
Qantas 1711 Economy Class – Seat 4D – B717-200
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My QantasLink flight to Hobart operated out of Domestic Terminal 2. Qantas does not have the self check-in kiosks in this terminal so I had to check-in with a Qantas agent. I only waited for about ten minutes. Check-in was quick and efficient. I made it through security in just a few minutes. This flight departed and arrived on time and we were served with a light breakfast similar to what I received on my Sydney to Brisbane flight. Overall, I experienced a pleasant flight and the QantasLink staff provided commendable service. The Hobart Airport is small and easy to navigate. I walked into the terminal, right through baggage claim, and out to the front of the terminal where an airport shuttle was waiting. I paid A$16 for a roundtrip ticket to my hotel in Hobart. After a ten minute wait for other passengers we departed for the scenic 15 minute ride into town. The shuttle driver dropped me off at the lobby entrance to the Rydges Hobart where I had booked a room.

The Rydges Hobart, in part, is a converted apartment building adjacent to a football field in a residential area of North Hobart. The newer section of the hotel appears to have been built specifically as hotel accommodation. The two story building housing the lobby, bar, restaurant, and meeting rooms was quite old but was nicely maintained. The front office clerk greeted me, looked up my reservation, and told me I had been assigned a suite because no other rooms were available at the moment. SCORE! I made my way to one of the buildings at the far end of the property. My room was one of just a handful of rooms in that particular building. The suite I was assigned had a nice size bathroom (although a bit dark due to the limited lighting), a small kitchen (dishes, pots / pans, and cooking utensils provided), and a living room with a couch, chairs, large table, and 26” TV. The bedroom was located upstairs. The décor was “antique”. The room furnishings were simple but the room was clean.

After settling in I headed for the tourist office downtown to make some sightseeing arrangements. The front office clerk told me there was a bus stop a short walk from the entrance to the hotel but that the bus only passed by this stop once per hour. She said, however, I could walk to downtown in about twenty minutes. I decided to walk and save the cost of taxi fare. The twenty minute walk was closer to thirty minutes, with a portion of the walk downhill. This was OK going into town, but returning to the hotel would be a bit more work. I had read about a boat tour to the former prison settlement of Port Arthur (about 100kms southeast of Hobart). The tour is operated by Port Arthur Cruises. I made my way to their booking office at the Brooke Street Pier. The woman at the sales desk said the cruise had been suspended for a few days due to poor weather that had made boating conditions unsafe. She directed me to the tourist office at Davey and Elizabeth Streets where I could book a bus tour. After speaking with the woman at the tourist office I decided to book a day tour with Tiger Line. Gray Line offers a similar tour. The cost of the tour (A$70) included pickup and drop off at my hotel, transportation to Port Arthur with stops at different viewing points in Tasman National Park, admission to Port Arthur, and a short thirty minute cruise along Port Arthur Bay. For an additional fee I could visit Bushmills (a re-creation of a 19th century pioneer bush settlement) or the Tasman Devil Park (a sanctuary for rescued Tasmanian Devils). I decided to add the devil park to my tour itinerary as the woman told me a portion of the admission fee (A$15) would go towards supporting the rescue efforts of sick and injured Tasmanian Devils. I looked through the many brochures in the tourist office and found information on several places I would have liked to visit on day trips outside of Hobart, but unfortunately I was only visiting Hobart for a day and a half.

I walked down to the Salamanca Market and browsed through the many specialty shops in the complex. Some of the shops had unique wood carvings I had not seen in shops elsewhere in my travels. I purchased a few small wood items, then had lunch at a café in the complex behind the Salamanca Market. Had I not been so hungry at the time I would waited to eat until my walk around downtown Hobart. There was a much wider variety of restaurants downtown with more reasonable prices. I had wanted to visit the Antarctic Adventure Center, located in a building behind Salamanca Market, but when I finally found the building I discovered the center had been closed and the building vacated. I walked around the neighborhood of Battery Park (there is a set of stairs from Salamanca Market that connect to the neighborhood) to view the unique architectural style of the homes, then made my way to downtown.

Downtown Hobart has a nice shopping area with two indoor shopping malls and a variety of independent specialty shops, restaurants, and bars, in addition to all the other services you would expect to find in a bustling community of 126,000+ people. Not wanting to wait for the bus, I began my trek back to the hotel via Elizabeth Street which was also lined with shops and eateries. Ten minutes into my journey home dark clouds suddenly appeared and minutes later a torrent of rain fell from the sky. I got thoroughly drenched which made the walk home miserable. However, there was one bright side. I discovered North Hobart, just a seven minute walk from the hotel. North Hobart is a small community of its own. Elizabeth Street is a main thoroughfare through this section of town and has a spattering of ethnic eateries, bars, cafes, specialty shops, several markets, a very good bakery, banks, a post office, and a laundromat. I was happy to not have to make the long trek to downtown for these services.

That evening the torrential rains continued so I decided to have dinner at the Brickfield’s Restaurant in the hotel. The décor of the restaurant was “antique” along the lines of the other parts of the hotel. The quiet, sophisticated atmosphere of the restaurant made me feel as though I were in a very upscale restaurant. Dressed only in jeans and a polo shirt, the hostess warmly greeted me and assured me I was dressed appropriately. She seated me at a table next to a very large window with a view of the football field. This football field is not a high school or public park football field, but a commercial field that serves as the venue for professional Australian football matches. I was disappointed there would be no match that evening because the view of the field was magnificent. It would have been great to have watched an Australian rules football match while enjoying my dinner. My waitperson promptly appeared, told me about the specials for the evening, and offered to bring me a beverage. The menu selections were not extensive but included a nice offering of meats, seafood, and salads. I decided to try the pepper steak. The presentation of the entrée was nice and the portions of meat and vegetable were adequate. However, both the meat and the vegetables lacked flavor. The sauce on the meat was bland and was in need of something to give it some flavor. Since I only ate at the restaurant once, I’m not sure if this meal is representative of the quality of the other selections offered on the menu. I found the overall service, however, to be quite good.

The next morning the Tiger Line bus picked me up in front of the hotel at 7:45AM, as promised. The fifty or more passenger bus was comfortable and had a lavatory on board. We headed off for Port Arthur after making stops at five other hotels and the Tiger Line terminal downtown to pickup other tour participants. The two hour drive was pleasant with a variety of scenery that included plains, rolling hills, lakes, small towns, and a variety of wildlife. The bus stopped at several different viewing points in the Tasman National Park where we were treated to some stunning views of the ocean and coastal mountain ranges.