On Thursday the 19th (yes, it has been a while since I posted) we flew from Melbourne to Hobart and stayed in Tasmania for five nights. A week after returning I figure I’d better put together a post chronicling our Tasmanian adventures while the trip is still relatively fresh in my mind.

Since this trip is part of our preparation for a larger holiday in Europe a few years from now, we’d deliberately made very few up-front arrangements. We booked a car, and we booked the first night’s accommodation in Launceston. After that we were winging it for the rest of the trip. So from the airport we proceeded directly to the rent-a-car office to pick up our car. We’d only paid for a Mitsubishi Lancer (or equivalent) but we were given a free upgrade to a Nissan X-Trail, which is a mid-range 4WD. I was a bit daunted by having to drive something like that around for five days, but it turned out to be good value because of the large windows – great for sightseeing!

Once on the road, we high-tailed it for Launceston. Took us a few wrong-turns as we initially headed into Hobart, but once we’d gotten onto the right highway we were on our way. This turned out to be about two hours’ drive and a great introduction to the Tasmanian experience. Even the relatively flat land between Hobart and Launceston was vividly green – a sign that the state wasn’t having quite the problem with lack of rainfall that the mainland is. That first drive also highlighted something that would become a hallmark of the trip – the roadkill. Seriously, I have never seen so much roadkill as on the roads in Tasmania. It’s a wonder they have any wildlife left at all!

Launceston is a fairly large town (by Australian standards – around 100,000 population) sitting where three rivers merge, making it a bit of a water-town despite its inland location. We were staying a bit out of town at something of a resort that Sal had found online, called Grindelwald. It’s kind of a Swiss-themed “mini village” with a few local attractions, though we didn’t hang around there too much to indulge.

Our mission statement for the trip to Tasmania was, as Samuel L Jackson would say, “gourmet shit” … and Launceston would set the bar very high in terms of food. The meal we had there that first evening was probably the best meal I’ve ever had dining out. It was at a bar/restaurant called Alchemy and unfortunately the best link I can find is to their Yellow Pages entry. Suffice to say that the food was delicious and reasonably priced. We’re not “haute cuisine” people by any stretch, but this really pushed all the right buttons.

From Launceston we travelled eastward to the coast, and followed the coast south back towards Hobart looking for somewhere nice to stay. We had fish and chips on the beach at St Helens and drove north to the Bay of Fires for some sightseeing. I can tell that the Bay of Fires would be an awesome spot to explore by boat – it was the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen. Hopefully that Google-images search will give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

From St Helens it was about another hour and half of driving until we got to Swansea, further down on the coast. This was where we decided to stay for the night, and we found an awesome B&B called Meredith House which I can highly recommend. The owners, Noel and Neal, were really friendly and had lots to tell us about the local region and our next destination, and their breakfast (cooked to order) was amazing!

The next day was Saturday, and Sal was keen to check out the Salamanca Markets in Hobart, so we set off to catch them before lunch. I was kind of over them after about five minutes, but we walked around for a while and checked out the various stalls before heading south once more. Our plan was to head to Huonville for lunch, but Huonville turned out to not have much to offer in the way of “gourmet shit” so we kept driving until we found the Petty Sessions restaurant in Franklin. I’d been thinking all morning that I wanted to have chowder for lunch, and abalone chowder featured prominently on the menu there! It was a no-brainer (and quite delicious, if expensive).

From Franklin our next destination would be Geeveston and the AirWalk over the Tahune Forest. That was great fun, with great views of the Huon River.

With still a few hours of daylight left, we decided to head from Geeveston down to Dover and find somewhere to stay. Despite all the evidence to the contrary so far, I had a mental picture of Dover as being quite a large town with plenty of dining and accommodation options. Alas, it was not to be. Dover had a pub/hotel and one B&B that we could see. No point staying there if there was nowhere nice to eat – it would go against our “gourmet shit” policy! So it was on to Southport! Southport, however, was even smaller! It had a pub, too, but hardly any houses that we could see. Perturbed, we stopped at the The Jetty House, the only B&B in the town that we could find an enquired if they had any rooms available. Why yes, replied Ros, the nice lady who owned the house, we have one left! She offered to make us a coffee while we got settled in, but when we dragged the suitcase into the room it became obvious that it wasn’t a place we wanted to stay. There was (look away now if you are easily disturbed) NO TV!!!

We made our apologies to Ros and headed even further south to see if there were other options. We made it almost as far south as it’s possible to drive in Australia before realising that we were in the land of Deliverance and there was no choice but to turn back towards Dover. Luckily Sal had collected a brochure with several B&Bs listed, and we started making phone calls on my perilously-low-batteried mobile phone. After a few tries we found a room available way back near Geeveston at Lilly’s Loft.

Kelly at Lilly’s Loft was really friendly and had a great B&B. We camped there for the night and had a mediocre dinner back at Kermandie near Geeveston.

The next day, Sunday, was my 36th birthday, and our plans for the day began with a tour of the Hastings Caves near Southport. This was awesome (I love caves) and made for a great birthday present from Sal. We then drove back up to Hobart where, two days earlier, we’d booked the next two nights’ accommodation at the Mercure in the city.

Not much to say about our last two days at Hobart except that the food was exceptional (we ate at Fish 349 and Catch), the casino was ordinary, and the roads were confusing. More than once we ended up stuck on the highway that would take us back towards Southport with a few kilometres of driving before the next exit!