A short stay in Tasmania
“You’ve found the Jewel in the Crown,” the docent at Narranya Heritage Museum said when I told her I was in Tasmania for the first time. Much to do, you should come back, she advised. She was right. With not quite four days I was going to miss a lot.
Just the half-mystical name Tasmania was almost enough to draw me there. I flipped through a glossy magazine and saw an ad for The Friends’ School in Hobart – “Leading edge school on the quiet rim of the world.” Another reason that I came. The quiet rim of the world, next stop Antarctica. Quiet maybe, but there’s plenty to do and I didn’t get to it all. And if I’d come just a few days later, Spiegeltent Hobart 2016, part of an annual arts festival, would have been on. But I did the two things at the top of my list – a ride to the summit of Mount Wellington and an ocean excursion. And I had time to roam around Hobart.
Settling into Hobart
I chose to stay in Hadley’s Orient Hotel because it’s in the center of Tasmania’s capital Hobart, and it’s a historic site. For one thing it’s where Roald Amundsen came incognito in 1912, after beating Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole, keeping under cover until he could telegraph the news to his sponsors and the King of Norway. He telegraphed from the main post office, which still is Hobart’s main post office. He complained that he hadn’t been treated well at Hadley’s. But think what he must have been like after all that time without a bath, and concealing his identity, too. The hotel made amends.
Hobart is one of Australia’s driest state capitals, which surprised me, with it being green and almost on the ocean. But that aridity doesn’t mean the sun shines all the time so I usually had a small travel umbrella with me. I was rained on only once, and that was just after I’d bought takeaway pizza down in the Salamanca district. It was such a short walk that I went umbrella-less, and just as I headed home to the hotel, the rain started. So I stopped under a market umbrella in front of a café and ate the whole pizza standing. The pizza and rain were done about the same time.
Hobart is way down there
Ascending Mount Wellington
Mount Wellington rises 4,100 feet from sea level, right over Hobart. It’s a park and nature reserve with many recreational options but I only wanted to stand on top. I booked a half day “tour” of Mount Wellington, having no intention of driving it myself. Our congenial driver said tourists are a menace. They cling to the side and creep. “Look, there’s one,” he said once, as we passed a small red car with a panicky looking driver. It’s not the most frightening mountain drive I’ve ever taken but it’s dramatic enough with no shoulder and Hobart and the Derwent estuary way down there. If 4,100 feet doesn’t sound like much, it’s still a long way up when you’re looking over the edge.
It was warm down in Hobart but cold and windy on the summit. There were a few high clouds and others picturesquely just below us as we stood on top. Jackets were zipped and hoods secured. There were a lot of people up there, though not a crowd. Many were in the enclosed lookout while others of us walked rocks and walkways. I was a little afraid of being blown off so I held onto walkway rails or stood away from the edges. I seem to be grimacing in my selfies. And as I headed back to our van, it was stop-you-in-your-tracks windy, like a dream with my legs moving but going nowhere. A man nearby was pushing against the wind like me. It made us laugh. If all you do is admire the view, it’s worth the trip. And even if you go in summer, take your layers.
Tasman Island Cruise
About the first thing I did when I got settled was sign onto the Tasman Island Cruise at the Pennicott Wilderness Journeys’ office on the harbor. My head was stuffed with a mash-up of allusions to Finding Nemo, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, European voyages of discovery from Abel Tasman on. Polar explorers launching from Hobart. That’s OK. Imagine what you want to. Riding the East Australian Current, being on the Tasman Sea, looking out to the Southern Ocean, this was it. I know nothing about boats and can’t swim. But the company gave us a thorough safety briefing and outfitted us in waterproof garments something like a zip-up monastic habit in red. Or a long bag with a hood. They counseled how to avoid seasickness. Thus I embarked on my trip from Eaglehawk Neck to Port Arthur in our little purpose-built, open-air boat.
It was a sunny day. The swell was average for the Tasman Sea, just a few meters. The water was black, then blue, then frothy turquoise near the rocks and cliffs. Bait fish were boiling up and birds fed in frenzy. A white-bellied eagle sat high on a cliff face watching.
Tasman Island
Once when we stopped to observe a seal colony, we saw hundreds of jellyfish medusas just below the surface. There seemed to be southern albatrosses everywhere. Our captain said this would be the only time some of us (like me) would see them because they spend all their lives at sea. Then whoosh! A big albatross flew right across our bow. Whew. Our captain said it would have been awfully bad luck to collide. I’ve read the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and I know. There we were amongst the albatrosses, shearwaters, gulls, cormorants, eagles. And the fur seals. Not the pesky harbor seals, but the ones that were hunted to near extinction, sunning on rocks or lying prone in the water, moving with the swell.
We were traveling well, said the captain, which meant no one was seasick, so we circumnavigated Tasman Island while we heard about the early lighthouse keepers’ life on that treeless rock at the edge of the continent. That must be one of the most isolated lighthouses on the planet. All automated now. But imagine. I was sad when we finally got to historic and tragic Port Arthur. The boat trip was over. But the tour included a good lunch, and after food and a wash-up, we boat passengers went our different ways to our chosen afternoon visits. That’s travel. You’re here and then you’re gone, hopefully without a trace.
Tasmanian Devil Unzoo
The Tasmanian Devil Unzoo has a critical mission to help the Tasmanian devil survive the disease that’s pushing it to extinction, and it’s an introduction to other indigenous wildlife, which is free to come and go, to mingle with the resident animals and meet visitors. There’s a nice botanical garden as well. I was in time for ranger Renee’s presentation and feeding of Nevil the Devil. Nevil is so low-status among the resident devils that he’d never get any food if he lived with the group. Thus he became an educational animal and has his food brought to him. Interact with other animals but never with a devil. For their size, they may be the fiercest predator on earth. If you poke your hand into an enclosure, it will not be attached to your wrist for long. Instead, watch and listen as Nevil crunches into his lunch, skin, fur, bones and all. And now this emblematic animal is cursed, nearly wiped out by a contagious cancer unique to the Devil. Naturalists and the state of Tasmania are doing everything possible to save them from extinction and to learn if there are ways to control this disease. Research could pay off among humans someday too.
Nevil the Devil
Nevil wasn’t our only direct encounter. There was the free flight show with the sassy cockatoo that took coins from our hands and later returned them. And my special friend Fran the Tawny Frogmouth. Flightless by choice evidently, because there’s nothing physically wrong with her, she’s on call for movie roles and has been in several films. When I left the Unzoo, I realized that I’d had a more satisfying and even emotional experience that I imagined going in. Go and learn. Meet Nevil and the other animals unique to Tasmania. If only we humans fit in better.
Walking around in Hobart
I spent a lot of time walking around. The weather was generally good and I skipped most museums, which I regret, but we make choices. I didn’t take a walking tour, but I picked up a map, got recommendations at my hotel, and started walking. Hobart’s buildings range from Georgian and Victorian to 1940s Moderne and later, including some much less than beautiful later buildings. But we all have those. The parks were green and shady in spite of low rainfall. The Salamanca district of old warehouses alongside the harbor is where tourists and locals go for restaurants. Up the narrow Kelly’s Steps from Salamanca, and I was on my way to Battery Point where there were some lovely streets with Georgian and Victorian houses and cottages.
Along the way, I happened upon the Narranya Heritage Museum, an 1840 neoclassical merchant’s house and grounds. The house has been restored and furnished with 1840s furniture. It’s well worth a visit, and to me one of the best things there was the small, gray-haired, matter-of-fact docent. She’s the one who told me I’d found the Jewel in the Crown. As for the house interior, right to the weird wallpaper in the entrance hall that’s printed to look like a brick wall, it’s either original or an accurate reproduction. The docent – I never learned her name – said that the museum was collecting furniture at a good time, after WWII, when everyone wanted new things, “all Formica and chrome.” People sold the “old stuff” cheap, threw it in the garbage tip, or even burned it. And so the house was well-furnished with antiques on a budget.
I left behind sights that other travelers I met had enjoyed. And I was only around Hobart. There’s much more to Tasmania. Will I go back? Tasmania is almost 10,000 miles from my home. I don’t know. There are so many places unvisited. But you never know. I might do it.
Provisions and eating out
I didn’t eat out much in Hobart although restaurants are plentiful, and Tasmania is creating a reputation as a culinary capital. Salamanca Fresh Market was a good place to stock up on fruit and breakfast provisions (I had a refrigerator and coffee service in my hotel room). The Cargo Pizza (that I ate in the rain) was good, with a nicely cooked thin crust but my margherita was light on the green. At least the green was fresh basil. I also had a very good daily special lunch at Atlas Espresso Bar near the Post Office. The coffee and cookies were good, too. And, I opted for the high tea at my hotel (Hadley’s). The tea was good and I was surprised by the nice Tasmanian sparkling wine (Jansz Tasmania), but the atrium tea room was lonely. Two Asian women had just finished tea and I was alone. I guess I was there between tour groups. I had dinner at the hotel twice. The food was fine, but I liked best that it was lively and congenial. Once I shared a long meal with an interesting and nice couple from Queensland I’d met on the Tasman Island trip. It was like having dinner with friends.