Travel Story «Tazmanian She Devils !!!»

Australia | 0 Comments 03 August 2006 - Last Update 24 December 2006

Seeing as some of us are more country girls than city slickers we decided it was time to take a break from the big smoke and enjoy a weekend getaway in Tazmania !. Lorna , Emily, me ( Una) and Aileen , another Tipp woman ( God they just keep multiplying) flew out on Friday morning to the capital of Hobart. Now let me tell you a funny story about four girls, a lunch box of tuna sandwiches and a quaratine dog...... Well you get the picture, however even when we were not in the wrong we had declared our little snack we were left blushing in the arrivals hall of Hobart airport with our fellow passengers accusing stares like we had just tried to smuggle Class A Cocaine into the state. After clarifying that we just seem to attract muts we hurridly hopped on our shutlle bus with our sandwiches i might add!
So after settling into our hostel it was back to the good old days of doing the walking tour of the city. Whatever happened to bus tours ?  First impression of Tazmania was oxygen. Seriously we had all forgotten was it was like to breath in clean fresh air so after taking a few gulps we took in some of the local beauty spots including the harbour, the Batteries ( the oldest part of hobart with all pretty houses ) and the Salamanca area, which is where all the cool and trendy people hang out in cafes and bars. I think we all fell a little in love with Hobart as a city. It has everything a city needs yet its atmosphere and architechture are more like a small town. It situated perfectly on the harbours edge with a beautiful backdrop of Tasmanias rugged mountains. As a city it really doesn't impose itself on the landscape.
Friday  night we put on the war paint and headed down to the Harbour for dinner. If we would recomend one thing to do in Tasmania it would be to try the seafood. It was an amazing dinner we were so satisfied we didn't even have to go for drinks after !! There is a first time for everything.

Saturday we got up and headed to the Salamanca markets. Its filled with hundreds of market stalls selling a lot of hand crafted stuff and local produce, basically anything you could ever want. We really had to restrain ourselves so to help with this we decided to eat from every food stall we good find. There is something about deep fried food at ten in the morning that is so wrong and yet so right. 
After two blisfull hours we dragged ourselves away from the markets and got our tour bus to Port Arthur the now infamous penial colony.

The bus journey alone was worth it as we stopped off in a few places to take in the amazing scenery Tazmania has to offer. We arrived in Port Arthur in the early afternoon and took a walk around. To briefly give you the history of the place it is where convicts from Britian and Ireland and Australia were sent. Many were sentenced to up to seven years for offences such as stealing, however very few left and sadly many died there.It is spread out over a substanial area with the ruins or the original buildings of the prision, the church, the hospital, officer quarters and mental asylum. The idea being that once you got there you never had an excuse to leave. We knew this wasn't going to be a barrell of laughs however what we were not expecting was what a somber feeling the whole place has. This we discovered was not only because of its distant history but also beacuse of recent tragedies which have occured there. What was a bigger surprise was dispite all our best efforts we are proud to announce that we could not find the names of any of our ancestors. 

As part of the day we had signed up for a Ghost tour of Port Arthur. It was more funny than scary.Unfortunately we had a very bad wannabe actor as the guide.  Lets just  say the Oscar won't be going to him.And don't believe a word Lorna and Aileen will tell you , myself and Emily were holding onto each other because of the cold, honestly. So four very proud girls left Port Arthur with a certificate  for bravery !!!!!  

I'm a bit hazy on Saturday night because i'm sure it was just a dream that we danced the night away to Vanilla Ice and New Kids On The Block. Seriously who would lack the shame to reinact the moves to Ice Ice Baby  in a public place...?

Sadly Sunday was our last day in beautiful Taz so we headed up the Mount Wellington  to take in one last view and to fill our lungs. After a nerve racking drive up the mountain ( The convicts did there best making this road but a few extra inches either side would have been appreciated) we took in the breath taking sceney after acting like five years old on the first sight of snow.

I think Tazmania would definatley be on our recommended places to go for a a really relaxing weekend away. Good Food, beautiful scenery, lovely people and a great night of shameful dancing !!!