UThursday
That was the grand plan. We hadn't seen much of Hobart and it had also been the first European/Australian city that we hadn't got a pin badge from. On our last day with the car, we were going to drive the 200km south across Tasmania to Hobart and then drive the 300km back north past Launceston, past Devonport, to the small village of Penguin, that we had passed through on our first day in Tassie. We had only picked Penguin because that was the most suitable and cheapest accommodation there was. We couldn't escape the locked hostel car park in Launceston until 8 o'clock, so we got our things together and had breakfast before in order to be ready when they opened. Before leaving town, we had to top the thirsty Hyundai up with a full tank before hitting the highway. The road we were driving on was highway number 1, so we were expecting good quality the whole way. We headed up hill when we got out of town and then stayed there for pretty much the entire drive. For most of the way, we drove through thick fog that was quite hard to see through. The fully laden logging lorries crept on us through the fog from nowhere. We made good time until all the way down until we hit the outskirts of Hobart. It was only 10 o'clock in the morning and the traffic was crawling along at a snails pace. We slowly made it to the centre of the city and than hunted down a car park from memory. We'd taken a risk coming back down for the badge. There was the chance that the shop we wanted to go to would be closed for more than just the Easter weekend. We were pretty sure it wouldn't be but they could also not have a pin badge with Hobart on it. We thought it would be funny in the end if there wasn't one though. We parked up and headed straight for the souvenir shop. We got slightly lost as we exited the car park a different way than we thought but we soon got back on track and found the shop. It was a huge relief when we found more than one badge to choose from. We picked one up, pretty happy that the 140 mile trip down had been well worth it. To make the trip more worth it, we walked over to the Salamanca Market area. Salamanca Market takes place every Saturday and sells pretty much everything you could ever want. Unfortunately, we weren't there on a Saturday. It was a Thursday morning and it was fairly quiet. We picked up some fruit from the markets onsite supermarket and then wandered round Salamanca Square. There wasn't a huge amount to see but it seemed like a nice relaxed sort of place. There was a fountain in the middle, with a few odd shops dotted around the place. We decided pretty quickly we had seen enough and started to walk back towards the car in search of food. We drove out to North Hobart, which is where we had been on the Good Friday. This time the burger shop was open but rather than have a normal burger for sale, they were all a little bit weird. We changed our minds in the burger place and walked down to a fish and chip shop but found it to be well out of our price range. We only had 15 minutes parking and were running short on time. We gave up and decided we'd eat the remainder of the snacks we had knocking around the car on the drive north. On the way out of town a sign for miniature golf caught my eye. On an impulse, I said “let's go there!”, in an attempt to lighten the mood after the stressful food situation. We played a round outside in a place that claimed it was “the worlds best mini golf”. It was good but it certainly wasn't great. There was no windmill for starters! I started well but the water hazards eventually got the better of me and Charlotte streaked away with the win. There were a couple of nifty pipes that moved the ball around with air but that was about it. At one point I almost lost my ball in a cheeky pond that almost looked as if it was set up to catch them. We had paid a deposit for the balls, so we wouldn't have been impressed. After balancing on a rock and straining to reach it with the club, I did manage to retrieve it without falling in myself. We returned our clubs, a little cheerier than when we had started and then hit the road north. It was a pretty simple drive that took us around 3 hours. The sun was just setting as we pulled into our accommodation car park. The building didn't look dissimilar from the Bush Inn, which was the haunted one we had stayed in in New Norfolk. It was as much pub as it was hostel/hotel. On the drive up, I'd felt myself come down with a cold like Charlotte still had, so we decided to have an early night to try and recuperate a little bit. Before this, we emptied the car completely in an attempt to try and get everything sorted and repacked during the evening, rather than have to worry about it the following morning. I skipped dinner but Charlotte had some toast.
James and Charlotte
James and Charlotte
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