Tassie

I wouldn't normally arrange to be in Christchurch, followed by Hobart in quite such a rush, but that was the way the discount flights fell.  It's not so much that there wasn't time to turn around.  There was plenty of time to do the washing, pack a bag for Hobart, pack another bag for town, head to Melbourne, go to work for a couple of days, head back to Ballarat, go to bed late, get up very early and make our way to Avalon Airport. Plenty of time, I tell you. (But it was all a bit of a rush :-P )

Anyway.  Here we are.  I bought the flights to Hobart back in November when Jetstar had them on offer.  It's Lindsey's 60th birthday next week and it seemed like a good plan to kickstart the birthday celebrations with a long weekend pottering around and exploring around Hobart.  Jim hasn't been to this bit of Tasmania before and it's years and years since I've been. Last time I was in Tasmania was when we came with Lindsey and Ian and we stayed in the north of the island.

The flights were out of Avalon which is a tiny airport near to Geelong.  I've never been to it before and it's very cute.  I'm not sure which would win the prize for the smallest airport I've ever been to. Avalon is definitely smaller than Sandakan, but it would be a close run thing in the race between Avalon and the little airport in Orkney.  But whichever were to win, they get a joint first prize for the ease of checkin in and going through security.  No immigration to worry about.  Flights to Orkney from Edinburgh and Hobart from Avalon are domestic flights.

We arrived in time for an early lunch.  Please note that if you decide to go into Mures Lower Deck for your early lunch that the portion sizes are ENORMOUS. Humungous.  I think that if Lindsey and I had shared her fisherman's basket we would still have struggled to eat it.  As it happened we didn't share it.  I had a gigantic seafood pizza to tackle. Even Jim was surprised to get two large pieces of fish with his fish and chips.  The couple who came to the table next to us had obviously been there before. They had a single plate of fish and chips with two sets of cutlery!  Oh- and Mures also has sparkling water as a complementary water offering, along with still water, both on tap for you to help yourself.

Lunchtime view

We are staying in an older part of Hobart, within easy walking distance of the centre of town.  If you head up our road, there is an amazing butcher 5 minutes walk away.  If you turn around the corner from our place there is a magnificent whole food and organic shop. Go the other way and there is a cheese and wine store.  Hop in the car and go in almost any direction and there are farm shops, little fish shops, fruit shops, all selling local produce together, in the case of some of the farm shops, supermarket staples.  It is a great great pity that Ian couldn't join us.  It's definitely his kind of place!

It pays to look up when you are wandering around in Hobart: