Melbourne and Tasmania

We were looking forward to Melbourne, and the city did not disappoint! Just sorry we didn't have more time there. Spent 3 nights at Rendezvous Hotel in the Central Business District, almost directly across from Flinders Station, great old rail station building. Settled in and walked around the area just a bit, got a great intro from visitor center employee. Had read good things about our hotel's restaurant "Straits," so just wandered down there for dinner. Turned out to be great dinner in a lovely and quiet spot.

Next am ate hotel breakfast and jumped on the free zone tram to get an hour's ride around central Melbourne. Spent quite some time in the wonderful art museum and then walked toward treasury building. Continued to enjoy warmish, dry weather. Wandered up toward Fitzroy neighborhood in search of famed street art. Fun to see this different neighborhood that reminded us of DC's Adams Morgan or NY's Soho. Best street art was full length reclining George Costanza of Seinfeld fame in his underpants?!

Later walked across bridge to South Bank area, with idea of going up for city view/drink from the skyscraper Eureka building. Naturally we were not the only tourists with this idea on Easter weekend. So that was a bust - encountered a line much longer than we had patience for. Settled for having a drink at one of the riverside cafes as sun went down and lights of Melbourne came up - spectacular view from the bridge, so glad we didn't miss that. South Bank was thick with people enjoying the nice eve out. Jolly conversation with our drinks server who was from Auckland. We commented on the "crowd" out early on Saturday eve, speculating that it was due to Easter holiday weekend. He insisted that crowd was actually smaller than norm for a Saturday. Continued walking from there to Chinatown, where sidewalks became even thicker with people. Found our Thai fusion restaurant "Seamstress."
Had wanted to try some of highly touted Asian restaurants like Chin Chin and Rice Paper...
But neither took reservations.... Seamstress did. Taxi home.

Spent most of next day (Easter Sunday) at War Remembrance Memorial and Botanic Gardens.
Great views of the city from the memorial on sunny clear day. Walked all way home. Later took taxi back to Fitzroy nabe to reserved restaurant "Rice Queen". Great Asian fusion food there as well..... easy taxi home again. Left Melbourne wanting more.... but we were off next am on flight to

Tasmania

Launceston

Flew into Launceston in north of Tasmania and picked up another rental car. Drove into town and found our Clarion City Grand Hotel, a lovely old heritage building near town's city park and central business district. Walked short distance to town's river waterfront. Sat outside and had lunch in sun and took in water views. "Easter Monday" so restaurants were still charging 10 or 15% holiday surcharge, which we hadn't seen before. Walked on along waterfront and then to path to the beautiful Cataract Gorge. A great little easyish walk on path along one side of deep rock gorge, that eventually led to a basin recreation area with cable car rides and swinging bridge. We crossed the swinging bridge and backtracked way we'd come. Once again our hotel restaurant had good reviews and we had a great meal there. Went out in search of breakfast next day and discovered Launceston downtown was a fine city, full of interesting old Victorian and Art Deco buildings and beautiful city park. Had one of best breakfasts of trip at Pierre's cafe, along with super friendly and good service. Then we were off on our longish drive to

Bicheno near Freycinet National Park.

We were stopping at this little town down the east coast of Tasmania to see the park and view its famed Wineglass Bay. Unfortunately we were later leaving Launceston than we should have been and didn't arrive in Bicheno till 2:30 or so. Most laid back lodging check in/out ever. Had reserved a little cottage called Charm on Douglas, one of several self catering places part of "Tidelines of Bicheno." Checkin in instructions were "cottage will be unlocked, key inside on table." Departing left key on table and charge showed up on credit card that day. Cute little 3 bdr, 1 bath grandma's cottage. Just down street from famed ocean /rock blowhole.

As we were still a 20 minute drive from Freycinet, we decided we didn't have time to give it its due. Instead jumped back in car and drove to the nearby East Coast Nature World. A private zoo/ sanctuary for rescued animals nearby. This place turned out to be a delightful way to spend the afternoon. We were just in time for feeding of many animals. Two terrific enthusiastic and very knowledgeable employees taught us a lot about local animals we'd not yet seen: quolls, wombats, Tasmanian devils. The devil talk and feeding was particularly fun and educational. Friendly kangaroos, Barren geese wandered around the property. Park also had a great collection of beautiful birds.

Returned to our cottage near dusk and walked down street to view blow hole. Sky was colorful in setting sun over water. Walked around waiting for and then watching waves surge through the blowhole. Beautiful. Other tourists and locals began drifting down to rocks, some with chairs, picnics. Only later did we realize they were setting up to view penguins who come to burrows there in the eve. Sorry to have missed that, but had seen other penguins on this trip and lots walking to their burrow in Patagonia a few years ago. We walked down the coastal road, the long way to dinner in "town" at Pascini's, where we sat outside and had a good dinner. Walked back along main road in near dark with flashlights to our cottage. Spent some time admiring amazing night sky in low light area.

Considered going to Freycinet next am, but again time seemed short, sorry to have given ourselves only 5 nights in Tas. Had breakfast at fun place on way out of town "Pondering Frog". Friendly and entertaining owner. Then drove on to ....

Port Arthur

Found our lodging Port Arthur Villas, just across road from a small gate back entrance to the Port Arthur historical site. They were hardly villas, more like retro strip motel rooms. But our 2 bdr 1 bath "villa" was clean and functional and couldn't have been an easier place from which to access the historic site. Again it was already early afternoon, so we hurried over to the site for a late lunch in visitor center cafe. It was yet another beautiful day to wander around the site's grounds. We signed on for a brief intro walking tour, which was informative, but a little jokey for my taste. We were agreeing with view yestravel expressed in her earlier Port Arthur trip report that - having read about penal colony history via book "Fatal Shores" - the presentation here at the site seemed to gloss over conditions at the time. Stayed at site till its closing at dusk and walked back to lodging.

We had noticed a nice common BBQ area at our motel and discovered that management sold BBQ packs to guests for quite reasonable price. So for about $20 we acquired 4 burgers, 2 thin steaks, 3 pieces of chicken, and probably a dozen sausages, not to mention tomatoes and onions! Way more than we'd signed on to. Also bought reasonably priced wine and beer from mgt. Guys cooked it all up for a nice at home BBQ. Gorgeous clear night sky out there again.

We were up and out early next am for our Pennicott Wilderness Tasman Island Cruise, which we had reserved based on fabulous reviews months ago. In the meantime I had worried about weather, seas, winds, friend's potential seasickness etc. But in the end couldn't have asked for a better day. We met at cruise office in town location and all took a short bus ride to harbor at Eagle Hawk Neck. There we boarded high powered 43 person catamarans for a thrilling 3 hour cruise in perfect clear sunny weather with very little wind. A definite trip highlight! Our two guides were excellent: knowledgeable, safety conscious, and funny. Because of the truly wonderful weather we were able to go closer to amazing peaks and caves than often the case. Spectacular scenery. Saw lots of seals frolicking on land and sea. And an albatross flew directly toward the boat and settled on water several feet away for a few moments - just for us.
Boat driver took advantage of relatively calm seas and gave us some fun rollercoaster rides and turns, showing off a little - great fun. Motion sickness friend took drugs and ginger tabs and sat in back and did fine, thank god. Well worth the $$$!! A definite trip highlight.

Hobart

Returned to rental car and drove on to Hobart, where we stayed 2 nights down at waterfront at the old Customs House Hotel. Enjoyed walking all around this great port city. Took the ferry to MONA (the museum of old and new art). Private collection of wealthy gambler David Walsh. A very unique location, building, and collection indeed. Grew to really like the handheld read or listen device used to identify art. Walked up hill to Battery Point area and admired all the old homes there. Walked through the lovely St David Park. Cruised the huge Salamanca market on Saturday morning. Beautiful vegetables and flowers, as well as prepared food purveyors and artisans of all sorts. Read that the market has 300 stalls and is visited by thousands on a Saturday. Indeed it was thick with people on our visit. Nothing for us to buy though, a few minor souvenirs. Had a wonderful dinner at the Blue Eye Restaurant down the street from our hotel(thanks for this rec, yestravel), loved the atmosphere of place, with the most interesting paper fish collages on walls. Great service and food. Also had a very good dinner at our hotel's restaurant, as well as two good included breakfasts. Being a heritage building, rooms were located and sized helter skelter. Our rather nice room on second floor faced street and had a bit of water view. But that meant we enjoyed drunken yelling and singing at restaurant and sidewalk below until very late Saturday night. Friends huge room was on first floor in what seemed a hotel extension, dark with opaqued windows - but fortunately quiet.

Left Hobart too reluctantly but we were looking forward to Sydney up next.

Your desire to stay in Melbourne and in Tasmania for longer makes both of us. Hope your time in Sydney is as rewarding.

Sounds like a good time! The cruise sounds fabulous. Glad you enjoyed Blue Eye.

<< "Easter Monday" so restaurants were still charging 10 or 15% holiday surcharge, which we hadn't seen before.>>

Not uncommon in Australia and NZ as they have to pay their workers more on public holidays, of which Easter Monday is one.

Been back from this great trip for a couple weeks now, so it's beyond time to wrap up my trip report with some detail about the last 6 nights (all in Sydney).

We loved Sydney and were fortunate to have continued great weather.

We stayed 6 nights in a "character filled" air bnb - a 2 story, 2 bdr, 1 bath apartment in the Rocks/Millers Point area of the city.
We loved the location, though not so easy for either our taxi driver or us to find on arrival. Millers Point is currently full of 100 + year old small business establishments and rows of 2 story housing built originally for workers/social housing. The housing, and the area as a whole, was allowed to deteriorate over the last couple decades but experienced a rebirth and interest thanks to skyrocketing Sydney real estate. Now, it seems, the old properties are going for high prices - many to developers. So there's a lot of controversy .... Having spent time now in the old neighborhood and also seen the nearby high risey Barangaroo development, seems sad that the old nabe will likely not be preserved....... same old story...

Our old apt. had a nice balcony overlooking street action and was sandwiched between a cozy and good Japanese restaurant and a recently defunct Indian one. We enjoyed a tasty dinner at the Japanese restaurant, one at Fish on the Rocks a few doors down the street, and two at the upstairs restaurant at the Lord Nelson Pub, the oldest (?) pub in Sydney. On ANZAC day we circumvented the wild crowds gathered to play two up at the Captain Hook Hotel a few doors down by walking down to the new Barangaroo development for dinner at a Thai restaurant. Though we liked the nicely landscaped new park area that is part of the development, the buildings/restaurants/etc seemed pretty antiseptic next to our lovely old streets. We did stop by and check out the two-up games and bar action briefly in the afternoon. Fun to see. And fortunately not long after we returned from dinner, and surely by 11pm or so, the 12 hour long partying was over - otherwise we wouldn't have slept much that night. Also enjoyed watching the ANZAC day parades a few blocks away that am.

Most everything we wanted to do in Sydney was an easy walk from our apt. We walked over to the Opera House one eve and took in a concert of violinist Joshua Bell, who now leads the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields chamber orchestra. We had bought tickets long ago after perusing schedule of events on during our stay.
It was a wonderful concert. Sorry we didn't also get tix for the outdoor performance of Carmen, which was also playing.

We took the ferry over to Manly one day and just had lunch at an outdoor cafe. Crowds near and on the ferry were thick on a weekend, but all were accommodated without undue waiting. Views of the harbor from the ferry are of course wonderful. Two of us got even better harbor views by hiking the Spit to Manly trail, which winds around the northern harbor for about 6.5 miles. Someone had recommended this to us earlier. We took a taxi from our apt to the Spit Bridge in Northern Sydney - and walked the nice easy trail to Manly and then ferried back to Circular Quay. Fabulous views of water, cliffs from various points along the trail.

On one of the really spectacularly clear days we all walked across the harbor bridge and back - and half of us went up in the pylon for an even better view. We should have allowed ourselves more time for studying the exhibits about the bridge building though...
We could actually see a piece of the bridge from our apt balcony - and with binoculars watch the groups of bridge climbers...

We did a tremendous amount of walking all over the city - Botanical gardens, remembrance sites, museums, Queen Victoria building......

Had originally planned an overnight or at least a day trip to the Blue Mountains, but never got around to going. After 2 months we were just enjoying staying put for a long stretch of days and doing as much on foot as possible.

On our last day we spent a little time watching a large cruise ship (capacity 2000) depart the harbor. Mr. G enjoyed chatting up one of the dock employees re all the specifics of departure. Fun to watch - glad we weren't on it though.....

All in all it was a great trip. We wondered whether we'd consider
these two English speaking countries "exotic enough" to hold our interest - after other long trips to India, SE Asia, South America etc. But again, what was not to like? The people were all friendly and laid back, we never had a bad meal, beautiful harbor towns/cities, museums were lovely, transport every where was efficient, great temperate weather..... and a great opportunity to get more of a feel for these 2 distant countries about which we hear really very little .....

Only downside was our first real case of jet lag after 15 hours from Sydney to Dallas and another 3 Dallas to DC. Somehow we were surprised by how many sleepless nights it's taken us to adjust to that 18 hour time difference.

Happy to hear about your wonderful Sydney finale to cap off your adventures in Australia and New Zealand. Spit to Manly is definitely a highlight; Rose Bay to South Head is equally worthwhile. Perhaps next time...

Welcome home! Enjoyed following along on your trip. I'll look forward to hearing more about it over lunch thus summer.

Great report - another Washington DC visitor !!!!