Saturday, February 11, 2023 - Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

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Saturday, February 11, 2023 

Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 

We sailed up the Derwent River in the early morning to arrive at Hobart, Tasmania. Tasmania is a state in Australia. It was primarily settled by the British transporting ships of convicts to the mainland of Australia as well as the island of Tasmania. Hobart and the immediate surrounding communities have a population of around 200,000, the state of Tasmania has a population of ½ million. Farming, tourism and fine Marino wool are main products of the state. 85% of the land is owned by the government. The government has adopted a policy of no controlled burns. This makes the wild lands much more susceptible to fire, which of course impacts the privately owned lands as well. 

Our included tour for the day is a 3-hour drive around. The first stop on the tour is free time at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. We are allowed an hour to explore and one of the docents at the Gardens was passing out maps. It is a lovely setting looking out over Hobart and the River. Hobart itself is very clean. A comment was made during our tour that all the “industrial” aspects of the port had been moved to another nearby port. This leaves Hobart for cruise ships and local pleasure boats. There were a couple of ferries running as well.

Jacaranda Tree

Lily pond with ducks and a cool reflection

Acanthus

This and the next several are "Banksia" The flowers are probably 8" long.

This looks kind of like a palm but isn't. It might be related to the banana family, although it does not produce fruit.

Certainly attractive in the right setting.
 

 

 

We then drove across the river and up to an observation point. Not bad views, but you had to kind of look between the bushes. Back across the river and a nice drive up to another viewpoint. This one had a much better view. But it was also the site of a system of semaphore communications towers. Prior to phones and even telegraphs, there were teams of semaphore signalers that could pass messages over lengthy distances rather quickly.

Hobart from across the river.

Sailboats enjoying a day on the river. Part of the Wooden Boat Festival.

Port Arthur in the distance.

 Hobart from the Signal Station.

Viking is in middle just above the bushes.

 

 

Every Saturday there is a street fair in Hobart, and it is attended by people from all over. We were looking forward to wandering the market after our tour. The market is just a few blocks from our ship. Another event happening this weekend is the Australian Wooden Boat Festival which will bring about 20,000 visitors. The event areas for the boat show are ½ a block from our ship. Many of the boat show visitors were also at the street fair. Just a few more people than we wanted to deal with, and we had a 3:00 p.m. back on board. More importantly, we needed to find an ATM. We have a private tour scheduled in a few days that we agreed to pay for in Australian dollars on the day of the tour. 

The ATM took a bit of doing to find, but after a lot of walking, getting to explore the downtown area of Hobart, we found an ATM, got our cash, went across the street to a Woolworths where a cashier was nice enough to trade a couple of large bills for smaller denominations. Mission Accomplished. We walked back to the boat and strolled through a small portion of the boat show on the way. 

Once back on board, we went up to the Aquavit Terrace (Deck 7 Aft) to have a toddy while lines were cast off and we sailed toward tomorrows’ destination of Phillip Island near Melbourne. Phillip Island has a facility that studies the local penguins. They are the smallest variety of penguins. They come ashore on Phillip Island every evening at sunset (a few hundred to several thousand) to return to their burrows and chicks after a day of fishing. 

Viking has made arrangements to take all passengers wishing to observe this to the island. A minor drawback is that we will be at anchor, not at a dock. It is a 30-minute tender ride one way. The tenders will be starting at 5:30 p.m. and probably won’t be returning to the ship until 11:00 p.m. or later. We have a very long tour on Tuesday that we are really looking forward to, so have decided to not take in the penguins.