Once In Hobart the green machine was set aside in favour of exploring on foot initially – then car. We had three busy days trying to see as much of this beautiful city and surrounds as possible.
We are staying in Battery Point in an old stables conversion so we’re right in the thick of the history, art and harbour centre and we both agree- we could live here!!!!

Day 1 was spent mostly on foot- trawling the Salamanca Art Centre and surrounds. We met up with cousins Jenny and Ray who took us for a beautiful lunch at the Mount Nelson signal station, followed by a trip down memory lane exploring Sandy Bay around my grandmothers house- which seems to have shrunk from what I remember (or I’ve grown?). The house has been rendered and become quite shabby. Those front windows with what I remembered as enormous views over the Derwent are actually quite small.

On Wednesday we picked up the rental and drove down to Bruny Island for the day. Made it to the 9.30 ferry and pretty much left no road untraveled on either North or South Bruny. Gorgeous views and dirt tracks through thick bush . Very remote with few services apparent but fabulous food/produce, which made it high on the ‘let’s visit with the bike’ scale and low on the ‘we could live here’ scale.
Magnificent coastline views at every turn…

Day 3 was as far removed from nature and wilderness as it’s possible to get- we went to MONA.

We went vis the ferry which was an experience in itself- literally riding on the sheep’s back to get there

The museum itself was an amazing experience – ranging from traditional to bizarre artworks.- and definitely challenging my definition of ‘art’.

Just the descent into the bowels of ‘The Mine’ was a challenge for me (who loves confined spaces- NOT!).

Favourite works: ‘Heartbeat (David); ‘Sump oil’ (Naomi). Most bizarre- the replication of the human digestive process (including smells) – we decided not to rerun at 2 for ‘pooping time’.

Too dark for photos of anything- and photos wouldn’t have done justice for MONA’s multi-sensory experience- but if you’re in Hobart – go!!!

Came hone via the Wursthaus- picking up supplies for our ploughman’s dinner of cheese, liverwurst, prosciutto etc. Will be so hard to return to reality!