New Years trip to Hobart

On Fri the 30th Dec we headed down to Port Arthur. We had a brief stop in gorgeous Richmond for a yummy bakery lunch and play with the ducks which was lovely. We arrived just in time for a Tasman Island Cruise mum and dad had booked. It's basically a 40 person jet boat (300 horsepower engine) that does a 3 hour tour along the South East coast of Tasmania. You can't really call it a cruise as it's not a placid trip along the coastline nibbling on gourmet food - it's more of an adventure boat ride...Port Arthur has always been a much loved place of mine and this tour was seriously one of the best things I have ever done in Tassie. The scenery was breath-taking and we had dolphins and seals swim around the boat and jump out of the water. We were right in their natural environment and you just can't beat that. I would TOTALLY recommend it. Even Will loved it. We rugged him up in the kid's parka they provided and he nodded off on my lap for a portion of the tour.

One of the many caves - we could fit in some of them in the boat which was pretty cool.

At certain times of the year you can even see Whales but we were there at the wrong time. However, we had the most perfect summer day - 24degrees, sunny with blue skies and not much wind. The tour owner is a conservationist and it's always nice knowing some of the money from the cost goes towards protecting the coastline and it's amazing wildlife :-)

Seals having a man fight!

This is barely zoomed in. The dolphins were very friendly and loved chasing the boat.

A shot of the amazing cliffs.

The famous Totempole. This is a very popular structure to rock climb. A crazy guy actually walked a tight rope across it. You can You tube it here.

Tasman Island

One of the boats

We stayed in Port Arthur overnight then left very early the next morning so we could get to the Salamanca markets nice and early to get a park. We probably chose the busiest weekend in Hobart with the Taste festival on as well but the atmosphere was awesome and it was another glorious day. I loved shopping at the markets and came back with a huge bag just of business cards so I can shop online when I'm needing my market fix and can't get there in person. So many talented people live in Tassie. I've signed up to Pinterest so will have to post some of my favourite things for you all to check out...

We did lots more over the weekend but I'll tell you about it in another post!