By lunchtime we had visited the Cascade Gardens, the Cascade brewery, met a stuffed Tasmanian Tiger and visited the very moving female convicts prison.
Cascades brewery has been producing beers since 1824 and the rather impressive golden stoned building wouldn't look out of place in Yorkshire. It was rather too early to taste the beers so we settled for coffeess over looking the sunny Victorian cascades gardens.
We then went to the Female Convicts Prison and took the 'Her Story' tour. This was an incredibly moving and emersive story of one female prisoners story, performed by two actors. The prisoner had been sent over to Australia for stealing a piece of silk, and as we walked around the large empty space of the prison walls, she explained to us the day to day hardships that she endured. As it was only the three of us and the two actors, it was very easy to become involved in the story. I felt very moved. At this point, it was very bright and sunny and I had to put my sunglasses on.
It was quite a different experience as after the performance the actors resumed their normal voices and were quite happy to stand and answer any questions we had. In fact, the two museum staff, Daniel and Claire also did the same, explaining many facts and figures of Tasmania's convict past.
It was then time for a trip up Mount Wellington, which stands over Hobart and the surrounding area and really doesn't look that big from down below. However, I am clearly not very good at gaging the size of mountains as it is in fact 1270 metres high! As we set off up the windy 22km road, the sun was shining and the skies were blue. The road we took had actually been hewn out of the rock during the great depression in the 1920s and 30s as a way of providing much needed work. As we stopped off at a midway point, we could just see the coastline stretching off towards the horizon. We could also see what looked like a rather dark rain cloud moving in from the sea. By the time we reached the top, the cloud was moving slowly in towards us. I was so glad that I'd been advised to bring lots of warm clothes as it was freezing! Within minutes, it was also snowing! Brilliant! Luckily we'd just had enough time to see the incredible views before the snow and hail clouds arrived, obscuring the landscape and throwing needle sharp hail at us.
As we drove back down the road, everything became covered in the lovely white stuff.
By the time we got back to Hobart, it was raining. So we went to a fantastic little tea shop called 'The Way of Tea'. Heaven. We were given a book of different teas to choose from. Brilliant! Live music as we walkedin, shelves full of large tea canisters, a bewildering choice of teas and excellent company.Perfect! Then, to make it even better, we had bento boxes with sashimi.....and the sun came out! I chose to have a flowering blossom tea, which was served in such a pretty glass teapot.
Following the great tea experience, we went back to Battery Point where I was introduced to a lovely little cafe, Jackman and McRoss where we had killer cakes (huge cakes!) and.....more tea! Hurrah! This was topped off with a quick tour of Arthur's Circus, the most amazingly picturesque circle of chocolate box cottages, with a little 'English green' in the centre.
A quick trip back to get changed and then off out to meet some of Jon and Lisa's lovely friends. A few drinks in a mixture of pubs and bars, one of which provided free, yes free, food. A plate of well needed sausage rolls. This pub, Preachers, also had an eclectic mix of old vinyls scattered around, including one by the late, great Harry Secombe. Plus, some rather fine artwork by a local artist. Before finishing the night, we popped to a 24 hour bakery and bought pies. Shepherds pie at midnight. What a brilliant way to finish off a top day!!
One of the houses in Arthur's Circus...
No comments:
Post a Comment