This morning we returned to see the blowhole in action and to see the area we had been in last night in the dark. It was a clear path for the penguins and we had not found the correct ledge that Jacob had told me to sit on!
After a coffee stop we then went to Nature World which is a large animal sanctuary and allows the animals plenty of space in their own habitat. We were able to feed the kangaroos, of which there were many freely roaming. There were also wallabies, pademelons, emus, snakes, quolls, lots of birds such as parrots, cockatoos and eagles, wombats and the tasmanian devils. After doing a big walk around the park we were able to see the tasmanian devils being fed parts of wallabies and kangaroos. The sound of crunching bone was not pleasant!
From here we drove on to the Frecinet National Park and did a walk up to the Wineglass Bay lookout which was an hour return. The weather was cloudy unfortunately so a postcard will have to do instead! Instead of walking on down to the bay we returned and sat on Richardson Beach for an hour which was in Coles Bay and the sun came out for us. We ate our picnic lunch here.
We then travelled on to Ross an historic town between Hobart and Launceston. This has a famous bakery which apparently has the world's best vanilla slice - it certainly looked good! There were lots of lovely old buildings and a bridge over the river. The cross roads in the middle of the town leads in four directions - recreation (town hall), temptation (pub), damnation (old jail) and salvation (church).
After this it was back to Hobart, to the airport and various locations to drop the group off. This was good as I got to see a lot of the city, given that I didn't allow myself any time in Hobart! The city is beautiful - it reminded me of Wellington and is a place I could live. It has the sea and the harbour with a beautiful waterfront, hills and Mount Wellington behind, and the Derwent river. It is an easy reach to the National Parks and lots of outdoor activities and is only an hour flight from Melbourne.
I checked in to Montgomery's and after a quick change went to meet up with the rest of the group who were still in Hobart for the night. We walked up Elizabeth street to North Hobart to meet Jacob and Marjorie in his local the Winston. There were lots of restaurants in this area and all were very tempting. However the cheeseburger at Winstons and the pint of Winstons Draught were fantastic!
Back to bed just after midnight and an early start again in the morning for my 8.45am flight to Melbourne!
