12/8
Said goodbye to Ell this morning, he is going to Perth and I'm going to Taz. Don't know if I will see him again before I go home. Got the 7.49am train to the station and then the Sky Bus to the airport for my 10.55am flight. The flight was a bit late due to foggy conditions and it was worse when I got to Tasmania. I got the bus to town and then Roy came and met me. We drove through Battery Point on the way to his house. Lovely house that they live in, lots of land (5 acre plot). I met Samuel (their grandson), so cute and adorable! He says the cutest things with a little bit of attitude that just makes him more cute, he is only 4. Lovely roast dinner.
13/8
Today Roy took me out and around in the car. We went and had a look at Kingston. Nice up and coming area. He also took me to a couple of new housing estates, you get so much more for a lot less money here. I saw the block of land when his son is going to be building a house. In the evening we watched a couple of films.
14/8
Another lay-in (it's awesome not staying in hostels for a bit!) and then off to the museum in Hobart. There was a really good Antartica exhibition. Had a really nice pizza for lunch. On the way back we drove through Sandy Bay and Blackman's Bay (where they used to live). The whole area is really hilly. We had a nice mushroom risotto for dinner. Dessert was a vanilla slice from the really good bakery that Roy took me to the other day. In the evening, Roy found a scorpion in their bedroom!!!
15/8
This morning we all went off to the famous Hobart market at Salamanca. I brought some fudge and postcards. There was some really nice stalls with timber products that have been made with wood from Tasmania. For lunch we went to Fish Frenzy. Andrew, Samuel and Sally came too. We then had fun trying to get Samuel to smile for some pictures! After they had gone, we drove over to the eastern shore to Tranmere and checked out the view over to the main part of Hobart.
16/8
We went to the cinema this morning to see Cheri. After that and when the weather had cleared a bit, we drove up Mt. Wellington. The weather had closed in again by the time we got to the top and we could bearly see the city below. It was so windy up there, Roy's hat blew off. When we got to the lookout building, we looked out and could see nothing. Looked out a few minutes later and it was as though someone had pulled a curtain, the view was awesome and really clear. We then saw the wind push the clouds back over and the view disappeared.
17/8
Up and ready to leave at 8.45am. Roy took me to Port Arthur. It was a convict site back in 1830-1877. We stopped on the way at Pirates Bay, saw the Tessilated Pavement and Eagelhawk Neck-where prisoners would try and escape through so they put some dogs there to deter them. We went over to the Isle of the Dead where they buried the dead. Prisoners without headstones and the free and soldiers on the high part of the island with headstones. A lot of the buildings have been partially destroyed over time. It was a big area and you can walk through and around the buildings, some done up like museums.
