Henry’s Harbourside Restaurant, Hobart

Located at The Henry Jones Art Hotel in Hobart this is not a cheap restaurant but we did get to enjoy some lovely meals and also had some lovely cocktails from the bar prior to eating.

We started with some taste teasers and I had a tasty Beef Carpaccio that was accompanied with a sliver of blue cheese and something else I can’t recall (but it was good).  Jane had a small cup of field mushroom tea with truffle cream that she also enjoyed.

For mains, I had the duck and this was cooked rare and had a very light asian flavour to it, and was accompanied by Bok Choy, Poached Pear and a very slim and long spring roll that was filled with leg meat from the duck and very nice.  A nice dish.

Jane had some nice lamb medallions that were nicely balanced with an olive oil puree and wilted spinach and low baked onion.  Also a nice dish.

We finished with a nice cheese platter with predominantly Tasmanian cheeses.

The service was very professional, however at times we found it to be a little inattentive.

Launceston to Hobart via the Highland Lakes

We decided to take a different route back to Hobart from Launceston and went via the Highland Lakes.  We didn’t realise however that we would be going up such a huge mountain to get to the lakes.  It was a nice drive with lots of hairpin bends and the lakes were very isolated.  There were also hardly any other vehicles on the road.

I’ve never seen a boat ramp as wide as the one at the Great Lake and it was definitely quite a barren area.

Back in Hobart we checked  into the lovely Henry Jones Art Hotel in Sullivan Cove and then had an excellent lunch at Muirs Upper Deck a short walk away, that would be the classiest lunch we had in Tasmania.  Excellent food, excellent  service, and a magnificent setting.

Shipwrights Arms, Battery Point, Hobart

We went to the Shipwrights Arms a couple of nights ago and there was a good casual buzz there and they were very busy.

We started with a Cob Loaf and Garlic Butter that was okay. I then followed this with a steak, that was more blue than the rare I requested and seemed to have been resting for a bit long since it was not particularly warm.  It was quite tough, not well seasoned and they had run out of Dijon butter (one of the accompaniment options).

Jane had a huge chicken schnitzel that she enjoyed.

The wait staff are not polished, although being more of a pub-style establishment it was okay for what it was.

Cascade Brewery, the Huon Valley and Grandvewe Cheeses

We went out for a drive today south of Hobart to the Huon Valley.  On the way we drove by the very picturesque Cascade Brewery at the base of Mt Wellington.  Tours are run at the brewery several times a day, however at this time of the year booking in advance is required.

Approximately 30 minutes South of Hobart in Grandvewe Cheeses that specialises in sheep cheeses.  We tasted some lovely cheeses and an excellent Mutton Kransky and purchased some goat cheese (which we hadn’t tasted) and kransky for consumption later.

We drove around the scenic coast and stopped in at a bakery in Cygnet where we picked up some bread and after some more driving found a place for an in-car picnic (because it was a bit windy outside) consisting of the goats cheese, kransky and bread.

The goats cheese was much stronger than anticipated and not to our liking and rather than stink the car out we got rid of it at the first rubbish bin we came to.  The rest of the in-car picnic was however great.

Magnificent Tapas in Hobart

We had some exquisite tapas for dinner last night at “Francisco’s on Hampden” in Battery Point, Hobart.  Jane even commented that this was the best tapas she has ever had and I would have to agree, and that includes the tapas we had in Spain.

The restaurant had a nice upbeat ambience and was quite busy.  The service was very slow, however this was made up for the excellent tapas.

In terms of the tapas, we had Ceviche (which was excellent), Mediterranean Salad, Octopus (a but chewy and nothing wonderful), some magnificent Garlic / Chilli Prawns, Lamb Pintos (i.e. Souvlaki) and some lovely marinated mushrooms.  We concluded with a traditional Spanish version of Creme Brulee called Crema Catalana that was also great.

New Years Eve in Hobart

Hobart was our destination for New Years Eve this year and here are some of my favourite shots from the evening, including a photo of some of the Sydney to Hobart Yachts taken on my way to get dinner, Flippers (the floating fish & chip shop where I got dinner) and some slightly bizarre fireworks shots.  The fireworks display at midnight lasted for 15 minutes.

Simple Motel services that make a difference & St Ives Motel

We have been staying at the St Ives Motel in Hobart for the past few days and there are a number of small little touches that this basic but clean motel about 10 minutes walk from Salamanca Place has that would cause us to strongly consider returning.

Broadband: Whilst the broadband is not free, it is very reasonable at 5 cents per MB download.  There is not wireless available, however there is an Internet connection point in our room and there is also a computer available for use down at reception (for no additional cost than the MB) and free printing.

Mini Bar: Mini Bar’s are notorious for being ridiculously priced.  The prices here however are just what you would pay if you at the liquor shop, which is in fact right next door.

Continental Breakfast: At AU$3 per person for a Continental Breakfast Pack that contains Bread for Toast, a spread for the Toast, a pack of Cereal and Milk, this is very well priced.

Phone Calls: Local calls at 15 cents for the call, and International calls at 20 cents per minute to UK/USA/Canada/NZ Hong Kong is great.

Washing Machine: Use of the communal guest washing machines is very reasonable at AU$2 and this includes the use of washing powder.  It is an additional AU$2 for use of the dryer.

TV: Equipped with a large Plasma TV screen and a reasonable number of channels, other than one channel that the sound isn’t working on for us, the rest were great and many in HD.

Well done St Ives Motel.

Battery Point, An awesome bakery / cafe and Hobart CBD

This morning I went for a walk through the streets of Battery Point and came across “Jackman & McRoss”, an excellent bakery / cafe located in Hampden Road just across from Waterloo Crescent.  They have lots of indoor seating and a small amount of outdoor seating out the front. 

I had a cafe style meal that consisted of scrambled eggs encased in Tasmanian Smoked Salmon on a brioche (Hmmm, maybe I wrong here) base.  It was excellent as was the Skinny Latte I had with it.  I’m slowly getting used to ordering Skinny Latte’s as opposed to Trim Latte’s, which are often met with a confused look in Australia.

I then wandered through Princes Park that had what looked like a pretty cool kids play area.  Well, I thought it was cool anyway and noted that it had sand as its protective landing for kids.

 

From Princes Park I walked along the Esplanade (which didn’t have a lot going for it) to Salamanca Place and cooled down in Parliament Square and watched people on a trapeze setup for the New Years celebrations this evening.

Elizabeth Mall was one of the many places I ventured to in the CBD.  The shopping area felt quite relaxed although I found that some of the malls were a bit outdated.  There are however some beautiful character buildings located in the vicinity of the CBD.

I then met up with Jane and got some Garlic Mussels and a nice Bruny Island Cheese Platter from the Taste festival.  I also tried a “Two Metre Tall” Tasmanian Bitter Ale, that was not to my liking; I thought it actually tasted a bit like a dirty homebrew.  I followed this with a really nice Extra Zingy Ginger Beer from Gillespie’s Ginger Beer.

The temperature today kept creeping up higher and is apparently quite abnormal for Hobart; I noticed at one point it was 36.5˚ Celsius.  Thankfully it is looking cooler for tomorrow.

Hobart: Mt Wellington + Long Beach + The Taste Festival

We arrived back in Hobart on yet another beautiful day and the receptionist at our motel (St Ives) recommended it would be a great day to go up Mt Wellington, the huge mountain in Hobart.

It was a 20min drive from our motel to the Summit and the road was quite narrow at times.  Once at the top we were rewarded with magnificent slightly hazy views and a very rocky precipice.

We then ventured along to Long Beach for a casual lunch at a bakery where we each had salads and cold ice-cream based drinks.  The beach area has a lovely promenade from where we saw some of the Sydney to Hobart yachts arriving.

The Taste Festival is an event run each year in Hobart and this was the next stop on our journey.  This is a Food, Wine & Beer festival with a variety of entertainment that runs for 7 days and nights with superb food and beverages.  Very enjoyable.

From Hobart to Coles Bay

We got a rental car in Hobart and headed up the East coast towards Coles Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula along the Tasman Highway with the help of our trusty GPS.  It is worth noting though that once out of Hobart, that many of the smaller roads in towns up the East Coast were not covered by the TomTom maps.  This wasn’t a problem due to how few streets there are in some of these towns but does make the GPS a little less useful.

Along the way we stopped at Spring Beach which is just out of Orford which was a beautiful beach busy with families today.  Actually, on either side of the shot taken here it was a lot emptier on the beach.  The temperature at this point was about 24˚ Celcius and it was about 11am.

Our next stop was about 10km south of Swansea at Spiky Bridge, a convict built construction.  One look at the bridge and it’s not hard to see where the name came from.  We were initially looking at heading down to the beach on the other side of the road but the temperature was getting a bit too warm.

We stopped a few kilometres up the road at Kate’s Berry Farm. Whilst the cakes and jams looked nice (and I think I saw some ice-cream too), there were literally only two punnets of raspberries and one punnet of strawberries to be seen and it appeared to be a tourist trap with a lovely building and outlook so we escaped.  There were lots of other tourists there on a bus that weren’t so lucky.

Nine Mile Beach just North of Swansea was our next stop along the way, and this beach had significantly more drift wood on the shore than Spiky Beach and did not appear to be as friendly for swimming at but was nice all the same.  It would however be nice if some of these beaches had some sun shelter.

Coles Bay (or to be more accurate Swanwick), our destination was basically at the end of Nine Mile Beach, however there is a little stretch of water at the end without a bridge which means that a 60km (or thereabouts) long drive is required to drive around the bay.  The view from our unit at Freycinet Beach Holiday Apartments is absolutely beautiful and it is lovely listening to the waves arriving on the shore.

For lunch we went to the Freycinet Bakery Cafe in Coles Bay and I had a Curried Scallop Pie which was okay (but the scallops, as expected in a pie, were overdone) and Jane had a Seafood chowder that she enjoyed.  I then went to the Bottle Store at the back of the local Bar and bought a couple of local wines to enjoy over the next couple of days.  We also bought a couple of other bits and pieces at the local store for breakfast and snacks and then returned to our apartment to find a Snake on the driveway.  Thankfully the snake moved and we were able to park the car but it was a little scary.  Unsure of the protocol re snakes, we have been reading a few little bits in some of our guidebooks but without the Internet readily on hand it’s a little hard. Apparently there are four Snake varieties in Tasmania and all are venomous so we are keeping our distance! It does look like he might live in our garden though.

Our first morning in Hobart

I woke up early this morning and went out for a walk along the waterfront in Hobart.  It was a nice start to our trip away and a magnificently sunny day.

Hobart is so picturesque and has many buildings that have been there since the settlers arrived in the 1800’s looking for the next penal settlement after Sydney.  

Salamanca Place has a number of cafes, bars and shops and this morning when I ventured out many appeared to be just opening up around 7:30.  I can imagine that this area will be buzzing later and there will be lots of people lingering around.

 

 

I bought some supplies at the Salamanca Store and then found that there was free Wifi available in this area for up to 5MB download per day so quickly checked Twitter, posted a Twitpic and checked out some emails.

I then went back to our Hotel (Zero Davey) and Jane & I ventured out to breakfast at The Timeless Way.  We started with some excellent (build-your-own Latte’s) out the front, but it got a tad too chilly so we ventured out the back to a lovely atrium to eat the mediocre breakfast that was made up for the fact that the Waitress was friendly, the food arrived in a timely manner, and the aforementioned coffee.