On Thursday 28th February we flew to Hobart. Unfortunately the weather was not too kind to us and we had a damp and chilly start. However, we took ourselves on a walking tour of the city ending up with fish and chips from one of the floating fish vendors in the docks area. Friday's weather was no better but we drove to Port Arthur and spent the day exploring the penal settlement there and learnt about the discipline, punishment and education methods pioneered here which have formed the basis of today's Australian adult and juvenile prisons. Our plans to drive up the east coast on Saturday changed due to the wet weather and we headed inland driving through some interesting little towns boasting buildings constructed in the 1800s usually using convict labour. We visited the site of a "Female Factory" which was a prison for women and by contrast a 19th century Homestead which was a Georgian mansion, much like an English stately home! We ended the day doing what we like best - a walk in the bush. The weather forecast was right and Sunday was warm and sunny and so our day in Cradle Mountain National Park was wonderful. We did some walking and saw some wildlife - one tiger snake, three wombats, several wallabies and one echidna. We spent over an hour out in the dark with our torches looking for a Tasmanian Devil but only found more wallabies!! On Monday we headed north to the coast and had an interesting day looking for duck-billed platypus in Burnie and looking at aboriginal carvings in Devonport, without much success. We did manage to taste some good wines in the Tamar Valley and enjoy a walk on Tamar Island just north of Launceston. On our final day in Tasmania we decided to head back to the east to enjoy the beautiful coastline in the sunshine. We spent our final night in Richmond which has some of the oldest buildings in Australia and is probably the closest to an English village we have seen here. Our room was in the stable block of the old pub - much more luxurious than it sounds! Next stop Singapore!