Today we awake to prepare ourselves for the 3rd domestic flight within Australia, this time to Tasmania!

So how do we steel ourselves? By having a large homemade brunch and watching Grand Designs of course. We watched John, a carpenter, build his own Finnish Log house out of timber. It was lovely (but he was a little crazy).

Finally rousing ourselves to pack and get a move on, we walk with our full compliment of luggage 15 mins to the local train station, and successfully make the interconnecting bus to the airport. Not as easy as Sydney, but stress-free never the less.

Checked in using Tigerair's crazy DIY baggage machine, we grab our coffee of the day in the airport, and enjoy reading a free coffee book that was on our table.

The flight is but just one hour, and from up above Tasmania looks as dry as South Australia, but much hillier. Arriving into the baggage hall, we're greeted by a food sniffer dog, who correctly identifies Brendan as a food quarantine risk. The pear I ate moments before was the offending item! The dog is also so cute!

So first impressions are poor for Hobart. There is NO public transport link into town, and the airport is some 20 mins drive away. There is a shuttle bus, but this is $18 each one way! So... Taxi it is then.

Enjoying the novelty of being dropped right outside our hostel, we check in. It's a funny old place. A very large guest house, that is both well kept, but also a little run down.

Dropping our bags, we head straight out for dinner. Heading towards constitution dock, we pass some replicas of the Mawson huts that the Australian explorer built in the Antarctic. By Constitution dock, we take the recommendation of my guidebook, and have a fish supper at a place called Fish Frenzy. We go for the Tasmanian salmon, of course.

We intended to plan a little in the restaurant, but as we finish eating, a bus load of old Australian dears arrive. They're right up for a chat, so after exchanging some polite pleasantries we make our escape.

By the harbour front, we spot a very elaborately liveried ferry, that we work out to be the shuttle ferry to the infamous MONA gallery that we've heard so much about. We wander into the ferry terminal and decide to buy tickets for tomorrow, and to splurge slightly to go in style - food and drink included.

We walk all round the harbour, even though it's very cold now! We see the old facade of Henry Jones' former jam factory on Hunter Street, next to Victoria Dock. In the 1920s, reputed to be the most modern in the world (after England). We learn how the whole causeway (Hunter Street) was built to reach what was Hunter Island, before the land was reclaimed and there was no obvious island anymore. Apparently, in 1989 they were digging up the road and reminded themselves of this history. How can you forget your history this quickly, especially if you've only been around for 100 years?! Not the first time we've seen this is Australia!

Then feeling very cold, we spot a hotel (pub) that has a real fire. So we enter in order to warm up. (And for Alex to sneak a few overs of Australia vs India on the telly. Sorry Al Bal). Here we plan a bit more for Tas.

As we leave, we spot some fireworks on the distance. Alice on first hearing thinks this is a bomb (!)

Finally, we return home to our (slightly smelly) room and plan some more. Bed.

AF