Well, this is it! My final blog from Tasmania. I won't be blogging tomorrow night as we will be relaxing on the Spirit heading back to the main land.

It really was a lovely drive from Tarooma back into Hobart. We headed to Salamanca again and lo and behold we stopped off at the Faery Cave. Just in time for Saffron to make "faery biscuits" - or in other words extra icing on Tic-Toc biscuits with jelly beans and other sugary sweets..... Seriously, my teeth hurt just looking at them...... LOL Saffron also had to get something special for her cousin Matthew - faery stickers to go on his hat. Once that was accomplished, and it was difficult as there were hundreds of stickers to choose from. We took a stroll along the waterfront. Had a look at a couple of old schooners (boats not beers) docked there before heading to the Botanical Gardens.

The gardens were huge - 14 hectares or 34.6 acres. The lady at the front gate was informative but saddened that she was unable to provide us with a map as they had run out.

We opted to go straight to the kiosk for a bite to eat.... It was a bit a disappointing. They were obviously trying to make something that was very basic into something it is not. There were aisles of Tasmanian produce (priced ridiculously above cellar doors), one very small and cramped line that you went through to buy and retreat from.

Here's the kicker - for 2 x stale bordering on cold hot dogs, 1 x luke warm chicken/mushroom pie and 3 drinks it cost us $48.00....

We tolerated about 3 bites of lunch then decided that we were full and "contented"....... NOT, but there was no way any of us could finish.

The gift shop was good - it has a huge range of products from all areas of Tassie and quite an extensive seed range for the novice gardener.

Then surprise of surprises, the gift shop have maps of the gardens..... We didn't have the heart to go back and tell the lady at the front gate - it would have crushed her I am sure..... LOL

The walk around the gardens was a wonderful way to end our stay in Hobart. The array of flowers and colours was amazing. Saffron loved cllimbing through the trees and exploring the Faery Steps before venturing through the fernery.

All in all the visit was brilliant and if we weren't so "broken" (knees and backs) we could have spent hours there. We did not get to see over 2/3 of the gardens, but as a glass of wine and packing were calling our names, we begrudgingly bid adieu to the beautiful gardens and headed back to our cabin.