Off to Tasmania!

Friday May 12th – Today’s big excitement came after class… a trip to Tasmania! Tazzie, as the locals fondly refer to Tasmania, is an island 240km (about 150 miles) south of mainland Australia. We flew from Melbourne to Hobart which is on the south end of Tasmania. As we flew in I looked out the window and saw this tiny looking runway and thought, “That can’t be for us” it looked like a runway for tiny propeller planes. But sure enough we headed right for it. I found out later that the runway is only 2251 meters (barely more than 1 mile) long. We did stop with room to spare, but not much room, let me tell you! Here is a photo I got off the airport web site.





The first thing we did was go to the Cadbury chocolate factory for a tour and, of course, tasting. The tour was much like a tour of the Jelly Belly factory for those of you in the Bay Area. Before being allowed into the factory we had to remove ALL jewelry and check our cameras and bags. Unfortunately this meant we didn’t get any photos inside the factory but I did take this “flattering” shot of us wearing the mandatory hair nets just before we entered the factory. It was an interesting tour and we got to taste some chocolate, got some freebies, and spent too much money on chocolate in the factory store. Seriously, how much chocolate does one person need? In our case about a large shopping bag each!





We ate dinner in Hobart and spent the evening at the B&B we had booked in town. The Lodge on Elizabeth is a manor built by the convicts in 1829.



The Lodge on Elizabeth...




We curled up on the couches next to the fire in the drawing room to read and drink some port. It had been a long day and the warm fire made us both very sleepy. I gave up fighting sleep at about 8:30 pm and headed for the room. Meanwhile Sue fell sound asleep right there on the couch! The next thing she remembered was being woken up by some other guests who came in to enjoy the fire; I think they enjoyed teasing her a bit. It must have been disconcerting to wake up with 4 strangers in the room!