Hobart, Tasmania

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The seas were mostly calm last night. For some reason, we were both bothered by a brief rough spell, but then it passed. We woke up around 7am as we were heading north instead of south, entering the harbor to reach Hobart. It was a bit disorienting since we saw sunset facing west off our balcony last night and this morning we had the rising sun.

We went upstairs to Terrace for breakfast after the ship had docked on the starboard side. We are at Macquarie Dock No. 2 which is right at the foot of the center of town. We saw an ambulance arrive this morning and it took the woman who had fallen near us at Portland the other day. She had been back onboard with a wheelchair instead of her walker prior to being removed on a stretcher today. No idea what is going on with her but they are having a rough trip and we wish them the best.

We needed to be off the ship by 10am to effect our plans here in Hobart. Clay was impatient and we left a little after 9am. We picked up a local brochure/map in the cruise terminal and wandered the shopping stalls they had in there. Even with some side shopping trips, we were at the Franklin Square N bus stop at 9:45am and caught a 446 bus immediately. Clay went on and asked the driver if she was going to go to Cascades Brewery since the front didn't say Fern Tree which was what we thought it was supposed to say. She said yes she was and to come aboard. We paid here $3.30 AUD pp and she made change from a $10.

It was only about a 10 minute bus ride but it was almost all uphill. There was no missing the brewery. It was sitting prominently on the hillside with the organ pipes geological formation above it on Mt. Wellington. The bus driver still kindly pointed out both the Cascades Female Factory and the Cascades Brewery as she stopped to drop us off. We had looked at doing a brewery tour here, but Clay was more interested in tasting beer than touring another brewery. The brewery tour cost more than a paddle of 4-7 oz.. beers so that made our decision. The restaurant at the Visitor Centre was open from 10am. It turned out that this morning as late as 11am they were only serving a snack menu which was just as well since we weren't really that hungry. We ordered fries and the scones. Both were good and massive servings. We ate less than half the fries and I ate 3/4 of the scones since Clay filled up on beer and fries.. The scones with cream and jam were amazing. Huge and sweet and light and fluffy. Much better than at the hotel tea the other day. Who knew? We walked through the gardens around the Visitor Center as we waited for 11am.

We headed out for the Hobart Rivulet Trail after we left the brewery. We asked for directions at the bar before we left and still got off track. Signage was non-existent at the top of the trail and the map was vague. We thought the guy at the bar should have mentioned that we had to walk across the dam at the bottom of the Cascades Gardens. We didn't at first, but that meant that we got to see a bunch of Tasmanian bunnies. We stopped at the Female Factory which was more of an archaeological site than a historic building. But, we opted for the $5 self-guided admission rather than a guided tour or dramatic tour. Sometimes history needs more than just seeing a thing. It was our choice. We had a long walk ahead. Depending on the source, the trail was 2.7 or 3 km. From the ship to the brewery, we think it was more like 4 or 5 km. So it was another 5K+ day. Clay had a watch shop he wanted to visit downtown. We found it and it was very little as the name described and he refused to go in. We walked through a couple of shopping malls/arcades and found nothing. I got the idea to shop for yarn from a shop listed in the brochure we picked up so we walked to Salamanca Place. It turned out that was the straw that broke me. I guess it was just too much. The tremor went wild and I just melted down and couldn't function. We made it back and I stripped off my sweaty clothes and laid down and went to sleep. The tremor stayed out of control until dinner. It is better now, but I need to remember this and that I can't just push through fatigue anymore.

We sailed on time without any announcements from Julie or the captain. We turned out of the harbor area back north in the Tasman Sea as we finished dinner in Terrace. You can tell we are at sea, but it is not too rough right now. Hopefully, it will stay calm. Tomorrow is our final sea day. The end really is in sight. We got our disembarkation instruction letter and luggage tags today. We're ready to move on.

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