Tasmania

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Tasmania - day 1
Arrived Friday afternoon and got a cab to our accommodation in North Hobart, Rydges'. It's a little out of town but realized a couple of the other AFFers were also staying there. We decided to head off into Hobart to 'Dark Mofo', an annual arts festival of local art, food and wine. We had no idea this was on but loads of people, outdoor open fires, music and a few drink. A great night out.
Saturday am

A very cool climate alpine region so lots of changing weather - one minute the sky was blue then a few minutes later it was cold and drizzly.

Drove down to the visitor centre and purchased a National parks pass then took the free shuttle bus about 20 minutes down the road to Dove Lake, the spot where all those well known Cradle Mountain photos are taken!! Unfortuately for us, although not raining, there was heavy mist, blustery winds and somevery light drizzle, but alas, no Cradle Mountain to be seen. Such is life! We've also been to the Great Wall of China and seen only what was 50 ft in front of us as well!

Made it! Got the 8.40am flight out of Melbourne, arrived in Launceston, collected the hire car and headed up to the Tamar Valley where we were staying.

Tamar Valley Retreat is located right on the Tamar River and has 2 lovely cottages, fully self contained of course. It was unfortunate that we only had the one night here due to our delays but once we had settled in we were back in the car and off!

Followed the touristy route, stopped at brady's lookout, did some wine tasting (and bought a bottle of Pinot Noir) at Tamar Valley Vineyard. The region is reknowned for it's Pinot Noir. The vines are all brown branches at the moment as it's mid winter and cold.

Early morning start for our flight to Melbourne, a wait in Melbourne then on to Launceston.

Oops - didn't quite turn out that way - flew to Launceston alright but the airport was fogged in so aircraft came straight back to Melbourne.

We had already waited around for that flight for some 3 hours but then had another 5 hour wait for our designated flight after returning to Melbourne. Bummer!

Waited 3 hours till about 7pm then decided it was all too hard so we made arrangements to stay at the Holiday Inn at the Airport overnight and catch the flight to Tasmania in the morning.