We flew into Hobart, Tasmania, Thursday evening and after a restful night in our air b&b we began to explore Hobart, the capitol, which is a city of 240,000. The air is considerably cooler than in Adelaide.
In the morning we went to the replica of the Mawson hut, designed by Sir Douglas Mawson, an Antarctic explorer from Australia who made several trips to the Antarctic in the early 20th century.
From there we went to the Tasmanian museum where we saw an exhibit about the aboriginal people of the western part of Tasmania. Their arts are lovely and include basket weaving and jewelry-making. These arts remind me of the Native American arts in the U.S. But sadly, the aboriginal people were decimated by the British and forced off their lands.
We walked along the waterfront where the 48 hour sailboat race from Sydney to Hobart would end in the following days.
That afternoon we drove to New Norfolk, a small town to the north. The roads here are more like those country roads in the US-very winding with only 2 lanes. The countryside is very rural with many farms and vast fields and woods as landscape. It is so peaceful and beautiful but very dry due to extreme heat. In some areas water restrictions are posted.
Barbara's 2019 Travel 