On May 17th we departed Auckland to spend 8 days enjoying Melbourne and Tasmania.

It may have been wet and cold in NZ for that week, but Australia turned on fine Autumn weather for us, with sunny clear days, and crisp evenings -easy to justify a drink or three by a roaring fire.

We had a wonderful time, Mike accompanied as Tour Leader and driver; with Debbie, our nurse -just in case!

Initially, we stayed for 2 nights in Melbourne, a great introduction to this wonderful city (a full Melbourne trip is planned for later this year). A cruise on the Yarra, a tour of the city including lunch in St Kildas (for the cake shops!), a visit to The Shrine of Remembrance, were just a few of the stops. A morning at Queen Victoria Markets just wasn't long enough, however, the end of our third day saw us jetting off to Hobart, Tasmania.

Accommodation in Hobart was at Rydges, a 4 star Hotel built around an original Female Factory. There were five of these women/children prisons in Hobart during its penal colony days.

Our first day took us for a tour of the city and environs, including a snowball fight up Mt Wellington (made famous in Bryce Courtney's book The Potato Factory). We travelled through the Huon Valley, past the Shot Tower and had morning tea in Huonville on the Huon River. The afteroon saw us return to Salamanca for lunch and shopping.

The next day -The Cadbury's Chocolate Factory, situated on its own little island! Hot chocolates made from flakes are to be recommended! A visit to the quaint village of Richmond followed -Scallop pies also a wonderful local treat also.

Our last full day in Tasmania took us to the historic Port Arthur penal site. Here you can wander around the many original buildings. In its day, Port Arthur was considered the harshest of the penal colonies.

Hobart has a wide range of restaurants, and our 4 night stay gave us the opportunity to sample a variety of them.

Saturday morning was spent at the legendary Salamanca Markets before boarding our flight back to Melbourne for our final night before returning home.

See our photo album -click once for a HUGE view then again for 'normal' size.