We are falling in love with Hobart!

We first visited Hobart on a 2 week stay in 2022 and we loved our trip.  We loved it so much we cruised back there in April this year and we now have a 4 day weekend planned in just a months time.  

This time it will be winter so we are excited to see just how cold it is down that end of the country and how the place changes with the seasons.

I thought I would share what we are planning to get up to while we are there for this short visit (not as short as our last visit - 1 day in Hobart and 1 day in Port Arthur).

Day 1 (Friday)

We arrive at 10am and head to pick up our hire car at 11.

Lunch at Wicked Cheese and then onto Richmond (if time permits).

An afternoon Distillery tasting and tour at Spring Bay Distillery, Cambridge (this is perfect for us because it covers both gin and whiskey) 2pm.

Check in to our accommodation at 4pm (we are staying at Wyndham Seven Mile Beach).

Dinner at Barilla Bay Oysters at 6.30pm.  

Day 2 (Saturday)

8.30am Salamanca Markets, then onto Willie Smiths artisan markets.

Lunch at Willie Smiths Appleshed 1pm.

A drive up Mount Wellington (this will be weather dependent).

Dinner at Rockwall in Hobart.  This will be an off season 4 course set menu of local Tasmanian produce.

Day 3 (Sunday)

Richmond Bakery for breakfast

Ross (we will probably buy a vanilla slice which the town is well known for)

Oatlands - to complete the walking trail around the town and visit the Callington Mill Distillery (again, whiskey and gin).  Lunch at the pub if we are not too full!

Richmond - the pub for dinner (again if we are hungry)

Day 4 (Monday)

We don't have time for much today so we will head to The Margate Train for their delicious breakfast and maybe a stop for a walk around Hobart waterfront.

12pm Drop our car back 

2pm is our flight home.

This trip we are visiting some old favourite places but also trying some new ones.  I'm hoping that my itinerary leaves a little time to stop at unexpected finds along the way but we will see.  I'll let you know all about our trip when we return!

Where I travelled in 2023 - my year in review

Every year I make a calendar for the following year of our adventures from the past twelve months.  I am way behind this year. I only completed it today and it got me reminiscing about the great times we've had over the past 365 days and all the trips we have experienced, both big and small.  So I thought I would do a recap of our year.

In January, Emma and I headed to Melbourne for 5 nights for a girls trip.  Neither of us had been to Melbourne before so we were very keen and our time there did not disappoint.  In true Melbourne style we were in our winter woollies for the first few days before switching to heatwave conditions for the last couple.  We shopped, ate and visited all the touristy sites.  Below is a list of our hi-lights.

• Seeing the penguins at Philip Island
• Getting to see Harry Potter and The Cursed Child 
• Queen Victoria Markets
• Sky Deck
• The many DFO's around the city
• Ice Bar
• The Laneways
• The Myer Christmas windows
• The State Library
• The Zoo
• Sealife

We visited Tallebudgera Tourist Park for our annual Easter holiday.  This year was a little different as we didn't have our caravan and we had to hire one.  

This is always a great 10 days away with friends we have known for years and it's one of those nostalgic trips that has so many memories attached.

My hi lights for our camping trip were

• Bingo with the girls
• Beach afternoons
• Harbour Town shopping day
• Barefoot bowls 
• Burleigh Mountain walks

I manage to tick off a bucket list item this year when we headed to Bargara, Bundaberg to see turtles hatching and making their way to the ocean.  This experience was just amazing!  We loved it so much that we headed back to Mon Repos this week to see the other side of the process - the turtle laying her eggs.  While we were in Bundaberg we did so many other things too!  It is well worth the visit. 

 Our trip hi lights were

• The turtles (either laying or hatching, but the hatching was my absolute hi light)
• The Kalki Moon Distillery
• The Bundaberg Rum Distillery (even though we are not rum drinkers, we liked this!)
• The Bundaberg soft drink tour
• The Hummock Lookout
• The Lavender farm
• Elliot Heads
• The Windmill Cafe

Fiji has always been a favourite destination of ours, especially when our kids were young so this year, not having been there for quite a while we decided to head back to experience the country as a couple rather than a family.  

We are really familiar with lots that Fiji has to offer so we chose a couple of favourite places to visit for our trip and had resort days too.

Here are our hi lights

• Malamala Island
• Tivua Island
• The Sleeping Giant (Fiji's Botanic Gardens)
• The Westin Spa
• Port Denarau
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

We squeezed in 3 weekend trips to Brisbane this year.  We visited the Mount Cootha Botanic Gardens (which was a first time for me), we rode the city cat, drank at Felons and visited the Story Bridge Hotel.  We went to the casino and ate at Fat Noodle.  

Lastly, I really try to visit one place I have never been each year.  I was able to scrape that in this year and spend the weekend away with my girlfriends at Byron Bay.  We had a short two days but we filled it in with plenty of fun.

My hi lights were

• The Byron Bay lighthouse
• The Cape Byron Distillery (Gin)
• Stone and Wood
• Bangalow Town

And that was 2023 for travel for the Barro's.  We have learned since COVID that we have some great spots around us that are great to explore and travel to and while we used to go overseas for all our holidays we've found that we don't have to and we love seeing our country too!

So what's on the cards for 2024?  I have 3 cruises to look forward to.  Another girls trip with Emma and we have an overseas trip to Borneo booked.  It's going to be an exciting year for seeing new places and revisiting old, familiar places too.