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nexus magazine<br />
HOBART, TASMANIA<br />
Overseas Experience Tim Elphick<br />
Why did you choose this particular destination? I wanted a tropical island, and<br />
she wanted somewhere close. Also, we wanted somewhere near to a city, rather<br />
than a resort in the middle of nowhere. This was a compromise – not very close<br />
and not very tropical. (The sign of a good compromise is when no one is completely<br />
happy.) Did you go via a program? No. We booked stuff off the Interwebs.<br />
We used RCI to book the resort – if someone offers you a free show just for having<br />
a quick chat, then run a mile, it’s not worth it. In fact the Wyndham group who<br />
own the resort we stayed in tried the same thing, but we decided that a $25 Coles<br />
voucher was not worth sitting through a 90-minute quick chat. What were the<br />
highlights of your trip? Salamanca market on Saturday mornings is awesome.<br />
It has over 300 stalls and takes over a whole street. Lots of food and drinks and<br />
crafts and interesting locals. A great sampler for the whole island in one place. We<br />
especially loved the chilli ginger beer.<br />
Also, we rode on an old quarry train that used to transport lime up until WWII.<br />
It was very pretty, the driver was informative in the talks at the stops, and it only<br />
slightly rained on us. What are your 'must do' things while at this place? Go up<br />
to the top of Mount Wellington – a steep drive, but the views were great, although<br />
it is windy and cold, so wrap up. (Seriously, you drop 10 degrees from what the<br />
temperature was in town.)<br />
Do one of the winery tours, or drive yourself, and make sure to include Wicked<br />
Cheese in your travels — the cheeses were awesome and a great break from<br />
wine tastings.<br />
Salamanca Street, both for the Saturday market and just for the general nightlife<br />
and great restaurants, many of which offer free WiFi, unlike our hotel.<br />
MONA is a very interesting art gallery, full of weird and interesting modern art<br />
and installations. Just the building itself is a marvel as you travel three stories<br />
underground to get to it. But don’t get excited about the signs for a Max Brenner<br />
chocolate shop or the free WiFi by the fountain, as they don’t exist. What was<br />
something unexpected? We went to a Tasmanian Devil sanctuary, and although<br />
we are not normally a fan of zoo-type places, this was great with mostly open<br />
pens, where you could see the little devils play and eat. I wouldn’t go so far as<br />
to say they are lovable, but they were unusual, and reasonably photogenic. They<br />
also put on an awesome show of local birds, including a cockatiel that would<br />
steal coins from your hand, and also had Tasmanian Quolls which were the cutest<br />
spotted rodents ever. What was the biggest lesson you learnt while travelling<br />
or what would you have done differently in hindsight? When transferring in<br />
Melbourne to the domestic flight, read the terminal numbers carefully, to avoid<br />
stomping off down the road to the wrong terminal, and then having to rush back<br />
again. I did get the equivalent of a wolf whistle from a construction crew on the<br />
way, so I guess it wasn’t all bad.<br />
Oddly enough, take a book or two. Movies were expensive, TV was worse than<br />
in NZ, the WiFi was poor in our hotel, and the Internet seemed hard to get almost<br />
everywhere we went. So we ended up reading a lot, and buying some DVDs to<br />
watch. (The library in Sorell was the best bet for free WiFi.)<br />
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