The first night at Hobart turned out to be a disaster. I booked three nights at a B&B in the city for us. I usually like to stay in B&B because most of them have style and characters. This one was no exception. However, in my opinion, it really needs some serious maintenance. We could see cracks everywhere, on the walls and ceilings. It was impossible to close the windows properly. We couldn’t get any sleep because the pedestrian crossing walk signal alert was beeping every five minutes outside of the window. We had to move out and find a new place to stay. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to get any rest at all. (Of course, the owner refused to refund us for the two nights we have paid!).

Anyway, that changed our plan on the second day. Because I didn’t get much sleep, we decided that we should just go to some places close by without too much driving. We cancelled our trip to Mt Field National Park. After breakfast, we booked another place for the night. Then, we set off to Mt Wellington Park.

Mt Wellington Park

Although Mt Wellington Park is not a national park, but it still has a lot to offer. It’s very close to the city of Hobart, about 30 mins drive. Free of entry. In a sunny day, you can have a clear view of the city. The mountain view is spectacular as we heard. You can do bush walking, rock climbing, bike riding, 4WD and more. However, the weather wasn’t very good that day. Luckily, we did stopped in the middle of the way up to have a sneak peek of the view.

By the time when we reached the Pinnacle Area, the weather was foggy. It started to rain shortly after. The pinnacle area is 1270 meters above the sea level. The temperature is usually at least 8°C lower than Hobart. It was cold and windy. So if you ever go there, remember to take a jacket to keep you warm.

When we walked around in the area, we could see many Tasmanian native plants there that I have no idea what their names are. The park is a heaven to native plants, fauna, birds and ground animals.

 

Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens 

The weather cleared up in the afternoon. We made our way to Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. It’s about 2 km away from the Hobart CBD. The garden was established in 1818, and it has an extensive collection of gardens, plants, trees, and big variety of Tasmanian plants. It’s again free of entry, but $1 or $2  donation is expected I think.

The botanical garden is huge, about 14 hectares. We wandered around the garden for hours. There were just so much to see, Lily pond, Cactus House, Japanese garden, vegetable gardens, herb garden, and so on. My mom loved there. She couldn’t stop taking photos. Me neither!

We had a really wonderful afternoon. It was relaxing and peaceful. After a sleepless night, this was what we needed for the day.  It looked like the garden is not only popular among tourists but also locals. There were a lot of moms with kids. It’s definitely a perfect place for picnic. There are restaurant and cafe available as well. We had coffee there, just sat in the sun and watched the kids playing, laughing and crying…