Hot, hot, hot in old Hobart town

Our first glance of Hobart (the City almost all our Melbourne friends want to move to...) was when we drove through, over the impressive bridge, and down South to a bush camp next to the town of Dover. We camped there for a few nights and visited Hastings thermal pools (nice but not hot enough!) and Hastings caves (totally cool). We also drove up to the Tahune Forest Reserve and Airwalk - where Bill scared Kate silly by jumping up and down on the swing bridge over a raging river. Beautiful forest walks. Sad moment for Zara when she dropped her much-loved mood ring through the airwalk and watched it fall deep into the forest below. She was comforted by the promise of buying a new one at the Salamanca markets in Hobart (but of course when we asked around, the stallholders laughed at us and told us they hadn't set eyes on a mood ring since the early nineties - fair point, but about time for a comeback, we reckon!).

Then finally, to Hobart! We camped at a caravan park about 20 minutes from the city (or 40 minutes if we followed our GPS which doesn't seem to have yet noted the building of the Tasman Bridge in ) where we felt embraced by many fellow campers (particularly in the kitchen) who regaled us with advice and tips while we ate our chickpea soup in the camp kitchen. And then it got hot! 39 degrees would you believe it. We spent the saturday walking around the Salamanca markets (highlight: ginger beer with added chilli!) then stumbled across the Hobart World Party - a celebration of Hobart's multicultural community. The Sudanese and Bhutanese dancing and singing was totally cool, but the 5 Aussie chicks doing endless Zumba dances left us all cold. Tapas for dinner and then icecreams on the grass at Salamanca Place. Not bad.

Next day we were excited to catch up with friends, Julia, Michael, Aja, Mimi and Lexi, who we fished and dined with in Coles Bay. Coffee and cake at their beautiful South Hobart home, then an afternoon at the beach, before heading back to their place for a BBQ. We had such a lovely day. Great company, great food, lovely setting. Feels like we've been friends for ages. We stayed at their place until past 11pm (sorry guys, hope the next morning was ok!) and were sad to say goodbye. One of the highlights of the trip so far.

Next day, Mona (or the poo museum as the kids have been calling it). Pretty cool. Kids definitely spent more time fiddling at their modified Ipod interactive information thingys than looking at the Art. But I guess that's ok.

Hobart was pretty cool, but we were ready to get back to the bush!