Hobart Arrival

This morning it was time to pack up and leave Melbourne for the next part of the adventure. Harry didn't want to leave the Trams & trains but was also excited about going on the SkyBus again.

Once we were at Tullermarine, Harry rang Grandma to make sure she was all ready to get on her flight from Sydney. I think he was pretty excited about seeing her as well. With all things in place we waited for our flight.

Finally we were away.

See you next time Melbourne! Tazzie here we come!
We had clear skies for the entire flight. We could see the north east part of the island and it looked very parched. Tasmania, like most of Australia, has been fighting droughts for the last few years.

We landed on the very short Hobart runway just before midday. Harry was first to stand on Tasmania as was his want.

Harry & Grandma were very please to see each other after not seeing each other for ages.

We picked up the hire car (the black Rav4 above) at the airport and headed into Hobart. 

It was lunchtime so we found a fish & chip shop on a house boat at the Hobart Waterfront.

We settled into to our overnight apartment just outside the CBD.

 We had enough time after dinner to go back and have a better explore around the Hobart waterfront.

 
 ..and take some silly tourist shots.

We like Tazzie already!
Tomorrow we are on the road to the east coast.

Melbourne Zoo

This morning we boarded a tram to the Melbourne Zoo. We were there just on opening and had the place to ourselves for a little while at least.

We went into the platypus house early while it was still light in the enclosure. We were very lucky to see one of these unique monotremes so active in well let conditions. It was busy chasing around the couple of yabbies that had survived from yesterday and searching for other tasty treats.

The industrious coatis are always entertaining. The troupe in Melbourne have quite big living area with lots to keep them interested.

This is Mischka the snow leopard. The keepers coaxed her out of her den to do some training. Snow leopards are captivating creatures and to see Mischka interacting with the keepers was quite special.

Harry's favourite was the tiger. She put on a show for us casually swimming the length of her lake. What a show off! Who said the big cats are lazy lay abouts? (Me probably).

We also saw....

 Mountain Gorillas,

Sea lions,

Butterflies,

Red pandas, and many more.
One of the big surprises of the day was the Zoo bakery. As it turns out, there is a proper bakery in the middle of the zoo where they make their baked goods from scratch. So you can get fresh rolls, pastries, sausage rolls & pies. I was very impressed with the pie I had for lunch and it was a huge leap from the expected disappointment of most food outlets in zoos & similar public places.

Before we left the zoo, we went back to see Mischka doing what cats do best....

Lazing around.

This afternoon we went to the tram museum just outside the inner city. Not surprisingly, it was all about trams, from the very old to the relatively new. Harry, in particular, had a great time.

 

 Another box ticked and another day done.

Docklands

This afternoon we explored Docklands which is a short tram ride from our apartment.

We started at The District precinct where we found a place to have some really nice fish (King George whiting) & chips in the shadow of the Melbourne Star (below).

We continued to explore Docklands following the waterfront where there are water craft of varying sizes and uses.

Some very large and very expensive super yachts were there for the Australian Tennis open.

The Steve Irwin is an ex-navy ship used by Sea Shepard to disrupt the Japanese whaling fleets. It is now retired.

Most of the smaller boats were still pretty impressive for the most part. By late afternoon, Harry was exhausted so we caught a tram back to Collins st. where Harry could chill out watching trams while we organized dinner. Once Harry was asleep in bed I returned to Docklands with my camera.

As always, the soft light at the end of the day changes the character of the environment.

As the sunset transitioned into night, the surroundings changed again with the lights dominating the lense.

The Melbourne Star came to live with an ever changing, spinning light show.