{"id":648,"date":"2008-01-12T23:51:57","date_gmt":"2008-01-12T23:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/archives\/2008\/01\/12\/around-tasmania\/"},"modified":"2008-01-12T23:51:57","modified_gmt":"2008-01-12T23:51:57","slug":"around-tasmania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/archives\/2008\/01\/12\/around-tasmania\/","title":{"rendered":"Around Tasmania"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The morning after the wedding, not feeling all that great, I wandered from the backpacker hostel up the road to Avis to collect my hire car.  I&#8217;d booked a Hyundai Getz (or something similar) but they didn&#8217;t have any, so instead I got a free upgrade to a Toyota Rav4.  This had the advantage that I could sleep in the car (folding down the back seats) and the disadvantage of using quite a bit more petrol.  The only other problem was the automatic gearbox, I don&#8217;t like having to guess when the car is going to decide to change gear for me.<\/p>\n<p>My first destination was a bit of getting used to the car, driving up Mount Wellington above Hobart.  It&#8217;s a popular spot to get a view over the city and also houses a few communications towers.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/MountWellingtonSummit_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/MountWellingtonSummit_t.jpg\" title=\"The summit of Mount Wellington, above Hobart.\" alt=\"The peak of a mountain, a large communications mast rises behind it.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/HobartFromMountWellington_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/HobartFromMountWellington_t.jpg\" title=\"Hobart from the top of Mount Wellington.\" alt=\"Looking down from a mountain onto a city built along the side of a bay.  A bridge crosses at a narrow point and hills rise on the far side.\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After that I started on my tour, taking in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.portarthur.org.au\/\">Port Arthur Historic Site<\/a>, a walk to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.parks.tas.gov.au\/natparks\/tasman\/activities.html#8\">Cape Hauy<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.parks.tas.gov.au\/natparks\/freycinet\/activities.html#6\">Wineglass Bay<\/a> (camping free at Friendly Beaches), Devonport (not very exciting), <a href=\"http:\/\/www.parks.tas.gov.au\/natparks\/cradle\/activities.html\">Cradle Mountain National Park<\/a> and back to Hobart.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/WineglassBay1_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/WineglassBay1_t.jpg\" title=\"Wineglass Bay, Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania.\" alt=\"A beautiful bay surrounded by high, tree-covered headlands.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/WallabyWineglassBay1_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/WallabyWineglassBay1_t.jpg\" title=\"Wallaby (?) at Wineglass Bay, Tasmania.\" alt=\"A wallaby (or something like one) sits on a rock in front of trees.\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/DoveLakeAndCradleMountain_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/DoveLakeAndCradleMountain_t.jpg\" title=\"Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain, Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania.\" alt=\"Craggy mountains rise behind a lake.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/DoveLake_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/DoveLake_t.jpg\" title=\"Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania.\" alt=\"A lake surrounded by mountains.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/CradleMountainClouds_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/CradleMountainClouds_t.jpg\" title=\"Cradle Mountain as the cloud rolls in, Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania.\" alt=\"Mountains rising behind a lake are hidden by cloud.\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI was glad I turned back from a longer walk before that cloud and rain rolled in at Cradle Mountain.<\/p>\n<p>Port Arthur is an interesting place, originally an experiment in new methods of treating criminals following the revolutionary idea that it might be possible to reform them.  Most of the buildings are now ruins after years of bushfires, neglect and deliberate attempts to hide Tasmania&#8217;s &#8216;shameful&#8217; past.  It&#8217;s also somewhat notorious after the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Port_Arthur_massacre_%28Australia%29\">massacre<\/a> in 1996.  I noticed that none of the official information mentioned the shooter&#8217;s name, I wonder if this is a deliberate policy?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/PortArthur\/PortArthurPenitentiary_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/PortArthur\/PortArthurPenitentiary_t.jpg\" title=\"The Penitentiary at Port Arthur Historial Site, Tasmania.\" alt=\"A large ruined stone building seen across a lawn.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/PortArthur\/InsidePenitentiary_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/PortArthur\/InsidePenitentiary_t.jpg\" title=\"Inside the Penitentiary at Port Arthur Historial Site, Tasmania.\" alt=\"View from inside a ruined stone building over well-kept lawns and other buildings in various states of repair.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/PortArthur\/PortArthurMemorial_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/PortArthur\/PortArthurMemorial_t.jpg\" title=\"The Massacre Memorial at Port Arthur Historial Site, Tasmania.\" alt=\"The shell of a building is seen across a reflecting pond.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/PortArthur\/PortArthur2_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Australia\/Tasmania\/PortArthur\/PortArthur2_t.jpg\" title=\"Port Arthur Historial Site, Tasmania.\" alt=\"A group of stone buildings set in what appears to be parkland are seen from a bay.\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The morning after the wedding, not feeling all that great, I wandered from the backpacker hostel up the road to Avis to collect my hire car. I&#8217;d booked a Hyundai Getz (or something similar) but they didn&#8217;t have any, so instead I got a free upgrade to a Toyota Rav4. This had the advantage that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,25,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia","category-rtw","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}