My Hobart...

We return home to Hobart every year  - sometimes two or three times. And it is still always called home... which could perhaps have something to do with our constant moving.
This week my fellow blogger Kerry mentioned she was heading to Tasmania so I sent her some tips. They ran to two pages... poor woman!


Anyway here's my Hobart... you may agree or disagree.


Firstly Kerry is going to MONA and it seems a lot of people are heading to Hobart to do just that. Good. It's amazing. Beyond amazing. The Museum of New and Old Art. The building is amazing in itself. 
My advice? Get a ferry there. Skip the fancy restaurant, it's all fancy froth and foam. If you can afford it stay the night.
Right, to Hobart...


Hobart's waterfront
You will/should (bossy aren't I?) spend most of your Hobart time in Salamanca Place, browsing the galleries shops and drinking coffee, shopping for food and wine. All the following are on Salamanca's main strip:

- Retro Cafe has been there forever and was the first cool cafe (saw Bob Brown there this trip - does he count as at all cool? If not my Dad is always there and he's pretty cool, say hi.)

- Grape is a good bar for a nice glass of Tasmanian vino.

- Maldini is always reliable for a good breakfast, lunch or dinner. 

- Zum Cafe is great for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Just two (or three) doors up the hill from the Retro is Wursthaus Kitchen - a fabulous deli and butcher selling lots of very good things. Some of the same things can be found at a cheaper price but not as beautifully laid out in Fresh mini market back down on Salamanca Place next door to Knopwoods Retreat pub. 

Round the back behind Salamanca Place is the Quarry with a large fountain your kids will love. Here you will find:

Bar Celona - a very popular spot - great for an afternoon drink in the sun.  

Laundromat Cafe - across in the far corner behind the large chess board. 

The Hobart Bookshop is a favourite - excellent selection of Tasmanian books.

Rectango play each Friday evening in an even smaller quarry behind Salamanca just near the Peacock Theatre.  Great relaxed vibe, it's outside with a relaxed crowd, non-intrusive live music with kids dancing, sangria and beer available.

Walk up Kelly's Steps from Salamanca Place to Battery Point - the steps lead to Kelly Street and in turn to Hampden Road - admire the houses (and the front doors). Turn right and you'll hit Jackman and McRoss - fabulous baked goods and oh-so village cool. Turn left and find the new Jam Jar cafe down on the next corner. Wind your way through to the sunny back courtyard and it's a little bit of bookish/Melbourne-ish cool. Free wi-fi and good brownies.

Salamanca Market if you're there on a Saturday is a must (bossy again). There is lots to look at but for me it's mostly about the food.  Seek out scallop pies (opposite Knopwoods in the middle row) and tempura mushrooms (in the middle opposite Aspect Design)... if on holiday the rule is you can have both, twice. 

Kids and men love the Bratwurst sausage stall. Also excellent for hangovers. It's up the other end of the market near the Supreme Court. If you like seeds our friends run an amazing little stall called Southern Harvest Seeds - opposite the steps of the Supreme Court on the far left as you walk up.

We usually bribe the kids with a visit to the boat park at the southern end of the market - looking over the Derwent with lovely trees it's a beautiful spot to rest your feet for a moment or ten.


Hobart City

I used to avoid the CBD on holidays home but there are now some lovely little shops worth checking out and you can do it all on foot in an hour.

Store and Co (my favourite) in Davey Street just up from the corner with Murray Street. Beautifully styled vintagey bits and bobs. I could buy the whole shop.

Ruby's Room - across the road on the opposite corner. Owner Anjanette has a fabulous eye for lovely toys and gifts. Kids of all ages love it. She's also opened a stationery shop right next door.

Love and Clutter - half a block down Murray Street on the right (sweet name and just as sweet inside)

Then traverse town (with your eyes closed) past the site of the burnt down Myer - continue down Murray St, right into Liverpool and then left into Elizabeth Street (the bottom end is the mall which like all malls should be buried under a mass of concrete). Just a block up Elizabeth Street is Ethos a cafe/tapas place which is fabulous. It's a little hidden but so worth finding. It's next to the Tasmanian Map Shop. Further up on the left is the CWA shop - quaint and no not all Tasmanians are so country... or quaint...

Dinner options on the waterfront

Maldini, Rockwall, Zum, Smolt, Monty's in the Salamanca area...

Suwan Thai in the arcade upstairs from the Retro in Salamanca 

One of our favourites is Fish Frenzy over on Elizabeth St Pier (near the ferry departure point for MONA) Casual but excellent fish and chips and scallops/oysters/calamari. Mures is an icon in the fish and chip world. Been there forever... I carried thousands of plates in its Upper Deck Restaurant in my old life.

Dinner in the city
Ethos as above and I haven't even mentioned the buzzy restaurant strip in North Hobart at the top end of Elizabeth Street at the top end of town.

Piccolo for dinner, Annapurna for Indian and the Raincheck Lounge for coffee or dinner.

Sweet Envy by day for cakes - the chef used to work in New York and for Ramsay somewhere in the world. The State Cinema for a flick.

Right then now.... out of Hobart... Driving?

Drive up Mt Wellington on a clear day - the view is astounding and it takes half an hour to get to the top (if that). A few beautiful short mountain walks you can do too.

Richmond (over the Tasman Bridge and halfway out to the airport turn off and it's about a thirty minute drive - history in abundance and charm too.... touristy but nice. Feed the ducks under Richmond Bridge.

Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula - an hour and half from Hobart. Stunning scenery, very do-able day trip and incredible history. Although when we were there last week our three year sighed dramatically and gave us grief about all the 'broken buildings' being 'booorring'....

Boating? 
If you don't fancy the Sydney-Hobart route there are other options...

Take the cruise to Peppermint Bay down the Channel (as we locals call the area around the narrow D'Entrecasteaux Channel that runs between Bruny Island and mainland Tasmania). The restaurant has a new chef and is getting very good press.

Bruny Island Cruises - great eco wildlife tour down to the outside of Bruny where you'll see Seals etc - can be a bit wet and wild. Might just tickle the adventurer in you. The company also runs a similar trip to Tasman Island.

Further afield - Freycinet is of course fabulous but it's not a day trip - stay at the Freycinet Lodge or in Swansea. Walk to Wineglass Bay. Go to the Friendly Beaches. Stop in Swansea and eat and browse. Swim.

I should stop now... that gives you a little bit too much to think about already. 

But take this Design Files walking guide for the city. 

And read this from The Age although I wish every review about Hobart didn't  sound so surprised that it's not some quaint town still serving devonshire teas at every opportunity.

Oh and for those still reading and hoping for some mention of Launceston? 

No idea. Last visited 15 years ago. I am Tasmanian after all.

Holidays...

What a lovely time we've had. The picture just about sums it up... my dear Dad pouring another drop of something rather good to share with family and friends.

We've had two weeks in Tasmania drinking, eating, wining, dining, wandering, chatting and beaching.

There was a bit of rushing of course - there always is at Christmas time. Tasmanians who live abroad  seem to head back every other Christmas rather like homing pigeons returning to the nest. The pull of an island home I suppose.

This time we took five days away from the social whirl at a beach an hour from Hobart... my husband bushwalked a little, the boys ran and ran on the sand and swam in the shallows.  I joined them in the water for quick dips (it's pretty fresh) and also read and played with my Christmas gifts - a fantastic book I finished in three days, my new camera (yippee) and a rather challenging jigsaw.

I'll tell you more about all three this week in between the washing, sorting and gradual return to real life. 2012 here I come.

A very merry...

Season's greetings to one and to all. 

We are surrounded by family in a place we love, looking forward to the end of a rather difficult year.

We have planned a peaceful beachside break to rewind and refresh.

I hope you have plans for the same. See you on the other side. A x

A little Christmas spirit...

I had done zip, nada, nothing to inject any Christmas spirit into our house... until yesterday.

The boys have plenty of the stuff course. They have already met Santa twice -  although the first encounter (at a neighborhood bbq in the local park) rather failed to convince. I think it was the fact that all the kids chasing him for lollies pulled his red pants off.

The guy you see above was a professional and his ho-ho-hoing did the trick for all the kids at my youngest son's new pre-school.

The boys also received their own message from Santa this year via Portable North Pole - it's a little cheesy but you should have seen the looks on their faces when they watched the personal message from The Big Guy. Try it with your true believers.

Unfortunately my second son's ever changing needs are a little hard for Santa to meet. He wanted blue curtains for Christmas and that darn internet Santa has now promised to deliver them.  Although when I asked him ten minutes ago what he'd like he'd changed his mind again. Now he wants a plastic tree and some plastic flowers. And looked at me as though I was an aging lunatic when I asked what exactly those were.

Now that the Christmas spirit has descended (well, our tree is up) I've decided to make Retromummy's rocky road for my son's classmates.

It's the least I could do.

I'm a big fan of the 'least I could do' policy at this time of year.

Flat Stanley...

The keenly observant among you may notice that that large green dip is in fact a volcano and is in fact in Auckland. And yes we do now live in Melbourne.

I am playing blog catch up. 

That is Flat Stanley and this year he came to stay for a week or so with us. He'd been with my old university friend and blogger extraordinaire Jane. Now Jane would not have taken I don't want to think how long to post these pictures... (Actually I know how long - I just checked and it was way back in June. Cripes.)

I love the Flat Stanley project - it's nearly as old as me.

Actually the book is WAY older - written in 1964 about Stanley Lambchop who gets squashed flat by a falling picture and so can post himself to see his friends (I don't want to spoil the ending but in case you're concerned he gets restored to 3D with a bike pump.)

The literacy project sees school kids connect with the world as they send Flat Stanley on from country to country. Of course now you can do it online and as an iPhone app. Our Stan was old school.

We took him to one of our favourite spots in Auckland - Mt Eden.  I wouldn't mind posting myself back there for a stroll.

Stan didn't say much but I think that smile means he liked it. 

Our new door....

Oops. In 2010 I posted 136 thoughts on 136 separate days. In 2011 I have posted just 55 times (now 56).

I think that sums up our year. It all feels a blur. We sold a house, nursed two boys through two broken bones and a decrepit old crone with a slipped disc (me), juggled the administrative nightmare of moving with a husband with a highly stressful job - all first world problems and nothing at all compared to the woes of others I know.... in the middle of it all we reluctantly left New Zealand and gratefully returned to Australia.

I think it's the 'so reluctant to leave' and 'ever so grateful to return' that have me confused. Part of me misses terribly our lovely villa life in Auckland, the other is loving Melbourne with close family close by and the nervous, excited thought that we might actually stay here for good.

I think I have had very little brain space left over this year. As well as a return to part time work I have dived headfirst into the school and pre-school communities - all part of my usual impatient approach to settling. I find it so dull being new and not knowing anyone.

My oldest friends - who I will see over Christmas - have demanded I find my blogging mojo.  We are celebrating with a pre-festive lunch to discuss our New Year resolutions. I can't think much past 'lose three kilos' and 'find a better hairdresser.' My haircut is dire but I know I can do better than that.

Off to dig out the camera and see what you've missed about my last few months.

Oh yes and this is our new Melbourne front door. So like a villa door don't you think?

Looking back and some life lessons...

This is our Auckland garden, mid house sale. It was also the middle of July so while everything is looking uncharacteristically neat it's also clearly in need of sunshine and a warm burst of spring weather.   It had just had a much too vigorous clip and shape when we decided to put it on the market... I'm sure it looks a delight now.

You can see a paint brush on the arm of one of the benches... I think I was probably touching up the walls (again) while no doubt praying that the fence behind wouldn't fall down under the weight of our neighbour's awful towering palm trees - at least not before auction day.

You may remember the garden had more hedging which after much agonising I eventually pulled out.  The old hedges had started to die one by one and removing them was the best thing I could have done.  It really opened up the space and we all used the top level so much more... lots of mini soccer matches and lounging on the bench with a glass of something good as the sun went down.

So what have I learned from my last garden (apart from the fact that I still have a lot more to learn about gardening)?

I don't like too much green on green and would much rather have a colourful, productive space -  more fruit and flowers next time. The pink roses around our new house make me smile each time I catch a glimpse.

I do like the back hedging, a combination of pittosporum (the lighter slightly grey leaved plant) and griselinia - a glossy green hedge plant that thrives in Auckland and would no doubt hate life in dry old Melbourne.

I do love the colour of the brickwork. Before the previous owners painted it was a mess of sandy coloured bricks and sandstone and hideous grey blockwork. The colour is Resene's Fuscous Gray and I will use it again.

I was going to say something clever about the idiocy of paint colour names and then looked up the meaning of fuscous... after two years of sniggering whenever I heard it today I find out it means 'dark brownish grey'.  Another lesson learned.