Day Five - 26 December 2010 - Boxing Day in Hobart

Weather - Cloudy with showers, cold 14°C (snowing atop Mt Wellington!)

Being the one port I was most eager to visit, we left the curtains pulled right back in anticipation of the 5.40 sunrise, and we were woken by the pre-dawn at 5.25!!!  So we quickly showered and dressed to enjoy the ship sailing up the Derwent River.  For this morning we had decided to order Room Service Breakfast.   It arrived on the dot of 6.30am, and was very nice.   We just ordered of the normal breakfast menu, and then and there decided that doing the Ultimate Balcony Breakfast on our Milford Sound morning was a waste.  We will just order sufficient for four, plus have a bottle of Asti Spurmante delivered.  A full bottle of bubbles for the same cost as two UBB which has food we would never eat for breakfast.

The cruise up the river was wonderful, slow, quiet and mystic in the early morning sun, as if we were silently slipping into port!  

Which we were, as we were an hour early, but we did have the Silver Shadow, snapping at our heels to get into port also.  

Hobart wharf was very basic, but that is all that we need - people don’t really care what it is like, as long as it is dry and disembarking is quick.   We had the ‘flash’ shed while the Silver Shadow has two marquee tents to transit through!!!   (See white marquee above)

Once ashore we waited for my cousin Meg and husband Paul to met us.  That didn’t go quite so well, but we managed to find a phone box, some coins and ring the house and leave a message to say where we were waiting.  There was confusion over our arrival time, and as the ship had slipped in early they had not seen it arrive!! 

Once we were met, we went to the Salamanca Markets, which are normally open only on Saturdays, but as Saturday was Christmas Day it had been moved to Boxing Day.  The weather was not so kind - it was very cold, and wet.  Some fellow cruisers reported that it had indeed snowed on the top of Mt Wellington!!!   

     We wandered around the markets, and Meg took us to a ‘wall of remembrance’ where the old cemetery has been, and showed us the tomb stone of my ancestor Thomas Lempriere and his wife Harriet the latter who died aged 80 in 1827.  Discussing family history information was the main topic and was the wonderful history and buildings of Hobart.  

Meg & Paul took us up to the Royal Hobart Botanical Gardens for lunch which had a wonderful vista.  Paul had designed the building extension, so that was interesting.

After lunch it was decided that rather than going out to Richmond, we would go to Meg & Paul’s home, as we were keen to see it as he is a kiwi and it was his architecture from the 1970’s, and made of ‘raw’ materials.   It was very interesting, with fantastic views of the river amongst trees.  Julie and Dave enjoyed discussing architecture with Paul.

It was sad we had such little time really, as we had to be onboard by 5-30, and not wanting any chance of missing the ship we returned at 5pm.

 For Sailaway we went to promenade on deck 15 to watch us pull out and sail down the Derwent.  It was definitely chilling on deck, but Pete got some wonderful photos.  We tried to spot Meg & Paul’s house but it was really difficult as the sun was coming from the hill above their suburb.   






Once we had reached the heads we headed for the Horizon Court for a casual dinner.

Julie and Dave headed for the Explorers Lounge for the Jazz Band, but having been up since the wee hours we headed for bed!  I was out for the count by 8.30pm!