Part 1 here.

Part 2 here.

Part 3 here.

This is the final part of our Tasmania trip report. It only took 10 months to complete. Writing about it. Not the trip.

Richmond

The drive down from Tamar Valley region to Richmond takes about three hours and is pretty decent drive on motorways and straight roads. It gets a little windy leading up to Richmond but all in all very doable. We stayed at an AirBnB for the first and only time in the trip at Every Man And His Dog Vineyard (my TripAdvisor review is here).

The only thing we wanted to do around Richmond was to head to Bonorong Sanctuary. Travelling around Tasmania it is astounding the amount of roadkill you see. This sanctuary takes in injured animals that can’t make it on the outside. I enjoyed it immensely seeing all the native animals of Tasmania and feeding and petting the chilled out kangaroos. It’s not cheap but it is places like this where you know the entrance fee is helping out with running the place and making sure the animals are well looked after. The guided tours are a bit of a scrummy mess with hordes of people taking them. We decided to ditch that and do our own thing. This was the only time we saw the famous Tasmanian Devil and it was worth the wait.

Richmond itself is a quaint little town with an old bridge and jail. We stopped off for an afternoon snack and had a little walk around. Nothing much to see apart from the bridge but we made use of the ATM in the store there (which was conveniently placed beside the frozen meats section in case you were looking for it).

Hobart

Hobart! Our last port of call in Tasmania. The famous Taste of Tasmania was on and the yachts from the Sydney-Hobart race were in town too. Making it a very busy time of year for Hobart. We donated one kidney and one lung to pay for our hotel there. We visited The Taste every day we were there and although busy it really was well run and very manageable with many drink and food options. Also for the first year, you could just wave your credit card (over a cash point tablet) and that was it you paid. Dangerous but convenient!

Other things we did in Hobart include heading up to the top of Mount Wellington (seeing an echidna along the way) for stunning view of Hobart and the surrounding areas. Must see. We went to Cascade brewery for a quick beer tasting which was awesome too. We took a lunch cruise with Peppermint Bay Lunch Cruises. We paid a little extra to be seated on the top deck which really didn’t bring any significant advantages other than we weren’t down below with a massive and loud family party. Result!

The restaurant they take you to has excellent food and good beer on tap.
We finished off our Tasmania trip with a visit to the famous MONA. You can pay for the cruise up the river to it which was nice and we got some tasty brunch on board. MOMA itself is a bit of a mixed bag. The temporary exhibit which was on while we visited sucked a bit. The rest of the permanent collection is also a mixed bag of shock art with a few real historic pieces interspersed in between. It definitely is a must see while in Hobart but be careful if you are bringing children as a lot of the exhibits are a bit un-child friendly (or child unfriendly).

So that’s it! Tasmania was great. Very much like Ireland with it’s small towns, friendly locals, stunning rural scenery, excellent food and drink, and a little inclement weather thrown in for good measure. Go there.