Tassie in 3 days - Part 2

Port Arthur Convict Settlement
Mr. H surprised me with his announcement that we were going to Port Arthur Convict Settlement. After our 3 hour eco-cruise (read about it here), I was ready to call it a day and wanted to start our 90 minute drive back to Hobart. Before I could protest, we had arrived at Port Arthur Convict Settlement site. Turns out it was only 100m away from the cruise operator's office.

It was about 6:15pm when we arrived. Fortunately for us, it does not close at 5:00pm during summer months. We purchased our entry tickets (it was cheaper since some of the services and tours were done for the day). The lady at the counter was most helpful - she marked our map for sites that close by 7:00pm and advised us to head there first. These are house museums. Other buildings are open until closing time.

We began our tour from Visitor Centre itself. As you enter the exhibit, you are given a "convict card". From then on, you need to follow the trail of your convict to find out what happens to him/her. Once done, we headed straight to Commandment's House because this was one of the 4 house museums that close by 7:00pm. Our strategy was to head to the house museums first and then visit the other buildings at leisure. Anyway to get there, we had to walk towards The Penitentiary. The view was just mesmerizing. One could just sit there and watch the world go by.

Such a perfect picture: Mason Cove on the left, The Penitentiary on the right and green grass in the middle. The weather was awesome too as you can see, blue skies and white clouds.

The Penitentiary is an "open" building today. The building has no roof. While most parts of the building are not accessible, there is a viewing platform that allows you view inside.

Another view of Mason Cove - probably zoomed in from Law Courts building.

Looking down from Senior Military Officer's Quarters.

Wooden bridge that connects one area to another.

It's quite a walk to get from one building to the other - better wear your most comfortable footwear as you will be walking uphill, downhill, on grass and gravel path. I suppose the place would be crowded during the day. We knew we were not the only ones as we bumped into an elderly couple and a family of 4 during our visit.

What's left of the Hospital - only two walls. The other parts of the building were damaged in two bush fires that took place in 1895 and 1897. Guess it was never rebuilt.

Hospital in the background.

We then made our way to Trentham, another house museum that close at 7:00pm. It is a house that belonged to the Trenthams. The house and garden has been restored and the public are allowed to wander through and have a glimpse of how life was back then.

Soldiers' Memorial Avenue - these trees are close to a 100 years old. Planted in 1918 to commemorate the men from this area who fought in the Great War, some of the trees were felled as part of the renewal project. Other trees although healthy, will be removed and replanted over the next 10 years.

The Separate Prison is located beside Soldiers' Memorial Avenue. Be sure to stop there. I do not have pictures of it, yet I can still remember the structure and layout of this building. Separate Prison was built to introduce a new method of punishment - through isolation and contemplation (as oppose to physical punishment). Those days, prisoners were placed in their cell for 23 hours a day. 1 hour was for exercise and even then within confines of a wall.They are not allowed to speak to anyone, even the guards. Today when visitors enter the building, we are asked to do the same - no talking, no communicating even in sign language to one another.

Walking through the building or walking by others to read materials on display in silence certainly brings your experience to another level. It was quite a challenge! At one point,it got too eerie as even the littlest of sound was echoed through the empty halls (it did not help that it was 7:00pm and getting dark inside). 

We then walked to The Church. Along the way, we made quick stops at Visiting Magistrate's House, Roman Catholic Chaplain's House, Junior Medical Officer's House, Accountant's House and Parsonage. We briefly entered Junior Medical Officer's house as it was still open when we arrived. Parsonage however was closed to visitors by the time we arrived.

Convict Church was destroyed in a fire and has undergone repeated conservation work. This is how it looks today. Inside part of the building are 7 bells. There is suppose to be an 8th bell that is still missing and have not been found.

Time capsule buried here on 2/10/1977. To open on 2/10/2077.

Making our way back to Visitor Centre, we walked through Government Gardens. This area was meant to be a place to go to be away from the unwanted presence of convicts (at that time of course). Today is it a beautiful spot to sit and enjoy the view.

Water fountain in Government Gardens.

If you are looking for added adventure, sign up for the nightly Ghost Tour. Places are limited and you need to book early. 

Visitors would need to leave the grounds by 8:30pm. It might be possible to cover every area one day if you breeze your way through. It is quite impossible to do so in 2 hours. We did not cover at least 8 attractions which included Memorial Garden, The Isle of Dead and Point Puer Boys' Prison. So it is great to know that the day passes are valid for 2 days. This means you can spend the night in Port Arthur or even Eagleneck's Historic site which is 30 minutes away and come back the next day to carry on from where you left off. In our case, after a quick dinner at Port Cafe, we made the 90 minute drive back to Hobart.

To be continued.. 

Click on the quick links to read about the other places we covered on our 3 day Tassie adventure: Day 1 - Part 1 & part 2, Day 2 - Part 3 & part 4, Day 3 - Part 5 & final

Tassie in 3 days - Part 1

Three days in Tassie? Is that even enough to see one part of Tasmania? Due to time constraints, we did not have much of a choice -.it was either 3 days or no days. So here's a glimpse of places to visit and things to do in 3 days.

Day 1 - Tessallated Pavement, Tasman Peninsula Eco-Cruise & Port Arthur Historic Sites

What we could have done: Hobart > Tessellated Pavement > Tasman Peninsula Eco-Cruise > Port Arthur Historic Site. Overnight in Port Arthur.

What we did: Hobart > Tessellated Pavement > Tasman Peninsula Eco-Cruise > Port Arthur Historic Site > Hobart. Overnight in Hobart.

Departing Sydney at 6:15am, we were in Hobart by 8:10am. The plan was to visit Cadbury Factory which is an hour's drive away before heading towards Port Arthur to board our eco-cruise. However after reading the latest reviews on Tripadvisor, we veto-ed the chocolate factory and spent sometime getting acquainted with Hobart before heading for our eco-cruise.

Our drive to Port Arthur took led us to Eaglehawk Neck Historic Site. While we had no prior knowledge of this site, we knew it there would be several places of interest since it was marked with brown signage. One of them was Tessellated Pavement.

Tessellated Pavement
This was our second stop after we got off the main road. I do not remember much about our first stop except for the beautiful views you get from an elevated level (no pictures to share either). Back to our stop, be sure to step out and take the short path down to the beach after you have parked your car. Standing at parking lot level allows you to only view the beach and the horizon. Hardly any views of this special pavement.

Follow the brown signs, it will get you there.

These steps lead you straight to the pavement. It would take you about 10-15 minutes (depending on your pace) to get here from the parking lot.

Probably not accessible at high tide.

I am not sure why but I recall the term "bread loaf" tessellations was also used to describe this rock surface Maybe it looks like loaves of bread when partly submerge by sea waters.

It was January 2015, supposedly summer. Neverthless the weather was much colder than I had expected it to be and was glad I brought along a jacket. If you are not pressed for time, I would recommend you to dine at the hotel opposite the parking lot. Food prices are reasonable and tasty too. In fact, this hotel could be a potential spot for you to spend the night.

Grilled fish, chips and salad.

Bruschetta and mushrooms.

Tasman Peninsula Eco-Cruise
Our next activity was Tasman Peninsula Eco-Cruise. This activity came highly recommended by Oma (aka Mrs Ripke). Although can be a bit pricey if you are on a tight budget ($125 per person for a 3 hour wilderness cruise), it was worth the price. Mr H and I booked ourselves via Tasman Island Cruises.

Departure time was 2pm and we were required to check-in by 1:15pm at the the tour operator's office. After a short briefing on what to expect, we boarded the bus and made our way to the jetty located 30min away. 

Note: If you were heading straight back to Hobart after the cruise, you might want take the option of driving yourself to the jetty (follow the bus). The jetty is much closer to Hobart than the office (which is actually the opposite direction).

Once you board the boat, there is a second briefing. This time, the focus is preventing seasickness! The captain and co-captain kept us entertained during this briefing. Their comical presentation certainly kept us in stitches. First, we were provided with ginger pills that could help alleviate seasickness. Since this is a preventative measure, you should take it BEFORE you start feeling sick and not when you start feeling sick. The second tip was to make sure you're not overly clothed. At the first briefing (back at the office), we were warned how cold it could get. This would lead to some to don layers of clothing to help them through the cruise. Unfortunately too much clothing makes you hot and you will start to feel sick. When this happens, start peeling your layers off one by one. You will feel much better.

If the pill and removing layers of clothing does not work, there's one final option for you - make your way right to the back of the boat. Hang out at the back of the boat with the captain. The view is just as great while the ride is not as bumpy.

With the briefing done, we were off. Since the trip took place nearly 4 months ago, I do not remember the names of most of sights we visited. Neither did I take notes considering we were on a boat and I was afraid my notebook would get splashed by huge waves. I do remember the beauty of it all and thankfully managed to capture some pictures when it was deemed safe. So I will share some pictures taken instead.

Overalls are provided on the boat - it is thick, heavy and does provide some warmth. Putting this on onto your already layered clothing could make you seasick. If you do start feeling sick, remove your inner layer but keep this overall on. Don a beanie if you have one - keeps your hair in place.

Front row seats - not for you if you are prone to seasickness.

No entry for us. Ok for scuba divers!

Lovely green (or is it aquamarine) waters. You can scuba dive within these waters too. No jet-skiing though. Once a guy attempted too and his jet-ski crashed. He survived while his jet-ski sank and now lies somewhere at the bottom.

Lucky us it rained a few days before. On most days, waterfall is out of service.

Lovely weather for sun-baking. Even the seals agree.

Candlestick - popular among rock climbers. To climb this, one person from the team will need to swim over to anchor the rope. Definitely a cold start to the climb!

I had wanted to share a picture of the Tasman Lighthouse, unfortunately I cannot seem to find one from my personal collection. It is one of the most isolated lighthouse I have ever known and access to there is treacherous. In those days, people and goods were transported to the lighthouse using a conveyor belt which resembled something like a flying fox) from the boat. It could get dangerous depending on the weather. We were told that nobody lives in the lighthouse anymore and access to the area is via helicopter. Even so, you will need to make a generous donation to get a place since it is part of a fund raising campaign.

As our final stop before heading back to shore, our captain took us out to sea so we can get a postcard perfect picture of the view.

Panoramic view of Tasman Peninsula before we head back to shore.

Throughout the cruise, keep an eye out for albatross, dolphins and whales. Unfortunately for us, no dolphins or whales were sighted. We did see albatross, seals and a few rock climbers scaling the Candlestick (one of them even "moon-ed" us). 

Once at shore, we boarded the bus and made our back to our cars. From here, you have the option to return back to Hobart or carry on to Port Arthur Historic Site which is about 100m away.

To be continued.. 

Click on the quick links to read about the other places we covered on our 3 day Tassie adventure: Day 1 - Part 1 & part 2, Day 2 - Part 3 & part 4, Day 3 - Part 5 & final