In the early 1600s Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer re-discovered Tasmania which put to rest the stories of an undiscovered continent called Australasia. This must have been quite a voyage, given the ships of the days. This city is Australia's second oldest city, after Sydney. There once was a very large penal colony, south of Hobart and all of the old elegant homes and cottages we saw here were built by the convicts. We arrived about 7 am., and disembarked at 9:30.
Overall we were impressed with the vibrancy of this capital of Tasmania, which seems much more modern than the Tasmanian port we visited a few years ago. There are lots of eco-tourist packages that leave from here for those wishing to see the wildlife of this island. The harbour has many bays, and low hills with homes built on the surprisingly dry landscape. They have obviously had a drought here as well, and most of the hills are bare, and where there are trees, they are small evergreens.
I am not sure what drove the early wealth of this city, but on our walk around the old part of the town, called Battery Point, the homes were evidence of much seafaring wealth, probably whaling and sealing, and ship building in the 1800s. The cottages of this area are spread across one of those hills , and are all well maintained, very British in their architecture, with roses climbing all over them. It is here that that rascal, Errol Flynn, was born. We missed his house as there was no big sign, but Leslie who was on a hop on hop off bus drove past us, waving for us to look at it, but we didn't even see her. The commercial part of this older area is called Salamanca and all the old stone warehouses are now upscale art galleries, wine bars, shops and restaurants. They must enjoy enough tourism to proper as there were no vacancies at all.
The weather was 85F - and we walked for about 2.5 hours, plus a brief stop for a coffee. We went up hill and down dale, hats blowing off heads in the stiff breezes. Jonathan and Karen went back to the ship after our coffee, and Barry and I puttered in a book store, where he got a best seller about Tasmania, called "The Fatal Shore", and we visited some of the galleries. The art work here was world class, and very expensive. We were going to go up to the Town Hall where we were told there was a free tour, but the thought of climbing the steep hill in the noon heat, changed our mind.
We went back to the ship, past the ugly brown building at the shore where there is an unusual wind turbine atop. Jonathan told us a funny story he heard from the pilot this morning. When they first installed it, someone phoned and said " it's turning very fast".. the answer - " no worries the brakes will kick in soon".. followed by another call …"it's going even faster" -- followed by reports that the blades had launched off their posts and people were seen ducking the flying shrapnel!!! I imagine from the look of the denuded hills that they must get some pretty stiff breezes here. We also saw a small Sea Shepherd craft with an outrigger that apparently launches from here chasing Japanese whalers and was rammed by one last year. I think her name is the Brigitt Bardo. None of us could imagine going to sea in this small boat in these waters especially when we learned that many of her crew have never sailed before. We welcomed the air conditioned comfort of the ship and look forward to the sail away at 4.
Tonight at dinner, Jonathan and I were talking about the penal colony and he told me that at the height of its use it housed 158,000 men, women and children prisoners. The youngest prisoner was a 9 year old boy. England's prisons were overcrowded during the early and mid 1800's and so even young children who had stolen a toy, were shipped off here. There was an even worse prison on the east coast. I guess Tasmania was England's equivalent of Russia's gulag in Siberia. Shameful. At the evening show, Dave, the bridge instructor told us he and Karen, his wife went to Port Arthur where there was a recent fire. He said it was mile after mile of black forest and all that remained of people's homes were the chimneys. Apparently there is only one road from this area to Hobart, and the fire began while guests from another cruise line were on an excursion there and they were renting boats to get them back to the ship. This drives home for me the key points of the book I am currently engrossed in - Jeremy Rifkin's - Third Industrial Revolution. He is one of the key international leaders of the master plans for transforming our major cities, especially in Europe, where they are leading the initiative, to a 5 pillar platform which will change the way we generate, sell, and distribute energy, and in the process take us away from the non-renewable energy supplies we depend on today. I can honestly say this book is riveting and inspirational, and I am proud to say that IBM has been in the forefront of working with Jeremy since about 2003 and much of what he stands for must have shaped the IBM Smarter Planet strategy. Thinkers like Jeremy also recognize that if we don't address climate change the future of our planet and of humans is at risk. When you travel around the world as we are doing, seeing first hand the climate change, you cannot ignore its importance. I saw Jeremy Rifkin interviewed just before we came on the ship and I am so glad I ordered his book and I am going to recommend this book to everyone I know.
Onward to Adelaide after a sea day, where the seas will be rocking and rolling so we were told.
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