13 Hobart, TAS - Day 2

Wombat

We visited the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in the morning and had a short guided tour. The first animal is the wombat, it is native to Australia.  The ones we saw are babies, as in younger than 1 year, they are quite cute.

Koala

Then the koalas, though they are not native to Tasmania, the sanctuary has 3 of them. We got to pat them, but not hold them.  Then there are the infamous Tasmanian Devils. A lot of the devils have been wiped out by the Devil Facial Tumor Disease and so the sanctuary is actually breeding them.  These guys do not look as bad as they sound! 

Devil

The

Echinda

sanctuary also has this little short-beaked echidna; the poor thing lost one leg, but it still moves around foraging in the enclosure. (The sanctuary “adopts” injured animals, i.e. those that don’t become roadkill!) 

Last, but not least, are the kangaroos and wallabies. The staff gave us each a small bag of kangaroo food and warned us that the kangaroos recognise the bags and will try to grab them from us. The wallabies are grey and look almost the same as a kangaroo, and are as pretty as the ones we saw at Flinders. The kangaroos / wallabies will approach you to ask for food. They will eat out of our hands, and usually put one hand on you while slowly enjoy the food in your palm.

After the tour, we went back to the pier near the hotel to grab some seafood. The grilled calamari that David had was the best; and the fish and chips were very good also.  



Some of us drove up to the Mount Wellington lookout in the afternoon.  The road up the mountain was twisty and steep, but the view was worth it.  One can see all of Hobart from there.  Because there were no trees or any tall buildings obstructing the view, you see the houses on either side of the harbour and the mountains behind them.

Hobart

Zucchini flowers - the one appetizer that we re-ordered
right after we tasted it! 

Dinner was at the Franklin restaurant.  The décor was interesting … huge open space, industrial look, concrete floor, and stainless steel bar with the kitchen in the middle.  The appetizers were amazing, but the main dishes were just average.  David tried a local craft beer; it was quite different and refreshing on first try – sour and salty, but it would be difficult to finish an entire bottle.