Hobart

It was a bit grey and wet in Hobart after we arrived, but improved over the weekend.  We found Hobart nice, but perhaps not particularly memorable.  There is a waterfront area with many eateries and with tourist and craft shops, which is quite interesting and provided us with several coffees and meals.  The more interesting times were the ones we spent on outings into the hinterland.

One of our first outings was an outing to "MONA" - the Museum of Old and New Art.  It's about 13 km north of the city centre, so the way to get there is on the special MONA ferry.  MONA is a privately funded art museum and opened in 2011, and is mostly below ground level, cut into the rock.  It is full of interesting, puzzling, and downright weird stuff.

Disembarking from MR1 ferry at MONA.

These sheep (not real!) stayed aboard.

A water text display (explained below).

 This display is three-storey high installation comprising a gantry holding hundreds of little computer-operated water nozzles in a row.  Every few seconds it drops a curtain of droplets which form a word, and those droplets are lit up by the row of spotlights so you can see the word as it falls to the floor and disappears.  Here you can also see the rock walls formed when the space for MONA was carved out of the earth.

A bloated car in MONA.

 MONA has all sorts of traditional and avant-garde exhibits, many of which are in dark locations, so don't photograph very well.

Our (Ibis) hotel in Hobart, during a false fire alarm evacuation.

Butterflies at the (more conventional) Museum of Tasmania in Hobart.

 Our last outing with the car was an ascent of Mount Wellington, which rises 1200 metres above Hobart providing spectacular views (on a nice day).  It snows up here in winter.

Sue showing off (not really).

Mount Wellington lookout, with Hobart below.

The lookout / shelter on Mount Wellington.

Hobart and the River Derwent below.

Mount Wellington is a long way up, leaving us very impressed by those half-marathon runners who had run up that morning!