We have just returned from a short trip to Tasmania to attend a party to celebrate the birthdays of some lovely friends. We began our visit in beautiful Binalong Bay on the north east coast where the weather seemed to forget it is summer.
Our first morning was overcast, but the beach still looked wonderful.
There are some stunning flowering trees.
The next morning the sun made a brief appearance.
We drove along the Bay of Fires to a place called The Gardens. The land is parched and dry…rain is needed badly.
I think the area should be named The Rocks. These gorgeous rock formations are the best feature.
After Binalong Bay we drove to Hobart, stopping along the way at Devil’s Corner winery. We were almost blown off our feet by a fierce wind on the way to the viewing tower.
The view made it worthwhile.
Our main reason for the Hobart visit was to go to MONA, the museum of old and new art. The museum is owned by David Walsh and is the largest privately funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere. The first version of the museum was founded in 2001. This closed In 2006 for renovations and was reopened in 2011.
We visited the first time before the renovations and were stunned by the size and stunning architecture of the new museum.
We took the ferry up the Derwent river to MONA. Tickets in the Posh Pit are $55 return. This includes, wine, coffee and snacks. The regular tickets are $22. We bought our tickets at the booth in the Brooke St Pier along with entry to MONA, $30.
The trip up river is just 30 minutes with excellent scenery all the way.
There is an enormous zinc refinery on the river bank. The Nyrstar Hobart refinery was established in 1916 and is one of the world’s largest zinc smelters. I imagine that when it was built it was quite a long way out of town, but now it occupies prime real estate on the river, surrounded by suburbs.
Soon we arrived at MONA and walked the 100 steps up to the museum.
The buildings and installations in the above ground part of the museum are fascinating and require as much time as the gallery exhibits.
The views from the museum are stunning.
The Moorilla Winery was on the site before the museum. It was established in 1958 by Claudio Alcorso and the first Moorilla wine was foot crushed and wild fermented in 1962. David Walsh bought the site in 1995.
Rain drove us into the gallery. There is a lift or spiral staircase down the 3 floors to the beginning of the exhibition.
The huge space has been carved out of the rock.
You can begin with refreshments at the bar.
…followed by a walk to the first exhibition.
A water wall with random words projected onto it.
Here is a selection of exhibits. You really need to visit to really appreciate what is on offer.
This one stood out. I think I need to make something similar as a scarecrow for our garden at Casa Debbio.
There are 3 floors to explore, allow plenty of time. The building is stunning, quite often more impressive than the art.
We had lunch at The Source, the on site restaurant. The food was delicious and the service excellent.
MONA is a great reason to visit Hobart.
We later drove to Frogmore Creek, a fabulous winery 20 minutes out of Hobart. The vineyard is spectacular and the winery and restaurant amazing. The winery shop is the best I have seen. What a pity we had already had lunch.
We called in briefly to Richmond, home of the oldest bridge in Australia. It was opened in 1825, 10 years before any similar structure in Australia. The bridge was built by convict labour to enable reliable transport of people and goods to the east coast and Port Arthur, the convict settlement.
The town is very pretty and full of lovely old houses. Unfortunately rain and wind chased us away before we could explore properly.
We don’t complain about rain after the horrific fires this summer. We have now had torrential rain in many parts of Australia. The good news is that the fires are out, but now we have floods causing damage. Let’s hope it settles down soon.