Tasmania - Day 1 - Hobart

On our first day in Tasmania, we spent Saturday morning at the Salamanca markets. This market is only open on Saturdays and has a combination of crafts, jewelry, clothing and food stalls that line up the street. It is probably the best market that we've seen in Australia, which is probably why we bought the most souveniers from it. Plus, when's the next time we'll be in Tasmania? Tasmania is known for their wood, which is very pretty. Our favorite was Sassafras, which tends to be a mix of dark/light wood.


After the market, we decided to take a cruise of the bays/water around Hobart.


Along the way, we saw some great cliffs. Besides the cliffs, the boat would sometimes stop and lower a video camera into the water. It would allow you to show the sea life underneath. The best part was when these globefish suddenly turned around and started staring into the camera. They seemed to think that we were one of them!

For most of the time, we tried to sit in the back of the boat, but then we couldn't hear the information about the things we were seeing. But the back of the boat had some great views. Here's a photo of David and Casey enjoying the back.


At some points, we would stop and look at certain things, which was when we'd move to the front of the boat. Yep, I'm holding two beers in this picture, but one of them is David's.


Our cruise provided us a very big lunch. There was ham, chicken, smoked salmon, oyster, potato salad and some other goodies. One of the best parts was the berry dessert! We got to eat while we slowly moved around the bay.


During our circling, we encountered some white bellied eagles. The boat tried to feed them with some fish, but they weren't hungry.


After lunch, we stopped at Peppermint Bay and were given the opportunity to walk around. Nicole was never in the photo since she was too busy snapping away.


There were some beautiful views of the water.


Peppermint Bay was a restaurant that provided our lunch. It was also holding a wedding in one of its private rooms when we were there. Nicole wanted to get a photo to remember the name of where we went.


In the back of the restaurant, there were these giant pillows that we used to rest before heading back onto the boat. David and Sarah were staring at the clouds, while Casey (in the lower left) had decided to take a nap.


On our way back to Hobart, we stopped at a salmon farm. The salmon were constantly jumping out of the water. It's natural for them to jump out of the water as if they were jumping upstream when they want to spawn. You can see the fist in the right side of this photo. It kind of just looks like a black mark.

On our way back, Sarah, David and I enjoyed the views of leaving Peppermint Bay.


After the cruise, we were pretty tired. We headed back to our hotel and dropped off some stuff before we got ready for dinner. We ended up eating along the streets of where the Salamanca market had taken place. While we were there, we saw at least 3 hen parties (aka bachelorette parties) along the street. Apparently, Hobart is a happening place. =)