|
| 5:58am |
The alarm sounded, and with great reluctance, we all woke up, got
up, and will head out the door shortly. |
| 6:20am |
Webbed and regular feet met the pavement as we began the trek to
the train station (to catch the airport shuttle), by way of Queen
Victoria Market. |
| 6:24am |
Apparently, despite the market claiming its trading hours to be
6am-2pm on Tuesdays, the place isn't quite open, as you can see here
and here.
Drat. Maybe we can see it on the next visit here. |
| 6:46am |
We got to the Stewart Street train station to catch the shuttle
to the airport, just as the shuttle was leaving. Fortunately, they
run every 15 minutes. |
| 6:59am |
The next big red bus pulled up, and we hopped aboard for the 25
minute trip to the airport. |
| 7:27am |
Dropped off right at the door, we made our way to the Jetstar
counter, the newest local airline in Australia (it started operating
last month). (They're a child company of Qantas, it seems, and you
can redeem your points on Jetstar you earned on Qantas, but you don't
earn Qantas points flying Jetstar. Drat.) |
| 7:31am |
We were given the boarding passes and sent to Gate 6, but not before
the open seating concept was explained... first aboard, best selection
of seats. Of course, the order in which you check in determines who's
called first, based on sequence number. Tubby and I got sequence 75.
(The Boeing 717 holds 117 passengers, I think, and it wasn't full.) |
| 8:15am |
We began boarding, and managed to end up toward the back of the
plane, not surprisingly. Coming back, we'll know better. |
| 8:34am |
Flight 9 (er, JQ 009) was in the air and heading for Hobart. If
you'd like a snack, bring money -- the only thing free on this plane
were the barf bags, and they had ads printed on them. |
| 9:34am |
A full 10 minutes ahead of the 70-minute flight, we touched down.
(Although we were due in 15 minutes ago, so it's not exactly a win-win). |
| 9:50am |
We hit the Hertz counter and got our car, again with the Toyota
Camry. But
green, this time. |
| 10:09am |
The 20 or so kilometers (about 13 miles or so) covered, we were
in downtown Hobart, and
free to wander until our return flight this evening. |
| 10:51am |
I bet this
place is terribly popular with the rebellious teenage girls and
guys. |
| 10:59am |
We got out of town and began heading south along the A6 highway
to see what sorts of places we could find along the A6 - B68 stretch
of highway. |
| 11:21am |
The first town was something of a decent size, Kingston,
which also is the home of an Antarctica museum for exploration and
research activity on that frozen continent. |
| 12:10pm |
Now having been to the museum, I think I need to see what peril
I would be in to hope for and plan a vacation holiday to Antarctica
Aside from penguins, I don't think too many members of my feathered
family wander about the place. |
| 12:22pm |
Just down the road a bit is the teeny town of Snug.
Not big at all, but it has lovely beach access. But then again, considering
we're driving along a rather giant peninsula, I suspect many of these
places are going to have a lovely beach area and/or marina. |
| 12:23pm |
A thought... despite it being just after high noon, the shadows
'round here are quite long. I suspect being this far south, it's sort
of like the Alaskan winter where the days are short. I could research
that a bit, bit at the moment I'm feeling very, very lazy. |
| 12:54 |
Kettering was the
next stop along the journey. The town was predominately marina, although
there's probably houses tucked into the hills beyond what I could
see. |
| 12:54pm |
Not quite near any town in particular, but I thought it was a lovely
little cove. |
| 12:59pm |
The next town we bumped into was Woodbridge.
Not much in the marina beyond a rowboat and a funny looking floating
thingy, though. |
| 1:13pm |
Flowerpot was the
next little daisy in the garden of the area, although getting a picture
of the sign sort of befuddled the car a bit into the mud. We pulled
through okay, though. |
| 1:45pm |
We headed down along a ways until we got to Randalls Bay, which
was purported to be the gateway to Eggs & Bacon Bay. And with
a name like that, you just have to stop, right? As we went downhill,
the
view was quite nifty. |
| 1:48pm |
Sheep
and a
house. What more introduction could I really offer? |
| 1:50pm |
I'm not really sure if this
sign is to watch out for kangaroos or wallabies ahead, but in
any event, keep an eye out, eh? |
| 1:53pm |
Randalls
Bay -- kinda pleasant-looking, isn't it? |
| 2:08pm |
Well, the map and the
sign say it's down there somewhere, but in both cases we hit dead
ends. There was an Able's Bay road, but figuring we didn't want to
head down a third dead end dirt road, we cut our losses and returned
to the highway. |
| 3:10pm |
We got back into town, and managed to find food at what turned into
a popular spot for loud kids just getting out of school. I think we
were greatly out-numbered; with the exception of our little travel
party, and a woman who appeared to be relishing her ice cream cone
with immeasurable appreciation, it was all under-16s inside. |
| 3:59pm |
We went for another wander, but found that the city we were looking
for north of Hobart was large, yet tricky to find. (Yes, we missed
the turn-off on account of it having a smaller sort of sign.) |
| 4:34pm |
We knew we'd gone too far when we arrived in Pontville.
Nothing wrong with Pontville, of course; it's historic, read small
and old, but certainly not what we'd expected. So, we headed back
into Hobart. |
| 5:17pm |
Out of options and time, well, not so much running out as meandering
away, we opted to head to the airport. |
| 5:34pm |
Fortunately, we had ample time, since we missed the exit (why do
I let Tubby drive, anyway?), which took us back across the bridge
and back into Hobart. Again. |
| 5:56pm |
... and we're safely at the airport. Except we have to return the
rental car with a full tank of gas, and with nearly 300 km traveled
(180 miles or so), it's anything but full. Back to the highway. |
| 6:07pm |
The nearest town is only 10 km or so (not far in miles), but a bit
of a angle to get to the pumps and so forth. |
| 6:31pm |
We're at the airport, parked in the drop-off stalls, and all of
our junk is in hand or in the rubbish bins. Yea! |
| 6:38pm |
The car return paperwork is completed, and we check in. This time,
we're boarding sequence 17 and 18 (apparently from Hobart, ducks are
carry-on only). But it beats 75. |
| 7:56pm |
The boarding begins, and off we go. We managed to grab seats closer
to the front, but in the end, it doesn't really matter, I guess. |
| 8:11pm |
We take off, on time for a start, so all's well. |
| 9:06pm |
Landing in Melbourne is smooth and comfy, and we manage to catch
the tram back to the train station without issue. |
| 10:27pm |
Okay, there is a teeny issue. It's late at night. We're back at
the hotel, but it's way past my bedtime. Drat. |
| 11:21pm |
Sorry kids, updates will be written tomorrow then posted. I need
my zzzz, too, y'know. |
| |
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