Tasmania Self-drive Day 1, Saturday.

Preparation for our 9-day self-drive tour of Tasmania had been three months in the making. Originally intended to take place in mid-February, the trip was forced to be delayed because flights were fully booked on parts of the journey. So, we postponed the trip to over Easter instead. This turned out not to be a bad move. First, it gave us that extra time in planning the itinerary. Nine days are hardly sufficient for a tour of Tasmania, with all the abundance that it has to offer. Coming up with an itinerary that fits in as much as we can, yet not so rushed as to demand a second holiday to recover from over-tiredness, does require a lot of reading and planning. (We found the brand new edition of Lonely Planet's Tasmania tremendously helpful.) And with a touring party of four, the itinerary needed to accommodate the preferences and physical abilities of all. Second, going over Easter means we avoided the heat in the Tasmanian summer, which was particularly severe this year. Fresh in memory were the horrendous and devastating bushfires which started in November/December 2012 and carried on through January 2013.

Regarding the itinerary, we agreed on our preferences in this order: natural scenery, wildlife, cuisine, city, history. Our final itinerary more or less kept to the list, making it a successful trip in this respect.

So, our first stop was Launceston, the second largest city in Tasmania after the capital Hobart. As it was afternoon by the time we settled in our hotel, and it being a bit cloudy, we decided to do a leisurely walking-tour of the city. The central location of our hotel meant that it was easy to explore the city on foot.


The Old Post Office in Launceston.

Seafood was high in our culinary agenda for the tour. We picked one of the top choices suggested in our guide book: Hallam's Waterfront Seafood Restaurant.



Hallam's Waterfront Seafood Restaurant.

The restaurant opens at 6pm. As we arrived half an hour too early, we explored the neighbourhood a bit more.


An unexpected building at an unlikely location.  In the neighbourhood of Hallam's.

The wait for the restaurant to open was absolutely worth it. The restaurant has an excellent view of Tamar River. The food and wine and even the bread was superb. That brought a good conclusion to our first day in Tasmania.



Tasmanian oysters. The first of many oyster dishes we tasted in the trip. Seafood platter in the background.