We were up pretty early and packed ready to go. We decided it would be easiest to have breakfast in the hotel on this public holiday. We all had the continental, at $25 it wasn’t the best value or meal,  but we were fed. We checked out and called an uber to take us to our car hire. The Ibis Hotel has been great, the rooms are very small but the location is good and the staff are very friendly and helpful. It is all clean and well appointed.

Our uber arrived and thankfully he had muscles and determination to fit all our luggage in the boot. The car hire was back at the airport, East Coast Car Hire. It took ages to fill in the already filled in paper work and then check over the car, but we were finally packed in and on the road. We were in a Honda CRV so we had plenty of room.

Our first destination was Port Arthur, an historic penal colony site. It was not on the top of my to-do list, but I was ready to explore. The drive out was scenic as we left the city and drove through the picturesque countryside of Tasmania. It only took us about an hour from the car hire; we arrived fresh and ready to go.

We bought our tickets and headed as directed to the video display. You could choose a card and check out one of the people who had lived there. It is similar to the Albany set up, but nowhere near as sophisticated or technological. The video is just a general info about the site.

We head out onto the site. It is massive, with buildings in many states of repair across beautiful green hills. It is quite panoramic. We walked past the Broken Hill Cafe Memorial garden. This is the site of the massacre of 1996 and a big reason I was not keen on Port Arthur. The other three went through the garden, but I chose not to. It gives me the creeps to think about it.

We had a boat ride included in our ticket so we headed to do that. It takes you around the lake where you can see the Isle of the Dead, where they buried everyone. Unfortunately, you can’t really see anything from inside the boat, the outside temperature was icy and the commentator had a lilting, medatative voice. Needless to say, I napped a little and probably could have done without this part of the tour.

We finally began the tour of the actual penal site, beginning with the penitentiary. A lot of it has been lost by fire, but the bones of the building are still there and gives you an idea of the living conditions of the convicts. Their lives must have been absolute misery, chained in leg irons and working to build and develop this barren site. The buildings are picturesque sitting on the hills.

We visited other buildings, including the tower, the officers’ house and the Asylum, where we had coffee and a sandwich for lunch. We finished with a walk through the the church and back through a beautiful garden filled with an array of gorgeous flowers and big bumble bees.

We needed to get back on the road, so we finished up in the gift shop and left. It is an interesting place, the vista is pretty and the history is brutal.

We had a few hours of travel to get to our Airbnb, so we got on the road. We needed to pass back through Hobart and then we stopped at Huonville IGA to stock up on food and drink. Clare and I did a quick shop, we all popped into the bottle shop and we were a short and very scenic drive to Brooks Bay.

The drive was quite spectacular as we followed the Huon River along, passing through a few little towns. We followed the GPS and instructions from our host and were soon at our amazing house, perched right on the river. The living area has panoramic views over the water, it is pretty amazing.

We quickly got ourselves organised, turned on the oven and whacked a roast lamb in. We took in the house and marvelled at our good fortune. Clare and I cracked open our gin, the boys opened a beer and we we sat back and enjoyed the serenity.

We enjoyed our dinner of roast lamb and veges, followed by a sticky date pudding as the night settled around us. It cooled outside as the sun went down. Daylight savings here means the sun is still setting at 9pm. Weird but great on holidays.

We played a quiz game of 10 questions (I won) and planned our next day - walking in the wilderness.