Tasmania Travels! Beaches, boats and Italian feasting!

So, luckily for us, my in-laws have recently moved to Tasmania. In case you don’t know, Tassie is that little chunk down the bottom of Australia – an ‘isolated island state.’ It’s renowned for having some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, along with fresh produce and clean air – basically heaven if you’re looking to get away from the grind of the city. And no, there aren’t actually any inbreeds or people with two heads, as is the joke.

My in-laws live around Port Arthur, in the South, about 1.5hrs drive from Hobart. Port Arthur was originally a 19th-century penal settlement and is now an amazing open-air museum with beautiful grounds to walk around – trust me, I’m not the biggest fan of museum tours (or museums in general, really), but this one was pretty special.

Port Arthur

As you can see, baby J even thought it was great! Although she did just figure out how to play peekaboo by herself during the visit, so that may have been it.

As a massive foodie, I pretty much count down the days for my monthly issue of Delicious. (Aussie food magazine) to arrive, and I can attest to the fact that basically every issue has a feature or two on new Tasmanian food and restaurants. For a humble little island, Tassie is now a major player in the Australian food scene – and why shouldn’t it be? So much of our amazing, organic, homegrown produce is sourced from there that it’s only natural that some of our big-name chefs would be gravitating over to take advantage of it.

Hobart is at the centre of this food scene, and here are a few of my must-try places (this is just a starter list – there will be a lot more in future!)

• Pigeon Whole Bakers – insane bakery that also brews it’s own coffee – you’ll understand what I mean by ‘insane’ when you see the pastry display
• Pigeon Hole Café – originally owned by the same people, this is an actual café across the other side of Hobart that still bakes its own bread but also does amazing breakfast and lunch. Their ‘green eggs and ham’ was one of the best egg dishes I’ve ever had!
• Templo – a tiny, modern Italian restaurant that only seats around 20, but not to be underestimated. We had the shared menu, which allowed us to taste a little bit of everything, and each dish was better than the last! See below:

Fried quail with aioli and pickle

Gnocchetti with saltbush

Being an hour and a half from Hobart means I haven’t been able to try as many restaurants as I’d like (due to the fact that up until now I have had a baby that needs to be within a certain proximity of my boobs at all times) but that will definitely change in future and I can’t wait to share more of my Tasmania food (and other travel adventures) with you guys!

A few other essentials to do in Hobart are MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), which you may have heard of – the modern art museum that has basically kept Tasmanian tourism alive as people fly in specifically to visit it. I suspect the ‘Wall of C**ts’ may have something to do with this – I’ll let you guess what that one involves. The other main attraction of the museum is the ‘Cloaca Professional’, which is a machine that mirrors the human digestive system, consuming and ‘expelling’ food at specific timeslots during the day which you can attend to view (and smell). Have fun with that one.

As I said, not a huge fan of museums or galleries – this is definitely not your average one! Make sure you make it part of your visit if you do make it over to Tassie!

The natural surroundings are just so beautiful - there are so many jaw-dropping places to see. The beaches in particular are incredible.

I hope you enjoyed this little jaunt over to the Apple Isle! Stay tuned for posts about further Tassie adventures!