As we were going near Hamilton, dad said he would show me a beautiful home he discovered there the last time he visited. We paid a $5 donation to wander the gardens and stuck our faces up to the windows to look at the lovely rooms of the house.

We were woken up bright and early on our first morning in Tassie by the chirping of birds. Unfortunately, no bacon and eggs for us for breakfast. Oh well, a bowl of cereal and we were off. We had to take the hire car back to the airport as there was something wrong with it, so we set off for the ferry but on the way we did a bit more sightseeing, can you believe we missed the ferry before lunch and there wasn’t one for another two hours. There was no way we were going to miss the next one so sat and waited at the boarding point. We had a wonderful start to our holiday, having the locals scare us off from the pub and now this. It’s ok though, things get better. 

Finally back on the road and on our way back to the airport. After exchanging the car, we felt like our holiday could really begin.   

As we were running quite a bit behind schedule, we headed straight for our accommodation in the picturesque historic town of Hamilton, and our enchanting convict built sandstone, Emma’s Cottage. Being Sunday there was only one place open for dinner, another beautiful historic sandstone building, Glen Clyde House. It was just before 6pm and the owners were just about to close, but they agreed to make us some dinner and deliver it to Emma’s cottage when it was ready. Just love the country hospitality. If it helped that Shane and the man of the house worked together in Goulburn a few years before, I don’t know. It really is a small world.  

We enjoyed our dinner in our little cottage in front of a roaring fire, and later in the evening partook in a port and Tasmanian chocolate generously provided by our hosts.