Hobart Pubs

It's always hard knowing where to go to get a drink in a strange town, so for those of you that may be travelling to Hobart we did the work for you...a hard job, but someone's got to do it. 

 Jack Greene in Salamanca - working hard to be olde-worlde shabby-chic, but actually only a week old.

16 beers on tap, but a lot of them are mainstream generics like Peroni and Miller so you still struggle to find something interesting to drink - hopefully this will change as they get a bit older and gain confidence. They did have a good range of bottles but they were all pretty pricey. They also left the door open on a freezing cold day, you had to stay rugged up inside which didn't make it very relaxing!

Knopwoods Retreat, just next door at Salamanca. Not as many beers on tap but a pretty good selection of domestic brews & a couple of more unusual beers. Friendly service, more of a traditional pub and with a big log fire keeping the place warm. And a spectacular oil painting of the 1967 fires on the wall. Maybe that t-shirt wasn't the wisest choice for Tasmania though.

Preachers, just up the hill at Salamanca / Battery Point. Requires a bit of finding, it's not one you'll stumble on accidentally, but it's worth the hunt

 Now this is an interesting beer list, with a local wine list to match

The place itself is like a big converted house. I reckon that on weekends it would get pretty busy, but midweek it was very relaxing and a great place to settle down & recuperate from a hard day of site-seeing. Very friendly service too.

Customs House Hotel, harbourside. More of a classic Aussie pub, but a bit of an icon and worth a visit if you're passing. Also has an up-market restaraunt attached.

The Lark Distillery Cellar Door, Harbourside. Not a pub as such but a good place to sample the excellent wares of the Lark Distillery. Very friendly service and a chance to pick up some local gossip & fermentation-nerd stories (such as they open the fermentors to capture wild yeasts, so their whiskey flavours will vary from batch to batch depending on the time of year). They also have a bluegrass band on on a Friday night, sadly we weren't there over the weekend so we had to miss that.  

North Sydney (Edit - that should be the New Sydney), Hobart CBD. One of the more 'locally' pubs we went to, at the recommendation of Roger at the Lark. Great range of local beers, good fire, friendly service & a nice range of food (although the kitchen was closed when we were there).

They even had an infuser on the bar. I'm guessing that in the summer this is used to pull beer through fresh hop flowers but this time they were running a pale ale through an infusion of dried chipotle chilli & lime. It was - interesting. Worth trying, but only a small glass!

 The Hope & Anchor. Australias oldest pub, and unfortunately closed down. A sign of the times?

We also visited a few more places but didn't take pictures -

Squires, Salamanca Square. It's a Squires bar - what else can I say?

The Grape, Salamanca. Associated with Squires but a lot more 'cool'. More aimed at wine drinkers (as you probably guessed by the name) and claiming up to 90 wines available by the glass, but also with some interesting bottled beers. 

Royal Victoria, CBD. The sign outside proclaimed 'Hobarts largest selection of local and imported beers'. It was fibbing.

Alley Cat, North Hobart. An older bar with a small stage, designed to suit a younger hipper audience. Looks like it would go off on a weekend night, but on a cold Tuesday it was pretty empty. And cold!

Republic, North Hobart. Another music bar but this one had fires and a better range of beers. They also did some excellent food.  

Mt Wellington

Mt Wellington stands proudly above Hobart, providing a beautiful backdrop to the city

It stands just over 1200m high and as you can see from the picture above it's often shrouded in cloud, and covered in ice & snow in the winter. There are 5 or 6 gates on the road up to the mountain top which are opened when the road is considered safe - there had been a fair bit of snow falling the week before we arrived but luckily the road was completely opened the day that we decided to go up. Even more luckily the cloud that was hanging over the hill when we got onto the bus had cleared by the time we got to the top, giving amazing views in all directions

It was breathtaking up there, and not just because of the cold.

Another reason for going up was to play in the snow. I originally wanted this to be a treat for Liz, who as a Queenslander hasn't seen snow too many times, but as the bus wound its way up the switchbacks to the top fishtailing gently round the corners I got more and more excited. I haven't been in the snow since 2007 and I think I got a bit carried away.

 Liz was a bit more restrained,

 but couldn't help launching the odd surprise attack

  Thanks for the hats Andy! They were a lifesaver, Liz literally didn't take hers off all day

 Although some people weren't so wisely dressed....

We also saw wallaby tracks in the snow

 There were a few bikes around which implies that there are trails down the side of the mountain

Since Hobart is at sea level there is potentially a 1200 vertical metre shuttle run available, and on the way up I noticed a few guys in full-faces gearing up. Brave in that weather, but that must be fun! One to follow up in the summer I think. Road trip anyone?

Bruny Island

Bruny Island is an island about half an hour south of Hobart, or a bit longer if I'm navigating and accidentally select the scenic route. It a beautiful island only a short ferry ride away from a small town & harbour called Kettering

 Half of the roads on the island are unsealed, especially if you head North from the ferry, and you wind your way through pasture land and white-barked gum trees

 Every so often the woods part revealing beautiful nautical vistas

 The clean air and fresh waters lead to wonderful local produce, for example the 'Get Shucked' Oyster stand

Which is exactly as it sounds - a shack just off the road serving the freshest oysters that I've ever tasted, as well as a range of clothing branded with the name

 We also stopped off at the Bruny Island Cheese Company, as seen on 'Gourmet Farmer', which was a little more quaint & upmarket

We had a cheese tasting and then a couple of lumps of cheese & artisan bread. The cheese was good but not outstanding (and gave me some ideas to take home with me) and the tasting was a bit rushed - I think in the non-tourist season you're considered a bit of an inconveniance. However I may just be being grumpy because I have a severe case of cheese-cave envy...   

Bruny is almost two islands and the two halves are connected by a slender strip of land known as 'the Neck', which seperates the open ocean on the left from the calm waters of the bay on the right  

The neck is also the site of a penguin rookery, although because we were there in the middle of the day this was the closest we got to seeing any

 In the summer the island with its beautiful beaches and clear seas must be a tourist mecca, but in the winter everything was quiet & deserted

The local council look after their visitors though - Adventure Bay doesn't just provide barbecues but also a pizza oven! (Edit - the facilities were provided by the local residents, not by the council, which explains why they were so well done. See comments for more info)

On the way back to the ferry we stopped off at the Bruny Island Smoke House (or BISH), ideally placed 10 minutes away from the port and providing great smoked meats & fish as well as a wide range of local beers & wines. It's a good place to while away the time until the next ferry....

Battery Point

One of the area that we spent time wandering around was Battery Point. This is one of the oldest parts of Hobart and was initially the site of an artillery battery, hence the name. The architecture, the weather and the flora combined to give an very 'english-y' feel to the place - that is if you haven't spent much time in inner city England or your perception of England is based around Jane Austin novels!

 Battery Point Gardens

 Get off my lawn!

 The waterfront

 Arthurs Circus, a twee little roundabout of lovely old houses

 Pub signs, brick angled rooves and snow in the distance

 Hobart even has its old mill chimneys!

The kind of sweetshop you only read about in Roald Dahl...

Snow-bart

A couple of quick shots from Mt Wellington...right now we have local wines, artisan-baked bread, boutique cheese and craft beers to consume.

Hobart

We're having a great time in Hobart, getting home every night exhausted so not much posting recently. But in summary we've roamed around the beautiful city of Hobart

 as well as the wilds of Bruny Island

and enjoyed a lot of local produce.....