Melbourne Patron

On Day 2 in Tassie, we had booked in for a wine tour with Boutique Wine Tours to " Historic Richmond ", half an hour's drive out of Hobart. Unfortunately, we did not get off to a good start, awaking late and disgruntled to a rainy day, and then NOT BEING ALLOWED TO TAKE MY COFFEE ON THE TOUR BUS. (Sort of understandable-ish, and yet, I am an adult... and the cup had a lid.) Anyone who knows me knows what a tragedy this would have been for me - not to mention the other people on the tour. The tour guide began his rather interesting spiel about the region and our stops for the day, but I was so tired and grumpy and uncaffeinated, I was (very maturely) loathe to listening. But, luckily, a wine tour involves wine, so the effects of my lack of caffeination were soon lessened by the effects of alcohol. Our first stop was Puddleduck , a charming boutique winery with a cute duck-in-water logo and a shopful of merchandise, run by winemaker Darren Brown (ex- Moorilla, of MONA ) ...

We arrived at Port Arthur after a ridiculously early flight to Hobart and a lovely, albeit windy and therefore attention-demanding, scenic drive along some Tasmanian coastline. (Get up-to-date here .) Despite being full, even the car park felt eerie, although I initially allowed that this might have been due to the wintery weather. All I really knew about Port Arthur is that it was a protected tourist site where a significant amount of people were killed during a massacre by a madman in the '90s. While this is true, it seems the Port Arthur Visitor Centre focuses - appropriately - on the site's original history as a convict settlement, now an 'open air museum' and Tasmania's top tourist attraction. The Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority, which runs the joint, knows its popularity, too: innocent tourists (like us) drive there specifically, only to be whacked with exorbitant ticket prices, the cheapest of which is the Bronze pass at $35.00 per adult...