I'm in Hobart currently with the Tasmanian Convention Bureau with a whole lot of other people involved in conferencing - on a "famil" (no, that doesn't mean "junket" it means "look at every possible place in Tassie that you could use for conferencing in under 48 hours"). I've never been to Tassie before - it is beautiful. It's like everywhere you look is like one of those jigsaw puzzle kind of scenes before you.
Hobart is definately all about the food. We've been to some awesome places. We started at Meadowbank Winery, where some of our group were lucky enough to take the "How to be a wine snob" course - so they could irritate us for the rest of our stay. ;-)
The outlook and the food was beautiful, and, of course, the wine! I really loved the interesting floor at the winery - it is a work of art in itself, telling the history of the area.
Hobart seems to be all about the local produce, and local artists. Pretty much everywhere we went, they told us how they supported the local community, which I think is great. If I'm going to take a group somewhere, I want them to be experiencing the best of that area.
From there, we had a look at venues such as the Old Woolstore, and the Henry Jones Art Hotel - Henry Jones in particular is so filled with fantastic art, and just being there is a history lesson unto itself.
Dinner that night was on the top floor of the Hotel Grand Chancellor - what a fantastic view!
Breakfast the next morning was entertaining with Phil Harris from Aardvark Adventures. Some very exiting Team Building and Adventure activities to be had in Hobart and around Tassie - what fun we could have! I hope he's reading this!!! Max loved the choccies - thanks!
One of the highlights would have to be the Cascade Brewery. Beer Tasting @ 10.00 am is a bit early for some, but what a fantastic setting, and wasn't my husband jealous. He can't complain though - I brought him home a pick & mix pack of all of his favourites.
Another definate highlight was Lark Distillery. Is there a pattern here? I seem to be overly enjoying the alcohol related sites. Strange. At Lark's we got to try their special Gin (nice G&T to start the night), Whiskey, Whiskey Liqueur (which I was ESPECIALLY partial to), and the Pepperberry Vodka. Nice! I highly recommend that one. The atmosphere in there was awesome - we didn't want to leave, we were having so much fun.
The next morning, we could hang out at Salamanca Markets - which were pretty good. I'm not much of a market person after having been involved with the Spring Hill Fair (I'm a bit marketed-out), but these were nice, and had a great atmosphere.
All of the accommodation that we looked at was considerably less expensive than what you would find on the mainland - so for the cost of a flight to Tassie, you could potentially save your meeting a whole lot of $$.
I'm a big fan of Tassie now. Thanks Claire!
