Sunday 30th December

Breakfast in the motel bistro was better than most motels. There was a good range of choices - including poached eggs rather than just scrambled eggs.

The motel had no vacancies which is not surprising for this time of the year. Part of the reason that it was fully booked last night was that there were so many bikies staying there. When I was checking out, I asked if they normally had so many bikies. She said no - it was just a group of bikies who are touring Tasmania and had stopped there for the night.

We had decided to visit some of the photo opportunity sites on the road to Sorell. This proved to be very worthwhile. We visited Tasman Arch, Devil's Kitchen and another blowhole. Each of these are geological features created by erosion of the cliff face.

We arrived at Wrest Point before midday. Luckily our room was ready. It is in the Waters Edge building adjacent to the central tower. It really is on the water's edge - next to the beach with a view of the harbour. From our window, we can see yachts coming up the Derwent finishing the race from Sydney, Melbourne or Launceston.

The hotel was a big difference from the country locations we had been staying out so far. It even has cable internet connection.

We explored the hotel, had a counter lunch at the bar and made bookings for new year's eve tomorrow night. The hotel gave us complementary entry to the cocktail party. We booked for dinner at one of the hotel restaurants and then a show with Marcia Hines.

We also tried to book an all-day tour from Hobart to Bruny Island but it was fully booked. So we asked them to put us on the waiting list for cancellations. Originally, we had planned to drive to Bruny Island but when we checked the web site, there was a paragraph saying that Avis does not permit its vehicles to go to Bruny Island.

About 4pm, we headed off for Constitution Dock near the centre of Hobart. This is where the yachts come in from the various races. There were lots of people there - partly because of the yachts and partly because of the festivities related to the Taste of Tasmania.

The general public was allowed to walk along all the floating walkways next to the boats. We saw Wild Oats (which had won the race), Leopard (which came second, Skandia, Ragamuffin, George Gregan Foundation and many more.

There were still boats finishing the Sydney to Hobart race while we were standing there. At one stage, we stood next to a yacht's owners as their boat crossed the finish line.

As boats came into dock, the port authorities raised the road bridge to allow them into the Constitition Dock. Crowds lined the shores and cheered. The crowds had been milling around and eating and drinking for hours. Some of the crowd were still sober at that stage.

On the Princes Wharf, there were stalls serving food and wine. You needed to buy a glass after which you could go from one stall to another tasting their wines. If you liked one, you could buy a glass full.

For the food, some stalls offerred to sell a full plate or a smaller plate as a taste. There was plenty of choice. There were also plenty of people and so it wasn't easy to find a place to seat.

It was all very worthwhile. Good wine, good food, great atmosphere.

Some of the Melbourne to Hobart yachts started to arrive while we were there.

We'd been following the progress of Don's yacht (Elektra) on the internet. Suzy also received a mobile phone call from Don giving us his position and his likely finish time. (I don't know how he managed to get mobile reception off the east coast of Tasmania whereas we couldn't get reception while we were on land.)

We received a phone call from Bruny Island Charters saying that we can go on the tour tomorrow because they'd had a cancellation. We caught a taxi back to the hotel to get an early night ahead of the big day tomorrow.