Tasmania

This was the view from our room at the Park Royal Hotel at the Melbourne airport, quiet, clean and well-located just across a bridge from the terminal. That's Melbourne's skyline in the far distance. It served us well as we arrived at 1AM on a 4-hour flight from Auckland, New Zealand, gained 2 hours as the clock moved back to 11PM and had a good sleep for our midday flight to Hobart, Tasmania. We found a good sushi place at the Melbourne airport for breakfast.

After arriving in Hobart, Emma immediately drove an hour south to Tirana, south of Eagleneck, where we stayed the night at the Mussel Boys. 

On the way we checked out the Tesselated Pavement, a natural stone formation which looks man-made but is actually due to natural causes. 
On the following day we visited the Blowhole, 

the Devil's Kitchen 

and the Tasman Arch, 

all worthwhile if you happen to be in the neighborhood. 
Good coffee is available at these sites.

On the advice of the owner of the Mussel Boys we had dinner at Gabriel's, a restaurant in a waterside resort 10 minutes south of Tirana and breakfast there the next morning as well.

The next day we drove north to stay overnight at Bicheno and take an unexpectedly lovely walk on its seaside stone formations, which we think were at least as good as the vaunted Bay of Fires to which we drove on the next day after staying overnight in the undistinguished town of Scamander. 

Bicheno

 Orange lichen make a nice decoration for stones.

Bay of Fires

On the highway, Emma had to come to a complete stop for a spiny anteater ambling across the road.

 Thus, she avoided adding to the multitude of roadkill we have seen on the roads of Tasmania, mostly small animals such as wallabies, kangaroos, possums and Tasmanian Devils.

Wallaby

Tasmanian Devil

Possum

After seeing the Bay of Fires, Emma drove close to 300 kilometers back to Hobart, where we returned the car and took a fine room in the Grand Chancellor  overlooking the Hobart harbor.

and had an excellent dinner at the Aloft Restaurant.

Let me not forget a great alfresco lunch two days ago at a place justifiably called the Lobster Shack in Bicheno. The fishermen towed their boat into the driveway while we were eating. We had prawns, pickled octopus and a dozen local oysters along with half a bottle of Chardonnay left from the previous day.

And, on the road from Bay of Fires down to Hobart, a lovely stop at a place called the Devils Corner, where three small buildings overlooked a wine valley panorama and offered wine tasting in one, fish dishes in another and coffee and desserts in the third. We had coffee and ice cream on the spot and took some ceviche for later.

 

  Here's a sample of the highway on which Emma drove for hours.

Seriously, that's a dirt road on which we took a short detour. The highways are decent, mostly narrow, one lane each way, fortunately without much traffic.
Now we have one full and one half day to explore Hobart before we fly to Melbourne. And the sun is shining.