What a day! Par Avion Wilderness Tours took us up in an 8 passenger bush airplane for a 40 minute…read moreflight from Hobart to Friendly Beaches. Our pilot, Patrick, was fantastic and knowledgeable about the history and geography of the area. We then went on a 5 hour boat cruise around the Freycinet peninsula before getting back aboard the pane for an hour flight around the Tasman peninsula back to Hobart. An awesome day.

We did a half-day tour into the southwest wilderness and we had the best weather! This area is only…read moreaccessible via air and you definitely want to visit if possible. It is absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous! We were the only people doing the half-day tour (seems like everyone else was doing a full day) so we ended up having a private tour. Our all-in-one guide James was excellent and brought some extra snacks to help us celebrate our honeymoon.

We did the Bruny Island Traveller tour which was wonderful!! Our guide Alan was knowledgeable,…read morepersonal and could drive the bus like no one else!! Got to see and experience things we wouldn't have on a lone exploration of the island. We are not big bus tour folks at all, but this one was wonderful!! They even took care of dietary needs for lunch! My dairy free fish and chips was amazing! Highly recommend! Even if you're not usually keen on tours this one is great!

The overall sense I had was that this was the sort of place where you pay your money and everything…read moreis taken care of. The particular trip I did involved taking a bus down from this location in Hobart to nearby Bruny Island, and a boat to see the rugged south side of the island. Getting to the island was a hassle, as there is a ferry with limited capacity. I rather wish there had just been a boat from the city down to the island, which I imagine would take some doing but would be great. The waits were a pain. Once there, however, the tour had a lot to offer. They did morning tea beforehand and lunch after, both of which were simple but pretty good. I've seen tours skimp on food before but at least they put some effort in. Their pumpkin soup was pretty tasty, and the vegetarian sandwich included feta and a nice variety of things. The tour boat was a pretty prime watercraft, speedy and able to handle the rough waters. The tour was pretty well run, including some advance ginger tablets to ward off seasickness (which worked for me but not for everyone) and they included gloves, hats, and waterproof smocks for those of us who don't pack for the arctic breeze, and the climate did change markedly over the trip. The rock features on the island were well worth seeing, and the seal colony at the end fairly entertaining. Other wildlife included albatross and some fellow traveler dolphins on the way back; of course sightings will vary. The company's slickly produced video advertisements don't oversell the thing by a whole lot; the whole area is really quite spectacular. This trip didn't allow one to see the island itself except in passing, but the company offers plenty of different trips to this island and elsewhere. The guides were very much salt-of-the-earth locals, retired from other jobs, and the business overall struck me as being professionally and responsibly run. You'll pay a lot of money, but you'll get an experience.

Richmond Gaol is perched just behind the main drag through the adorable historic town of Richmond,…read morewhich is something I find quite strange. It's probably not actually strange and there are probably plenty of other examples of tourist landmarks like this just nestled behind buildings and streets where normal life goes on, but I guess I can't think of any when put on the spot. Anyway, head just off the main drive and stop for a bite at the Richmond Bakery before ducking into the Gaol for a look around, because it's only $8 and why the heck not, you're in Richmond! It's actually fairly eerie to walk around the gaol on your self-guided tour, particularly in the men's solitary confinement cells, which get pretty dark even during the brightest part of the day. Yeah... I wasn't going in there alone. Bonus: plenty of fun photo opportunities, though I guess it's at the expense of the memory of those poor fellas from the early days.

If you're a history buff, you should definitely put the Richmond Gaol on your list if you're in and…read morearound Hobart. For the price of admission (a reasonable $9), you can take a self-guided tour of the small building and get a feel for how miserable life was for these prisoners. It wasn't that long ago that they were cramming prisoners into this overcrowded place and flogging them for what we would consider fairly minor crimes. Be sure to check out one of the solitary confinement cells and close the door if you dare.

As soon as I walked through I thought of old Stars Hollow (for all those Gilmore girls fans)…read more It's as if Taylor came up with one of his 'fabulous' ideas to bring in tourists to town! Now onto this cute little model town. It's $15 entry which I can't seem to figure if it's too pricey for the size of the whole thing! But anyhow, it's a small model town of Hobart 200 odd years ago, some of the models are hilarious but overall quite educational! If you're around drop in for a visit! Why not! Lol

South of the town of Ross, there's a lot of Convict history here in Tasmania, of which this bridge…read moreacross the River Coal is an impressive and scenic example. A couple other Yelp reviews cover more of this fascinating history. The Bridge is still in use and we were on it on our way to Lunch (meat pie of course) and ice cream. We also took the time to admire the bridge close up on the ground on both sides.

A stop in Richmond is worth it for the Bridge and Ice Cream. Richmond Bridge was built by convict…read morelabor in 1823 and is the oldest stone span bridge still in use in Australia. This engineering marvel represents the hardships of the past convicts and also their craftsmanship and resilience while serving time in some of the worst conditions.