There’s nothing like seeing Hobart from the air and that’s exactly what we did yesterday on a seaplane tour from the Derwent River and Hobart down to Port Arthur and back.  We enjoyed the views of Mt Wellington and Hobart before flying over Storm Bay in front of our home, passing Bruny Island to the west and the expanse of the Southern Ocean to the south.  There was nothing between us and Antarctica (1600km away) except a lot of water!

Massive dolerite sea cliffs dominate the southernmost tip of the Tasman Peninsula.  We flew over Cape Raoul and the world-renowned surf break at Ship Stern Bluff, both places we look across the water to from our home. Our tour took us past some of the most spectacular coastline imaginable. After about 3 hours we returned to Hobart for a delicious lunch at one of our favourite restaurants, Maldini. Maldini Restaurant is an Italian restaurant, situated in an historic stone-fronted warehouse on Hobart’s famed Salamanca esplanade. The sandstone building that houses Maldini Restaurant was built with convict labour in the 1830s. It was one of a row of warehouses on Salamanca Place that occupied a leveled quarry area. Sitting beneath the umbrellas at Maldini’s you have the unmistakable feel of Mediterranean al fresco dining and European café life. The climate is similar to that of southern Europe. The settled history of this part of Hobart is not as ancient as that of Europe but, for modern Tasmania, this is as historic as it gets.