Last day in Tassie

Our last full day in Tassie was spent on a big dose of culture. One of the top tourist attractions in town is the privately owned Museum of Old and New Art or MONA.

The best way to get there is by ferry from Hobart docks so we scored our tickets and headed over. Right from the start this Museum is a bit different ... OK it is just plain weird. The ferries are camouflage painted and you can sit on sheep or stools or normal chairs - seriously! See the photos.

The Museum is up the river from Hobart under the Tasman bridge and past the Incat ship yards (we were on an Incat built ferry, our third for the trip) so was about a 30 min trip and it was rather full.

Mona is owned by a Hobart local called David Walsh who is described as a professional gambler, art collector, and businessman. It reminded me of the art galleries on Naoshima Island in that and lot of it was underground and very modern but MONA was far bigger than anything in Naoshima.

From the ferry dock there are 99 steps to the top where you enter the museum and head underground. MONA has won various awards for tourism and you can see the appeal. Yes it is very weird but it also had a lot of really old things like an Egyptian mummy, old pots from the Middle East as well as more modern paintings by Brett Whitely and Sydney Nolan.

Suffice to say it is well worth a look if you ever make it to Hobart but some of the exhibits are very confronting.

We headed back into town hopped in the Beast and headed out to the Cascade Brewery which is on the edge of Hobart. We didn’t get to do a tour but had a look around and sampled some of the wares.

Dinner was at a neat Japanese establishment on the restaurant strip of Elizabeth Street, a short walk from the Hotel.

Tomorrow it is back to Sydney.Read more