Hobart 1 - Getting There, Getting Around
Jan 14th, 2008 by Nick
The alarm clock went off at the ungodly time of 3:30 this morning. In retrospect, I could have probably slept another 45 minutes, but I could not remember if I had an advance seat assignment on my JetStar flight from Melbourne to Hobart. I had packed the night before, so it was pretty quick to get out of the hotel. I left my large suitcase at the hotel with the non-essentials: the clean clothes I want to wear next weekend, the dirty clothes from the last few days, some extra books and electronics such as my DVDs. So for the next five days, I’m travelling with just my backpack and my 22″ roll-aboard (which here still has to be checked).
At that time of the morning, the shuttle bus from the Southern Cross rail station to the airport only runs once/hour, so I splurged again and dropped another A$50 for the taxi to the airport. I arrived at 4:40am for my 6:45am flight, and had to wait until 4:45am to check in. I had in fact pre-requested seat 6C when I bought my ticket, and after checking my bag I got a thermal paper “boarding pass.” I made it through security - so nice not to have to take everything apart - and picked up a light breakfast at the coffee shop. After dawdling with that, I used up some of the Qantas Web connect kiosk credit I had purchased the other day in Sydney, then went and slept at the gate.
The JetStar flight was uneventful in every sense of the word. The pitch between seats stinks (probably 31″) but they are A320s with nice wide leather seats, so for 65 minutes it was not exactly difficult. We arrived at the gate at Hobart, and used jet-stairs to disembark. While I was waiting for my luggage, I went over and picked up my rental car.
Now for the fun part: driving in Australia. First of all, my car is a Toyota Aurion, an offspring of the old Toyota Avalons and plenty big enough for head/leg room. The only thing is that the windshield is low, but I’m use to that with most sedans. I find that the car handles very well, except that I tend to lose it wide left because I feel too close to the center line. I even parallel parked it flawlessly today on the first try, and manuevered it later around a grocery store parking lot.
Driving on two-lane highways is pretty easy, except for the centerline issue. Urban traffic during rush hour was interesting, but I’m getting the hang of it. And I drove it all the way to the top of Mount Wellington, which is an interesting drive.
