Clare & Rob's Tasmania Trip: 2006
Day 0: Catching the Ferry
It was a last minute rush (again!), as all of our trips seem to be. Taking the car across Bass Strait on the ferry made it much easier as we had less size constraints and just threw everything into the boot of the car. We have taken so much more clothes than during our round the world trip, and we are only going for 11 days. We are taking some camping gear too but we don't expect to rough it too much considering the condition Clare is in.
The ferry departs from Port Melbourne Station Pier. We had to drive across town to get to there and did not realise that the Rugby League Test was on at the Telstra Dome. It was not too bad in the end though. We made it through the security check with our contraband of a gas burner and bottle of wine.
We were given a 4-berth not a twin cabin, but we were just pleased to have a nice shower and fresh towels. We went exploring on all the decks. The ferry is very well equipped - plenty of bars, TVs to watch, a few levels of food from bar snacks to a fancy restaurant, tourist information, a shop, a children's playpen and for the adults even pokies to play. At about 10 pm we went on the outside deck to watch as we passed the heads of Port Phillip Bay through The Rip. That is when the ferry sped up and the rocking started! Back inside we had our 'traditional' ferry fare of hot chips and watched an exciting game of rugby in the TV. As Tassie is on daylight savings time, we had to put our clocks forward one hour, which also meant one less hour of sleep! We don't want to start our holiday feeling tired.