For our second anniversary I did something quite unexpected. I booked us on a cruise out of Hobart, down the coast to Peppermint Bay and the town of Woodbridge, where there is an extraordinarily large restaurant in an extraordinarily small town. If you know me at all you know that I Do Not Like being on the water. Do. Not. Like. So it's fair to say that this was definitely a surprise for my significant other.
In the background of this shot you can see our vessel, the MV Peppermint Bay II. We were up in the Captain's Lounge (currently covered with a tarp) with only one other couple so we had a fairly spacious ride in comfortable leather seats (with steward service), but then the Titanic was pretty comfortable as well, so I hear. Still, The Peppermint Bay II got us there and back safely and comfortably, if you exclude the moment when I climbed up onto the open top deck (above the Captain's cabin) on the way back and the stronger winds plus the boat's movement damn near blew me off the back of her.
If the scale of the restaurant itself was extraordinary for the size of the town, so was the food. The cruise included a four course lunch made of almost entirely local produce including a shoulder of lamb which had been slow cooked for hours and which did not need to be carved since it simply fell apart into tender, succulent slivers under the serving fork.
After lunch we had about half an hour to wander around the town of Woodbridge. During that time I made my way down to the wharf, saw this sign and thought that the surprise might have been a little TOO good. "Ooops", I thought, "If the ship went down... nobody knows we're here!"
(Then I realised that that was wrong since I had told one person; my one time boss / now assistant / friend who lives a few hours north of me.)
But it still gave me pause for thought.
Nonetheless, if you, unlike me, are not nautical-phobic (or even if you are and the weather is good) I do recommend looking into taking a trip with Peppermint Bay Cruises if you're spending a few days in Hobart.
Last Year
