Veronika Wild

Grand Entrance  I still had one Mother’s Day voucher from my oldest son and his partner for a massage and spa treatment at the Savoy Baths in Hobart, but they’d been heavily booked ever since, so I was delighted when they rang me just before I left Hobart to say that they’d had a cancellation. Unfortunately I was already in town and didn’t have my bathers, but they said that it didn’t matter because they had some which I could borrow. It is absolutely heaven in the middle of winter and it's right in the heart of town, in the Elizabeth Street Mall just a little way down from the Post Office on the other side of the road. The massage was fabulous - soothing music that made me think of horses clip -clopping over the Mongolian Steppe, scented oils, hot stones on my back, and then it was into the heated pool. It’s not that I haven’t had an excellent spa before. My sister once took me to a wonderful one in a tree house at Daylesford (Victoria), but it’s just not something ...

Hailstorm

Steven Walker's Bernacchi tribute which honours the Hobart - based  scientist and photographer, who accompanied two of the earliest Antarctic Expeditions It’s a quiet Sunday morning in Hobart and I am down at Constitution Dock. To my right lies Australia’s Antarctic icebreaker, the Aurora Australis, and dead ahead is Tasmania’s tall masted wooden ship The Windward Bound.   Ignoring for the moment the one or two modern buildings in the background, it’s not hard to imagine the excitement that would have prevailed on this wharf in the days of sail and steam  Tall Ship in the Harbour - the Windward Bound   Strolling north towards Hunter Street, I come upon Stephen Walker’s sculptures commemorating two of the many Antarctic expeditions which have departed from here. Reading the inscription I realise that I haven't heard of either of them. One is dedicated to English explorer James Clarke Ross, who sailed from Hobart in 1840 and sighted the coastline....