I've finally managed to get the internet working in my boutique hotel room in Hobart.Tasmanians in Launceston had been marching against the Gunns Pulp Mill, and the taxi drivers weren't taking my suggestion that Gunns ran the state too kindly. They mostly responded by saying that situation was preferable to the Greens running the state. Humour was in short supply.

In the evening we put on our tourist faces to explore 373 in North Hobart and Maldini's in Salamanca Place. Hobart has transformed itself from being a sleepy culinary backwater to a place of trendy restaurants and bars that have their European roots in a regional cuisine that services the Greater Hobart Southern Region including the tourists who visit the Southern Region of Tasmania.

I managed to take the odd photo by leaving the conference early and wandering around Constitution Docks:

Gary Sauer-Thompson, Constitution Dock, Hobart, 2007

The light fades fast around the wharf areas in the late afternoon as the sun disappears behind a snow tipped Mt Wellington that sparkles in the early morning sun. It's the cold in the early morning and in the late afternoon that gets to me.

As I am not dressed for the cold I did not wander far. I just explored the Hobart Waterfront, which is rich in heritage: it is a working port, cultural asset, recreational area, and a major tourist destination. After all, I was another tourist as well as being there on business.

Gary Sauer-Thompson, Henry Jones Hotel, 2007

The waterfront appeared to be disconnected from the city centre. find Hobart very beautiful, especially around the Constitution Dock, Salamanca Place, Battery Point, Sandy Bay area. The heritage ethos is very strong and the excellent old buildings have been saved and restored, some beautifully.

The hotel's next-door neighbour is the Tasmanian University's Art School. It is an example of the way that the historic warehouses in a colonial outpost have been transformed into high quality lodgings, whilst retaining the old feel of adventurers, seafarers, whalers and traders.

Gary Sauer-Thompson, Tasmanian School of Art, 2007

I wish that I had more time to make contact with the local bloggers. I realized that I knew little about the Hobart blogging scene, apart from Rodney Croome, Frank Strie and Tamar Pulp Mill Talk. I knew next to nothing about the arts scene or who was publishing work online.

Photography is very strong judging from the gallery of the University of Tasmania School of Art. I had a quick look in the window of the Brett Gallery but just missed this exhibition by Philip Wolfhagen to see how he is rethinking the traditions of Australian landscape art.

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