Parking pain tainted holiday

AFTER weeks of fires and horrendous smoke, we took a holiday in Tasmania. It was fabulous. Amazing landscapes, friendly people and excellent service. We were happy to spend many thousands of dollars during the four weeks we were there.

All of this was marred by one thing — parking in Hobart, which was confusing, obscurely signed and frustrating. We parked in Salamanca Place on a Sunday, couldn’t work it out at all, so I walked the full length of the parking strip (signs were few and far between) to get information so I could do the right thing. At every parking machine was a tourist like me, trying to work it out. Eventually, a friendly local showed me the process, also expressing her frustration at the system, so I returned to my car to buy and display the ticket. There was already a parking ticket on my windscreen. I didn’t see which tree the parking inspector was behind. The friendly local told me there is a mechanism under the car that begins the parking time from the second you pull in the space. This is not mentioned on signs or machines. One can’t read the non-backlit machine screens, and there is no information on them about days or times for parking. Marion Meischke Gundaroo, NSW