ABC News visual journalist Luke Bowden spent some time with the leaders of Tasmania's major parties as they campaigned during the state election — this is what he saw.
Tuesday 6 April
It's just over a week into the campaign, and Liberal leader Peter Gutwein has already been up since 5:30am.
Apocryphal stories abound about how many sit-ups he does each morning. They're followed by either a walk, run or visit to the gym.
This monk-like discipline is obviously reinforced by his coiffure, too, which he is responsible for shaving every second morning.
Arriving at the recently constructed Kingston Health Centre in the state's south, the gaggle of journalists, camera operators and media advisers mull around a lectern that has been placed out the front.
On the other side of the street are the Liberal candidates for the electorate.
Mr Gutwein and his Health Minister Sarah Courtney arrive, elbow bumps ensue.
Like sporting teams walking out to play, no-one walks in front of the captain as he crosses the white line — in this case, the road and to the awaiting media.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)With the Liberals' southern health policy announced, Mr Gutwein heads south, almost as far as the road goes to the popular tourist attraction Hastings Caves.
We arrive a little past 11:00am. During the 100km drive, news comes through that New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will hold a press conference in the afternoon, announcing the opening of trans-Tasman flights between our two countries.
Tassie is expected to be one of the destinations and so Mr Gutwein and his cohort also have an added destination this afternoon: Hobart International Airport.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)Within the Apple Isle — we are in the Huon after all — as the crow flies Mr Gutwein could not be further away from the regulars of the Bridport Hotel where, before politics, he was the publican.
But this is the Huon Valley and we are in the deep south of Hodgman country.
Since the mid-1960s, when Liberal Michael Hodgman won the Legislative seat of Huon, the Hodgman surname has represented the region at either a state or federal level. This ended last year with Mr Gutwein's predecessor Will Hodgman's somewhat shock retirement in January.
As premier in 2018, Will Hodgman, Michael's son, raked in 2.3 quotas single-handedly in his seat of Franklin.
If the Liberals are eyeing off four seats in Peter Gutwein's electorate of Bass, much will hinge on him emulating that feat.
As we walk, I fall into step with Mr Gutwein and his chief of staff, Andrew Finch, and ask what the biggest difference is in campaigning as Liberal leader, as opposed to earlier iterations as either treasurer or a member of the opposition.
"When I was treasurer [during the 2018 state election], I travelled a lot with premier Hodgman, but a lot of the work was being locked away as treasurer," Mr Gutwein says.
It is in the ensuing conversation that I learn from Mr Finch what time his leader wakes up each morning — and that by 6:30am both will be with staff at their first meeting for the day.
Like all days of the campaign, today's trip is highly orchestrated with lots of photo ops at various places in the southern electorate.
I probe Mr Finch about having to fit in a press conference 100km away in two hours' time at the airport, on the fly, but he is nonchalant: "It is what it is."
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)Standing on the hill overlooking Hobart Airport, there's a bustle of activity below. I cannot remember the airport being this busy, even before the pandemic.
It has been a long day in the saddle. My odometer shows I've driven just under 350 kilometres.
As the press conference is interrupted three times in the space of 10 minutes to allow planes to take off, the allegory is hard to miss; the confidence of the Liberals is sky high.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)As he walks back to his car, Mr Gutwein sees me: "Got everything you need?"
I've got one final question, it's now or never, "How many sit-ups each morning?"
He flashes a broad grin at the end of just another day on a month-long campaign before the answer comes.
"A hundred every morning".
Friday 16 April
Each leader of Tasmania's three major political parties is allowed a 90-second advertisement on free-to-air television to sell their message during the state election.
Filming it is Greens' leader Cassy O'Connor's first job of the day.
It is 9:30am when I arrive at a small beach in Taroona to find Ms O'Connor getting her make-up professionally done.
There's a feel of celebrity in the air; former soap opera star Lisa Gormley is the make-up artist and there are council workers eagerly peering down from the street above, trying to catch a glimpse of what's happening on the beach below.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)Ms O'Connor has donned a woollen, green poncho, an article of clothing she regularly wears during sitting weeks of Parliament.
I ask where she got it and how deliberate wearing it for the ad is.
"It was just a little retail hit before the 2018 [state election] campaign," she says.
She pulls her hands out from under it and clenches both her fists: "The green, it just makes me feel a little bit stronger."
Lipstick applied, she steps in front of the camera and flawlessly reels off 90 seconds of why Tasmanians should vote Green on May 1.
Twenty years ago, before politics, Ms O'Connor used to read the nightly news on television. She obviously hasn't lost the touch.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)She does another take, again word perfect, and the cinematographer, Dan Peak smiles: "Hit that one to the fence didn't you."
I realise after the second take that she has been reading off a tele-prompter, but it doesn't change the power of the words she is delivering.
Her causes carry real conviction, because as the public knows, she does not waver from them.
Next stop is the lawns at Parliament House, where the Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania is having its 200th birthday celebration.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)When we arrive, former Liberal speaker Sue Hickey — now running as an independent — is having her photo taken with a white horse named Max.
Candidates of her former party have had a group photo with Max and posted it on Twitter. Ms O'Connor one-ups them all though.
As I walk around to try to take a photo of her through the legs of the horse, I suddenly see her feet leave the ground and look up to see her clamber up and position herself astride Max, the crowd cheering.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)She jumps off and immediately asks to hold a woman's baby — if there was any doubt we are in the midst of an election campaign, it has vanished.
Standing in front of Parliament seems as good as anywhere to ask Ms O'Connor to reflect on the last three years of Liberal government.
Transgender law reforms and the voluntary assisted dying bill passing were no doubt significant for her, and both evoked a visible display of emotion at the time.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)We head across town. Greens volunteers have strategically placed themselves on either side of the Elizabeth Street dining strip in North Hobart, handing out how-to-vote pamphlets and chatting to anyone who stops to talk.
Ms O'Connor says she's energised by these street chats.
I'm not surprised — several people take the time to stop and tell her they're going to vote for her or have already postal voted for her.
Peter Alexander Mademow is waiting at the bus stop.
"I wish you every success," he beams to her. "We all share planet Earth together."
It's safe to say Ms O'Connor has a tendency for swearing.
Just a week prior to the election being called, she voiced in the chamber, what surely was the first C-bomb to be recorded on Hansard.
Speaking to Peter Mademow, she uses the term "bullshit" as an adjective.
To my surprise, Mademow leans in admonishingly: "Please do not swear."
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)The day finishes with a visit to the Greens' southern campaign headquarters in North Hobart.
The office walls, originally a dull pink, have hastily been painted white and three staff are crammed in together working on the smallest office desks I've ever seen.
Some corflutes, including one of Ms O'Connor's from the 2010 election campaign, sit in the corner of the room.
Holding a cup of tea, Ms O'Connor stares back at her younger self: "Gravity, eh?", she muses aloud.
The statement hangs in the ensuing silence, no-one in the room really knowing what to say next.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)I take advantage of her reflective mood and ask how she combats feelings of futility and if she has a sense that the world is moving at fast speed in the opposite direction to a lot of her and the party's fundamental ideologies.
Tuesday 20 April
It's frigid and the tall buildings, including the Royal Hobart Hospital on Campbell Street, create a wind tunnel of cold air.
Overnight, Hobart will record the coldest temperature in Australia.
Labor leader Rebecca White is here to do a press conference on health and crosses the road to the media huddled in a laneway opposite the hospital.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)Ms White spent a great deal of time at the beginning of this campaign having to deal with factional in-fighting.
Eventually, she needed Labor's national executive to intervene in the preselection of her former adviser and Kingborough Mayor Dean Winter to put him on the ticket.
Mr Winter not winning a seat, or Labor having a poor showing on May 1, will place enormous pressure on Ms White's leadership.
The irony that she is doing the press conference below a sign that reads "Sackville Street" is not lost on me.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)Labor adviser Chris Taylor mentions that Ms White is spending the afternoon making some election commitments in Triabunna.
The east coast town is the departure point for Maria Island and only a short drive from where she grew up at Nugent.
I still don't know whether it is all right for me to tag along.
As Ms White crosses the road back to her car, I ask her directly.
"Sure, meet me at the recreational ground at 2:00pm," she answers.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)Arriving early to Triabunna, I poke my head into the local op shop to kill some time until 2:00pm.
I'm perusing the menswear when by coincidence Ms White walks in.
The hour-long drive from Hobart has been transformative. Aside from a staff member from her local office in Sorell, she is by herself.
Away from the hustings of the campaign, this is a version of the opposition leader the media and public on television rarely see.
The two volunteers instantly start up a conversation about locals in the area and she effortlessly follows and contributes to the conversation.
Regardless of their political persuasions, these are her people.
Lindsey, Ms White's father, played football for Triabunna, and growing up she spent every second Saturday here.
It is almost 2:00pm and we are off to our next destination.
Phil Giffard, chair of the local recreation advisory committee, is there to greet Ms White, holding a wish-list of upgrades to the sporting precinct that need funding.
He whisks us to the number one priority, $42,000 to upgrade the change rooms.
The visitor's rooms have three showerheads, with a waist-high brick wall offering the only privacy for the one toilet, all of it in the same room. Understandably, female football teams refuse to use them.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)Back in the club rooms, half a dozen women are waiting.
One of them, Kath Anderton, heard from her son this morning that Ms White would be here.
Labor is running big on health this election and the women are concerned about the lack of access to GPs on the east coast.
Ms White sits down with them, two at a time, and listens to their concerns.
Not just gratuitously either, she spends a quality amount of time with each group.
After their chat, I ask Kath Anderton and her friend Shirley Castle what they think of the opposition leader.
Another resident, Janette Smith, finishes speaking to Ms White. As she gets up to go, Ms Smith takes Ms White's head with both hands and kisses the top of it.
Later, I ask her about the gesture.
"She just has a genuine interest in this community," Ms Smith says.
ABC News: Luke Bowden
)This country girl must get back to the big smoke, however. As she leaves, I ask what is in store for the rest of the day.
More work, then dinner and an in-conversation event with federal Labor MP Tanya Plibersek and Tasmania's first and only female premier Lara Giddings, in Hobart.
"Pretty long day," I say.
"Pretty normal actually," comes the answer.
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