So went to bed early, but then woke up at 3:20 and never got back to sleep. Sigh. It was even nice and cool in the room so it wasn't the heat this time.
Let the sweetie have another leisurely start and we were out the door at 10:05.
We headed up to Queenstown, but as per usual with mornings at the moment it was quite cloudy. We went through Queenstown and down into Linda and Stu had a coffee and I looked at the Royal Hotel. Stu was inspired to find a copy of The Peaks of Lyall by Geoffrey Blainey (he actually stayed at the hotel in the 1950s while researching the book).
Old mine head in Queenstown
Old Royal Hotel
Old Royal Hotel
Old Royal Hotel
Old Royal Hotel
Linda Creek
We kept on going out to the lakes east of Queenstown, but with all the clouds and it being midday by now, they didn't look much better than on the way in.
Mount Owen
Peaks south of Queenstown
Lake Burbury panorama
Lake Burbury and Eldon Peak
Lake Burbury
Headed back into Queenstown, this time stopping at the welcome sign at the top of the hill. I tried again to find the photos Dad took along this hill, but with so much regrowth in the past 53 years nothing looks the same anymore so it's really hard to tell.
Queenstown sign
View up the Lyell Highway towards Mt Owen
Flowers at the lookout
View of Queenstown from the lookout
Beware fallen stones. Not as good as Hanging Rock Road!
View up the Lyell Highway towards Mt Owen
Drove down and parked near the station and quickly snapped some photos of buildings in the fleeting sunlight. Then tried to get a "morning" photo up main street (Orr Street) but there were still clouds on the mountains. Stu wandered up and down looking for a book store and I found the Missing Tiger book store. Stu went in and I asked about The Peaks of Lyall, and freakishly enough they had a copy! 5th edition but pretty cool that he could find it.
Mt Owen mural on the side of the Paragon Theatre
Empire Hotel
Mural in Queenstown
Looking up Orr Street to Mt Owen
Hunters Hotel
By the time we'd done all that the Wilderness train had returned to the station and was letting off steam, so went and saw that.
West Coast Wilderness Railway steam train in Queenstown station
Queenstown train station
West Coast Wilderness Railway steam train in Queenstown station
West Coast Wilderness Railway steam train in Queenstown station
Meanwhile Stu ordered some loaded fries which were evil but good. Although we had to fight the wasps for them.. at least half a dozen of them were very persistently trying to see if the plate had any sugar on it (and they really loved the caramel on Stu's coffee).
Persistent wasp enjoying Stu's caramel coffee
Persistent wasp enjoying Stu's caramel coffee
Had a walk through the park near the station, and down to the Red River (Queen River). By this time the sky was nearly completely blue.
Mining vehicle at Miner's Siding
Galley Museum
Historic building in Queenstown
Queen River aka the Red River
Water race near the station
Water race near the station
Headed back to Strahan via Zeehan (longer in distance and a bit longer in time, but not such a little windy road). It was 15:00 as we passed through Zeehan, and I was like, we should go spend another hour at the museum (tickets are good for seven days). But Stu wasn't prepared mentally for the change in plans so we didn't go, just went straight back to Strahan. (and I'd left the ticket back at the van anyway, but I'm sure if the same lady was on the desk she'd have remembered us).
Back in Strahan we went to Hogarth Falls which is a nice little forty minute return walk to some small falls.
Hogarth Falls
Hogarth Falls
Then drove up to the Water Tower Hill Lookout, which would have been nice if you could have actually seen anything past all the trees.
View of Regatta Point in Strahan from Water Tower Hill Lookout
And finally back to the van around 17:00. We discussed dinner options and I got depressed by the lack of healthy options. There's no Asian style restaurants of any description for like a couple of hundred kilometres. The takeaway near the park is all "brown" food. There's an IGA with plenty of healthy fresh food options, but not in easy portion sizes that wouldn't result in lots of leftovers (and I'm sick of tv dinners). So it's just all too hard and I conceded to getting a supreme pizza from Molly's (after more of the very nice Hobart Brewing Co Cream Ale).
Although it's only 17:45 and I'm done with my evening routine.. now what...?
Edit: while waiting to pick up our pizza I noticed that Molly's does in fact have "real" food - they have various home-made meals that actually include vegetables in takeaway containers. Cool.
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