Strahan to Hobart

We are getting close to the end of the trip so we headed back to Hobart today. This was the longest driving day with just over 300km to travel. Around 4 1/2 hours.

First stop was Molly's for a bacon and egg sandwich for breakfast and then onto the hilly road to Queenstown. They have an amazing steam-engine railway here and also at Strahan but they are currently not connected. The steepest bit requires a rack-and-pinion climb/descent so you can only travel from either end a certain distance and then back again. The engine was gathering steam so we took a photo and, after buying some bread for lunch, pushed on.

The road climbs steeply out of Queenstown and the views back and also over the old open cast mine workings are spectacular. They mined copper and gold amongst other minerals around here so it was very important for the Tasmanian economy.

The area has an incredible set of Mountain Biking trails now. Check out the track down the steep ridge on the left of the following photo. I don't mind doing some crazy things but I would never cycle down that track!

Next stop was the easy 20 minute walk to Nelson Falls. A very peaceful and flat walk through rain forest with the falls at the end of the track. As we headed back from the falls we were passed by the 32 elderly aussies we were with on the Gordon River cruise yesterday. They are from a town on the border of NSW and Victoria. Most were in their eighties and some had walkers but they were out there doing it!

It was getting on for lunch time so we continued on and pulled in at the Lake St Clair Visitor Centre. This is the end point for The Overland Track from Cradle Mountain, The starting point is where we were photographing Wombats a couple of days ago. It's about 65km long and takes 6-7 days. You need to carry all your supplies and the terrain is very rugged so not for the faint hearted. We made ourselves a sandwich to finish some of the food we had with us and enjoyed the scenery.

Over the next hour we descended from the amazing interior of Tasmania back to Hobart and busy city traffic.

We are now settled in at the Mayfair Plaza Motel for the next four nights before flying back to Christchurch on Tuesday. Tomorrow is our 50th wedding anniversary so we are having dinner to celebrate at Aloft. This is a chef's menu only dinner - more details can be found here.

Dinner tonight was a great Japanese meal at Midori - a restaurant in this complex. Our meals were delivered by a very polite robot!



Monday we plan to catch the car ferry to Bruny Island and explore there with activities for our last day yet to be decided.

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