Christmas Down Under

Buttongrass Fields


Hell's Gate


Fish Farms


Strahan Rainbow


Mt Zeehan
  
It’s Boxing Day today, the day after Christmas and Australia's major shopping day of the year.  You know, those post Christmas sales are a big thing.  But before I tell you about our Christmas, let me fill you in about our last week.
 
On Monday we drove out to Strahan, on the west coast of Tasmania, also known as the wild west coast.  Strahan is the only remaining town on the coast, on the Harbor of the Gordon River.  It is surviving on its tourism and the fishing industry both at the moment doing quite well, even with tourism being down because of the high Australian dollar.
 
Have I said  before that despite Tasmania’s relative small size, it is not terribly easy to get from point A to point B.  We left Hobart and drove north, through New Norfolk, then up through Hamilton which is in the highlands, then through the lakes region, back into Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair National Park, to Lake St Clair, which is at the bottom of the Overland Pass walk if you were to actually walk the overland pass.  But we were driving through the park, and the scenery is just amazing.  We are driving along, enjoying the wilds, and after another hour I see what looks like mining!  We pass out of the park, and its like entering a moonscape.  We are entering into Queenstown, a dying, if not already dead mining town, known for its copper and tin.  What a mess.  The road wove down through the old mine and was a narrow, steep, curvy, no edges, just cliff on one side, and nothing on the other.  Honestly, I couldn’t look up or down on this road, I just wanted to get it over with. It was horrible!  So was Queenstown.  We just filled up on petrol, and continued winding our way down into Strahan.
 
Strahan is a very cute tourist town, on the Macquarie Harbor, kept going because of the tourism of the famous Gordon River Cruise and the Wilderness Railway.  We didn’t do the railway, but we did lash out and do the Gordon River Cruise and it was excellent.  As our Christmas present, we did it first class and that was a treat in itself.  It was a six hour tour, out through Hells Gates, which is the entrance of the harbor.  Called Hells Gate not because the entrance to the harbor is such a challenge and dangerous (which it is), but because the convicts were entering hell coming to the penal settlement on Sarah Island.  Anyway, we then go back up the harbor, learning about the fish farms which was fascinating.  Because the Gordon River and six other rivers empty into the harbor, the harbor is actually full of fresh water, which sits above the walt water because of the density, so they can grow fresh water fish, in the harbor.  You can tell the water is fresh water because it is stained tan from the Button Grass that grows on the highlands.  Like I said, it is fascinating.  Then we did a little rainforest walk to learn about the particular eco system of the Gordon River, lunch of local fish and wines, the a tour of the penal settlement on Sarah Island.  It made Port Arthur look like a holiday camp.  What an excellent day. 
 
We leave the net day, taking the scenic tour up thru Zeehan, than Burnie, over to Devonport, then down to Launceston via Exeter, then Back to Hobart.  Steve reckons it was about 500 K, and it took us 8 hours.  Like I said, the roads….
 
So now we are up to Christmas.  We had a great day with new friends in Cygnet, dinner out in the garden.  It was requested that I make a pumpkin pie.  Very hard to do without sugar pumpkins or canned pumpkin, so I winged it, and made a butternut/sweet potato pie that had rave reviews.  Even from Steve, who doesn’t like pumpkin pie!  It was a great day, the weather held, even got a little warm, the food and company was great, what else can one ask for.