Day 26. Primrose Sands to Queenstown 05-03-16

Having got Paul back safely yesterday we had a travel day today.. First, however, the "girls" wanted to go into Hobart and wander around the market stall.. We drove into Hobart and found a place to park. Obviously not wishing to participate in this exercise the "boys" managed to escape and drove off to find the top of Mount Wellington.. It was quite a long twisty road that wound it's way up and around the side of the mountain..After about 35 mins of hair-raising driving we made the top and found a purpose built carpark. We wandered off to find some of the walk ways around the top and quickly saw some extremely stunning scenery across the whole bay and surrounding landscape of Hobart. We were on the right side of the mountain to avoid the wind and this meant it was quite warm.. We found a large observation building that had a high roof and plenty of glass to look across the bay. We also found that the acoustics of the building made for some fantastic echoes which lasted for quite some time.. Loads and loads of photos were taken but we quickly realised we should be making our way back down the mountain to meet the "girls" . About a third of the way down we got a message asking if we could delay the meeting for about half an hour as they were only half way round the markets ? Unfortunately we could not reply as the message would not go ! We decided to go down anyway, park up, have a cup of coffee etc. and just wait around.. As we were so early Trev wanted to take a detour and get some pics of the main bridge across Hobart harbour.. We drove off and found an ideal spot for a few photos.. This done we made our way back towards town to the meeting place. We got there just minutes before the originally planned meeting time, turned the corner into the road and found a parking space immediately.. bonus.. no having to look for a parking space and walk miles… As we were walking towards the coffee shop we spotted the "girls" walking up towards the coffee shop from the opposite direction. As we met they said they had not heard from us so decided to come back and have lunch and wait for us. Good plan, we could all have lunch now.. It was yet another very tasty and welcome lunch, which we all ate heartily and then ordered lots of cakes to take with us for the journey !! Back in the van and off we go !! Found the right road easily and headed off towards Queenstown.. This was not going to be much different from most of the other roads we had travelled in Tasmania in that they were all tight, twisty, undulating and generally slow going. At many stages we pulled over to allow traffic, which obviously wanted to go faster, to pass us. This gave us time to admire what little scenery we could see. Most was blocked off as were in tree lined roads for mile after mile after mile.. As we went round a couple of the tight bends Pat noticed that her cake was beginning to melt so had to eat it as we went along.. It was a hard thing to do as were being bounced around by the road, but she managed it.. Once she had finished hers she noticed that Trev's was looking a little wobbly as well so he tucked into his.. The others, at this point, appeared to be ok so they were left in their boxes to be eaten later.. After about an hour or so of driving we needed a drinks stop and leg stretch so we found a little roadside café to have a nice cold drink and now eat our cakes.. All went down very well and we were soon back on our way to Queenstown.. More of the same undulating, twisty and tight cornered roads, until we suddenly started down a steep descent into what seemed like a huge gorge. This still had the tight bends but was much steeper than before and made for some 'fun' driving. About half way down this particular mountain trek there was a parking area for photos to be taken.. Wow, what a sight to see the road winding its way down towards the town and the copper mining and quarrying that had taken place over the years.. onwards to Queenstown and our stop over for the night. We did get down in one piece and drove through the town to find our objective. We saw a sign that proclaimed to be our stop, but all we saw was a palace like building on top of a very high hill and what looked a hundred steps leading up to it. Oh no, none of us will ever be able to get up those, let alone try it with luggage.. Luckily though we did spot a sign that told us the entrance was via a side road so we went off around the corner and found a small private road that lead up to the 'palace'. We parked up, unloaded and found our rooms.. The lady, asked us if we would like her to cook for us, but not wishing to put her to any trouble we declined.. This was a mistake as when we went into town to find some food there was absolutely nothing open except for a drive through bottle shop.. Not needing anymore 'drink' we went back up to the 'palace'.

We were to find out that Queenstown had once been a prosperous copper mining town and the building had been the residence used by all of the general managers of the mines.. It is rumoured that the wife of the first manager could not find a suitable area, away from the lowly workers, and demanded that the top of an overlooking hill be blasted to flatten the top and the 'house' built there. This seemed perfectly plausible as it really did look down upon the rest of the "township" !! We were given a quick tour and found the 'house' to be fascinating, especially the stories of ghosts etc.. As they had not been there long the couple who now owned it were not able to give us too much more information.. We found enough bits and pieces to put together a little snack and also made tea and coffee. Whilst we were eating this we noticed that the tops of the surrounding hills were covered but the sunset was turning the mountainside under the clouds a hue of reds, oranges and yellows.. Paul and Trev shot off to get their cameras and came back to get some pics of this sunset.. They got a couple but as quickly as the colour had appeared it disappeared without further trace this evening...

As it was now getting quite late we decided to head for bed. We were planning to take a train ride, in the morning, that went half way towards Strahan then came back. It seems that at the same time a train leaves Strahan and comes half way to Queenstown and then returns ???? We could not figure this out either. It was hoped to get tickets in the morning !!