Port Arthur, the site of the first Penal colony and silent witness to the deprivations visited upon convicts unfortunate enough to be sent there. It's famous for its ghost sightings- I think it should be equally renowned for squeezing every last cent out of the unfortunate tourist. We visited the town after walking the Shipsterns Bluff track with the kids earlier in the morning. We were pretty tired and footsore and personally, I wasn't really up for wandering around a bunch of old ruins with two weary kids. There was a charge ( of course ) for the privilege of doing just this but they threw in a guided tour and a ferry ride to make the $70 seem reasonable. We didn't Want to do all this, however, so how much to just wander around the grounds for half an hour? " sorry sir" came the reply, " we do not allow that". You must purchase the Bronze package. To visit this piece of Australian history, it seemed that nothing short of daylight robbery got you through the door. Ironic, really.
What followed next isn't something I would normally do, but having decided we would not pay the extortionate entry fee to see crumbling buildings and some flowers, the boys called us over to see the paper mâché model of the place which happened to be just through the turnstile. Making up mental excuses in my head as to what I was doing entering the forbidden area without a ticket, I went to have a look. No one seemed bothered by the incursion- if this was America, I would have been pinned excitingly to the floor by a muscled FBI chap whilst sirens shrieked around me, but not here. Tom ambled through the gates as well in response to the boys cries, and still nobody batted an eyelid. So we just kept on walking. The long and the short if it is that we ended up seeing exactly what we wanted in Port Arthur for absolutely no money at all. Call me tight, call it a bad example if you will, but me? I call it a result!