Tasmania - June 24, 2012

After a night of listening to the rain on the roof, I got up at 7:30am to read a book and watch the mist leave the surrounding hills.  It was nice to see the property in the daylight, and have a relaxing morning.  We cooked up a breakfast of sausages and eggs from the market, and chatted to the home owners for a few minutes before heading off for the day. 

The third dam of the trip, the Murchison Dam, was actually a tourist stop, so it was cool but lacked the danger of trespassing.

We really didn't have much planned for the day except for driving, so we followed another guidebook suggestion and tried to get to Montezuma Falls.  The signs were very confusing because they said there was a 3-hour walk, but we weren't sure if that was in addition to the long four-wheel-drive track that we had to take first.  The road was ridiculous, and of course when we got to the end of it there was a long hike. 

We didn't do the hike because we had a lot of driving to do, but we (the geologists) did play around in some old mine workings for quite awhile.  Interestingly, from the top we think we actually saw Montezuma Falls.  Go team!

Next, following Fong's advice (from Fiona's B&B) we went to Zeehan in search of a Gem and Mineral shop.  The town was absolutely deserted, and all of the shops except for the local café were closed.  The café itself was pretty funny (see pic below), but nonetheless we managed to get  some hot food and drinks.

If you can't read the sign, it says "Books are not for Sale"

Our guidebook told us there was a Monster Museum in Zeehan with two-headed Tassie babies and the like, so naturally we were intrigued.  When we asked the lady in the café about it she told us that museum had closed down, but that we could probably go see a different museum in a purple house.  When I asked what was in the museum, she gave me the weirdest smile and just said "you'll see".  So of course we went!

Oh. My. Gosh.

Yup, it was a purple house alright!  And this was just the front yard!  It wasn't so much a museum as this woman's house (she didn't live in the crazy part, so we have to give her some credit for that.)  Her and her husband started this "collection" when the town was going to throw out a bunch of historical stuff, and they decided to keep it instead.  And then she said it just kept growing.  Her husband does strange wood carvings, there's a rock collection, a dinosaur toy collection, a seashell collection, a replica of an underground mine, pop bottle/can collection...you get the idea.  I think we were all in shock so we didn't take that many pictures, but it was a major highlight of the day.

I know that everything after that will seem boring, but stay with me.  That was only lunch time!

Our next destination was Queenstown, which we were looking forward to because it actually has working mines.  Let me just say though, it was the most depressing town I have ever seen.  Not only was the town deserted (though to be fair it was a Sunday) but obviously the pollution and the acid rain from the mines had caused the entire landscape to change drastically.  At the start of the original mine it had the world's richest copper-gold deposit, but all we could think was thank goodness we decided not to stay there overnight.

We drove through the town to a lookout over a flooded, abandoned open-pit mine called Iron Blow.  It was pretty neat, but super depressing.  The broken baby stroller half-way down the pile of rubble didn't help.

And like I said, the acid had caused everything to die and it turned all of the rocks at the higher elevations a sick shade of yellow.

It was cold, raining, and getting dark, so we left as soon as we possibly could.  Just outside of town, though, away from the depressing vibe, we crossed a bridge and saw this beautiful view.  It's definitely my favourite picture of the entire trip.

After a 2-hour drive in the dark, through snow, and watching out for various creatures dodging across the road (with strange names like Pade Melons, Quolls, and Opossums) we finally arrived in Tarraleah.  I know we said that Zeehan was abandoned, but we were actually the only people in Tarraleah other than the bartender.  Tarraleah used to be a town, but then a family bought it in 2005 and turned it into a resort.  No one actually lives there, and we were the only guests at the resort.  We rented an awesome cottage, and I think it was the best one of the trip.  It had a wood burning fireplace AND electric blankets!

We had a nice dinner at the pub, then we went back to the house to open some Tassie wine and enjoy our much-needed fireplace.  And yes, we all brought our Uggs on the trip.