Crammed into our seats on the boat with all the blue hairs (several really did have blue hair) at 9:00 a.m. in the morning, we were wondering if our detour to take the cruise was really a good idea.
A side note: When we arrived to check in for the cruise, the woman at the desk asked us if we'd felt the earthquake. Apparently, there was a small (but feel-able) earthquake — the first in 10 years — in Strahan at about 8:30 the previous evening. We should have felt it, but didn't. After all that time in NZ and not ever feeling one shake and now to have one happen here and still not feel it?!?!
The cruise boat makes several stops throughout the day and for all that you have the option of experiencing, it really is good value for money. The first stop is out in the Southern Ocean at Macquarie Heads or "Hell's Gates", a narrow gap to negotiate with strong currents that has shipwrecked many a boat. Supposedly the name came from the prisoners on Sarah Island, a place that had the reputation for being a hell on earth.
On the way to the old penitentiary on Sarah Island, the boat makes a stop at the many fish farms that line the massive waterway. While we were rather unenthused to hear about the aquaculture industry, there were many cameras flashing.
Sarah Island darkly lured me. After reading about it's very depraved and controversial past, I wasn't sure what to expect. While the ghosts may still linger there, not much else does. There are only ruins left now, which our animated tour guide brings to life for us. I still couldn't help but shudder imagining the hard lives lived by those who worked this prison ship yard. Tales of mutiny, cannibalism, even a group of convicts that managed to escape via one of the ships they were forced to build (made it all the way to Chile they did!) make this fun for all ages (even the teenage boys on the tour listen with rapt attention!).
We really were here for the next bit of the trip though — the ride up into the Gordon River and the stop at the Heritage Landing, a World Heritage Site, to take a walk though one tiny section of this incredibly dense and lush rainforest. The water is so dark and deep, right to the banks edge, that river birds are rare here (they can't see to fish properly).
Barely able to see into the forest either, due to its density of brush, it especially makes vivid all the escape attempts the convicts made... easy to understand why many ended up turning around and going back!
The Huon pines that call this National Park home (and are only found in Tasmania) are estimated to be the second oldest living things on this planet (the bristlecone pines being the oldest). The trees are highly protected after being nearly wiped out for their high resin, rot resistant wood. One tree that was carbon dated to about 30,000 years old still had workable wood. These are scraggy mammoth giants at their rainforesty best.
After the cruise we high tale it as far as we can make it in the daylight. Basically to Burbury Lake, just outside of the strip mined bare Queenstown (a stark contrast to the lush denseness we experienced on the Gordon). We set up to free camp at a boat ramp there. With only one other tenter in attendance, this place is quiet. So quiet that our ears ring with the silence.
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