Tasmania prt 2

Hi,
     We awoke to a very cold morning and some rain that hung around for the next 3 days. Our first stop of the day was to take a hike around Lake St.Clair which was only about a 5 min drive away. It was a nice walk through many different types of scenery. From there we starting driving towards the west coast. On our way to Queenstown we found another waterfall to hike to and the rain picked up a ton! Nelson Falls was the coolest waterfall in my opinion it was just awesome, tucked back deep in a lush green forrest with a pretty heavy rain really set an unique mood.

     Driving after the waterfall was quite crazy! So much rain our wipers couldnt keep up, probably not the best time for that to happen because we were driving through the mountains on narrow winding roads. I enjoyed driving in this weather especially because all the rain made the mountains come alive with waterfalls which was really neat. We arrived in Queenstown and got settled in there. The hostel had heated blankets that covered you on the top and bottom, it was perfect after a cold rainy day.

     The next day we got to the west coast town of Strahn and did a hike there and had a look around town. Then we started heading north. Our first stop was at a secluded beach after traveling miles down a dirt road. It was really awesome because on the west side of the island is the Indian Ocean, so that was pretty neat to see but it looks just like the rest . . . . The weather that day was also sub-par but I loved it. Mother nature was really pissed off that day, high winds and rain made for a really cool beach scene. There were white caps for as far as the eye could see and knee high sea foam being blown in in thick walls. Christen and I walked close to the water only to get caught by one of these walls, harmless but it was really fun to try and out run them and not step in the pools of water that had formed.

       From there we stopped at Henty Dunes just up the road. On one side of the road was lush green forest and on the other side were seemingly endless sandunes. We hiked up to the top and found it to be quite windy. The rest of the group went back to the car but I wanted to hike around a bit more. It turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of the trip for me. I really enjoyed the solitude of being on these massive sand dues over looking the ocean. I came across one spot where the sand had been blown into a nice peak ( exactly like you see in movies when people are lost in the desert). Walking across it on the peak was really neat because the sand was so unsupported on the top that I sunk up to my knee or higher with every step, like dry quicksand. The drop off on one side was pretty steep so I made a bit of a platform that I could get a running start and jump from. Needless to say I was entertained here for quite some time doing flips, spins and seeing how big of an avalanche I could make.
      Then we drove to the very very very small mining town of Rosebery. We stayed here for the night at a hostel situated just atop a waterfall. We spent our night making dinner and relaxing
in the common room/kitchen with all the miners. The miners we super friendly and it was great to swap stories with them. One nice miner gave us heaps of information about the rest of the island so we re planned the second half of the trip to see some stuff that he had mentioned, mainly penguins in the town of Stanley on the north shore.  That night there was an AFL game on tv so watching it beside the miners as they cheered and hollered at the tv was pretty entertaining, they were nice enough to try and familiarize us with the rules. (AFL is the Australian Football League and its one hell of a sport. Picture our NFL with no rules and no padding)  This night it was warm enough for me to save a few bucks and sleep in the car so I did. It proved to be a pretty poor decision as I woke up many times throughout the night to guys slamming their cars door on their way to the mines.

- Evan