MONDAY 20TH - CRADLE MOUNTAIN

All I can say is that the Cradle Mountain precinct has changed an awful lot since we were last here in the mid 1990's. The change has of course been brought about because of the enormous number of visitors it now gets but we were able to drive to the Dove Lake car park as we did then and we did find the day hut that we sheltered in from the atrocious weather last time.

We were only able to drive to Dove Lake because we went past the boom gate very late this afternoon. They have a system whereby only a limited number of cars are let in the park at any one time. Otherwise everybody with a National Park pass is given a shuttle bus ticket and has to gain access via the shuttle bus. It's just as well because the road is narrow and windy and couldn't handle any volume of vehicles.

 

En route from Queenstown this morning, we visited a number of the hydro electric dams – very impressive. There aren't many places where you can drive across the spillway. They close the road when the water is flowing over.

The weather has been quite pleasant today although the temperature is back at about 10 degrees now. We took advantage of the good weather to have a helicopter tour – again very impressive. We were a bit unlucky in that the only shower of the afternoon arrived at Dove Lake at about the same time we did so we didn't see it at its best.

 

We have had a few wildlife encounters today including the wallaby who is contentedly munching at the mossy grass on the edge of our campsite as I type this.

On the subject of the campsite, it is really well done. While we can see the neighbouring camps through the trees, they are sufficiently far away to create the illusion that we have our little bit of bush to ourselves.

Tomorrow we will pack our back pack, get our shuttle bus tickets and attack the shorter tracks. We will leave the Overland Track to the younger, fitter and madder.