ADELAIDE to Tasmania January 2016: To Lake St Clair

In true Barry fashion, I cant just get in the car to go somewhere without stopping at every tourist attraction along the way. Nicole and family were following behind us this time, and I am not convinced that she was prepared to actually stop and look at stuff, as Nic appears to me to be definitely the " I just wanna get there" type of gal. Luckily, (for Nicole), I was going too fast to stop in time for one of the lookouts across the lake. The fact that i was actually going over 40km/h was surprising enough, considering that the local government here appears to have had competitions with road builders to see who could build roads with the most sweeping bends and be the most difficult to travel when towing 2 and a half tonnes of caravan. Very rarely were we driving along a flat section of road that didn't have 35Km/hr bends, or that were such a steep decline that I was forced to go that speed in 2nd gear just to ensure that my brakes weren't smoking more than a teenage delinquent by the time I reached the bottom of the hill.
We stopped for a look around Queenstown and to have some lunch. The descent into town had us thinking we needed to keep our doors locked and driving through, but it was really nice in the middle of the town. We went for a walk and stumbled across the B end of the Strahan - Queenstown rail journey, and got some good close up views of the Steam train and carriages. Lunch was of course at the local playground, and then we were off to Lake St Clair.... sort of.....
I came across a rest stop with a short 10 minute walk to the Nelson Falls. These were pretty spectacular despite the trickle of water running down them. Apparently Tasmania has missed out on nearly 2 metres of rain in the last 12 months, and water is actually hard to find outside of the massive lakes and dams. All the creeks have enough water flowing to keep the trout alive, but the locals are all saying that they are surprised at the lack of rain so far..... we have had 0mm since arriving on the island 2 weeks ago, which is completely opposite to what i had been expecting on this trip.
We then set off again and as I realised it was now after 3pm and we still had over 100Km to go, I agreed to stop no more and get to camp.
Lake St Clair caravan park is actually a very small part of a private company that has a huge restaurant in the middle of the National Park with about 50 Chateaus and cottages dotted throughout the area. The local concierge showed almost zero interest to us lowly campers, and neglected to tell us that it would be easier to get a wheel barrow into our reserved spot, than to try and reverse in 11m of car and caravan between the gum trees on the single lane path.... or that we had to be careful getting out of our caravan once parked due to the neigbouring site being close enough to smell any escaping flatulence. ( Luckily for us that our neighbours were Nicole and Rob, and apparently theirs doesn't stink.... according to them).
We did however get told the forest was alive with tiger snakes, so that made us feel much better.
The park itself was a great location, but unfortunately being squeezed in so tight and therefore being conscious of the amount of noise the kids were making, made it a little stressful... but I sat down and had a few drinks to forget about it, as only a true seasoned camper would do.
Tomorrow we are doing some walks... Rob and Nicole are taking Tyler and Dylan with them and Ned to do a 13Km walk, whilst Tracy, myself, Kayla, Gracie and Patrick are sticking with a a shorter 5Km walk due to Tracy's knee still not ready for the tough runs.

Loving this holiday life.