Day 20 – Hasting Caves    

 This morning we got up early, we had forgotten how noisy a caravan park can be, not only did we have noisy families and cars, even the cows in the paddock next to the tent could not chew or talk to each other quietly.  I was up earlier than John and I bugged him until he finally woke up and got out of bed.

 We started our day by heading back to Geeveston to organise a place to stay for Christmas (24&25^th).  I waited in the car while John did some shopping & went to the information centre.  John was lucky to get a bottle of wine from the information centre for filling in a survey which was nice.  He also managed to book a cabin for 2 nights which was prefect, to be honest I thought we would be in trouble and would find it difficult to get accommodation.  I have now decided that the Christmas, so called difficulty getting accommodation is just something made up by the tourist industry to scare people to book ahead. 

With that sorted we headed of to Hasting, where there are some hot springs and caves.  We arrived at Hasting and booked our tour of the cave which was not for an hour so we put on the bathers and headed for the hot springs pool.  If you asked me I don’t think they were all that hot more like luke warm.  We paddled around for a while and I mean paddle the pool was only 1.1m deep and probably about 10m long.  But it was quite refreshing and it had very nice surroundings.  Hastings has a lot of potential to become like Hepburn springs if it was managed better. 

 After 45min in the pool we headed out for the cave tour, which was a short drive down the road and a short walk to the entrance, we were in a group of 21 which was probably just right, the guy taking the tour seemed quite nice and full of information and a bit of a comedian, though I think some of his jokes were a bit tired, like they had been told time and time again. 

The caves were great, full of lots of formations of every type and large cabins. Apparently it is only one of two Dolomite caves open to the public. It didn’t go very far but had a lot of winding stair cases and short walks throughout.  John took lot of photos, hopefully they come out well.

 After the cave we headed further south to Ida bay where there is a tourist train which takes an old historic train line along the coast.  We tossed up wether we should take the tour, finally John decided we would, so all aboard.  The train was small and went very slowly it was powered by a smelly diesel engine, but was nice.

The train stoped at two places before going back to the main station.  The first was at an old cemetery where we got some history of the area and the people that once worked in it.  The train driver gave as all the information, which he presented in his own unusual way, with little jokes and at times very serious.  He was even related to some of the people in his stories which was pretty cool.

The last stop was at a bay called the big hole, it was a very pretty harbour the water was clear blue and the sand white, very scenic and peaceful.  In the short time the weather had stared to turn bad and had become very cold.  I was lucky because I was dressed for the bad weather but John was not, by the time we were back at the car he was almost blue and very cold. 

Heading further south we ended up as far south you can go, at least by car that is, it was way too cold to go for a big walk and by this time it had started to rain.  We did a short walk along the beach and stopped to look at a sculpture of a whale, which really was not that interesting, but the views were nice, shame about the rain. 

We headed back to Geeveston via some gravel road trying to avoid the Hwy which really didn’t work as the road was blocked by a gate, luckily we were able to make our way back to the Hwy and in to Geeveston  and on to Port Huon the place were we had booked to stay.  On first sight John was disappointed I think he was hoping for something more traditional and less modern.

 The cabin as John said looks a little like a tin shed but on the inside it is nice and very modern looking, missing a couch, a spot to park your car and a large bin might I add. But putting all that aside the view is sensational and it is pretty comfortable, hopefully we get a good night sleep.