The Moonscape scenery of Mount Lyell which surrounds Queenstown is due to the heavy mining activity in the area.
The rack and pinion railway, built to serve the gold mining and ore industry, which runs through the King River Gorge, is now a Tourist Steam Train.
Called the West coast wilderness railway it takes you on various trips and we chose the section to Dubbil Barril. This takes you up the steepest part of the track through dense rain forest. The Huon pine that covers the banks of the King River is a species of tree that has remained unchanged for 135 million years. It is very slow growing and often can live for two thousand years.
We had a very wet day which is common in this area and you can appreciate how difficult living and working conditions were for the early mining and construction pioneers.
The steam train was built in Scotland and the interior of the carriages was beautiful.
A great if wet day out.
In the afternoon we carry on up to Cradle Mountain, the weather is not improving but we get a glimpse of Cradle mountain in the distance but decide not to attempt to get any nearer.
We saw a very cute white Bush Wallaby on the way down and we head to Deloraine.
The weather improved, the scenery changed into green fields and wide rivers.
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