NEW NORFOLK town was built, again surprise surprise, by convict labour. It is built on the hills on either side of the Derwent River which flows alongside our campground and then on down to Hobart. New Norfolk has the oldest continually operating licensed hotel in Aussie, first opening in 1815. We hope to absorb some of its history and beer before we move on. Cameron and Christel had a good 3 hrs of school work this morning while I did the blog. We had promised Cameron that if he was really good at his school work we would give him a treat in the afternoon.
After lunch we headed into the outskirts of Hobart for his treat, a visit to Alpenrail. Little did we know it was going to be a treat for all three of us. It is advertised as one of the world’s top five model railway attractions. We were soon to discover why. Built by a Swiss immigrant and his son, it covers an area approximately equivalent to two average sized houses, and is a replica of a Swiss alpine village and its associated rail system. It took them over twelve years to build. It is currently operated by the son, Rudi, whom we had the pleasure to meet. He said they lost count after 20,000 hours, of actually how much time they spent on it.
They have replicated the village and surrounding mountains as accurately as they could, to the point where Swiss visitors have come in and said (in Swiss of course), “oh my god, our house is just around the corner from there,” and “I have walked up that valley”, and “my father used to graze his cows in that alpine meadow”. What a fantastic display. Rudi, the son told us what to expect before he switched the display on, and left us to watch absolutely fascinated as trains stopped, started, waited at points and disappeared in and out of tunnels. Meanwhile ski lifts were running and you were busy continually discovering all sorts of little details they had added to make everything as realistic as possible. All accompanied by the background sound of Swiss cowbells tinkling, waterfalls tumbling down mountains, and everything else relevant to the scene we were watching.
After about seven minutes we watched in awe as the lights dimmed giving the effect of the sun setting behind the mountains, and lights came on in the houses in the village and up in the mountains. We could even see little fires burning in the houses, and of course all the lights on the trains and in the passenger carriages came on. We could see the passengers sitting in their seats as the trains wizzed by.
As night fell a storm approached, starting as lightening away in the distance in the mountains, accompanied by distant thunder, and then as it got closer, the thunder increased to the point where the very floor we were standing on shook with each thunderclap. It was so realistic we wouldn’t have been surprised if it had actually started raining on us. Throughout all this the trains continued to run, their headlights shining on the tracks.
Gradually the storm passed and as the new day dawned the lights went out again. We watched as the trains continued on their busy schedule, still discovering fascinating details hidden in the scenery. Soon this day ended and again we entered into a night. A much milder storm this time, but as the new day broke, mist rolled out across the lake and covered the valleys. Absolutely incredible. Cameron eventually ran out of long descriptive words trying to explain what he was experiencing and how he was feeling. He was wishing the boys were here to see it.
What an amazing experience. Rudi told us that the whole set up had been made strong enough to allow him and his father to walk on it during its construction. They had also installed overhead gantry cranes to allow them to hang over the whole thing to gain access to some of the more inaccessible areas. We are sure nothing we will see will beat this, but who knows.
Coming down from a high, we travelled further in to Hobart to visit the Cadbury Factory, and hopefully have a tour. Owing to the fact that the factory is very much automated there was little to offer in the way of a tour, but after paying our $17.50 entry fee, we were each given a king sized stick of chocolate to chew on while we got a guided explanation of how chocolate was made, and of course untold samples of the various stages as the chocolate was processed, through to more samples of the various final products. We staggered out all swearing off chocolate for the next few years, and still clutching the original sticks we had been given. It’ll be a while before we can even look at them.
When we got back to our camp we found there had been a huge influx of campers with spaces becoming very limited. It was lucky we had decided to come down to Hobart when we did. We have heard the camp will be fully booked by tomorrow. We are surrounded by wooden boat fans from all over Aussie. Builders, Hobbyists, Sailors, the lot. Tomorrow we will head in to Hobart central to get our bearings and do a bit of sightseeing before the big weekend. Not only is the Wooden Boat festival on, there is also several other regattas and shows on the same weekend. Watch this space.
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