MOT Tour Day 28 - Snakes and Ships

Carpet Python at Serpentarium 

St Helens has proven to be a delight, not the least because of the outstanding holiday park we are staying in. Tasman Holiday Park is high quality. The best bathrooms we have experienced, grassy sites and a fabulous camp kitchen.

Today was a mixture, mostly as we sought to complete the list of attractions we had identified during planning. Before that, it was an hour checking the financial affairs were in order.

First visit was to the Serpentarium Wildlife Park, whose focus is on snakes but with other reptiles plus a few marsupials and even a pair of blue and gold Macaw thrown in. There are some Australian snakes but none who are venomous and an odd collection of exotic snakes, including a boa constrictor and an anaconda! We were given an excellent talk from one of the staff. Full of information and useful anecdotes. We were given ample opportunity to hold/caress/express love for the snake on display. We abstained. The small Bennet's Wallaby pair were cute and the Macaw were loud and colourful.

All of the snakes and lizards and even the Chinese turtles, were in glass cages appropriate for their size, contained in a building. I didn't really have a problem with the containment that I usually do as these animals have all been bred in captivity but I thought it was a pity there was an under representation of Australian animals. However, given the high proportion of Australian snakes which are highly venomous, it makes sense that they concentrate on those that are not.

It was an impressive facility and value for money, although Sue was glad when we left. She has the same fascination for snakes as she does Americans.

Mainly Maritime

After lunch we visited Mainly Maritime, an astounding collection of more than ten thousand catalogued items which the owner and curator Brian has been collecting for 63 years (and counting on his website).  It is the history of warships represented in documents, artwork, personal items, letters, newspaper articles, ships items ... look the list could go on and on. I'll be honest, this is not my area of interest but it is a truly remarkable and immaculately presented collection spread across many rooms. The walls tend to be very busy which can be a distraction and test the concentration but then I did say its not really my area of interest. I wonder if Brian might be better off showing 25% of the collection and rotate items in and out over time. The staggering thing is that what you see is the lesser part of the collection in terms of number.

I take my hat off to this museum and its passionate owner. It is a testament to a man committing a life time to a passion. I wouldn't miss it if you are going to be in St Helens.

During the second half of the afternoon we took the drive out to St Helens Point on the southern side of the opening into George's Bay. There are a number of stopping points to admire the environment but we drove to the limits of the road, to Beerbarrel Beach. A really good quality boat ramp has been installed for the golfers of the sea and others we saw free ranging across the rock which stretched on to the point. Their rods could be seen occasionally whipping lines in among the sea grasses in search of piscatorial reward. Where the sea grass gave way, the area's trademark white sand shone up from the watering floor.

Climbing up over the ridge which is the spine of St Helens Point and where the St Helens Light is located, we took several good dirt tracks to get views to the south for the first time since making ground in the east. The ranges of Douglas Apsley National Park were off in the far distance but in closer view were the Peron Dunes: large sand dunes, mostly fixed with vegetation, which reminded me of the Kurnell Dunes of my youth. 

Click here for today's photos

At one stop, in a remote dirt carpark, with its obligatory narrow pedestrian track down to the beach, a police vehicle cruised past us, not doubt checking that us young things weren't snogging.

Back into St Helens for fuel and our day was done. On to Bicheno tomorrow and the first of our east coast cruises.

328 @ 12.23 (2815 km @ 11.89 km/100 L)