Just beneath the summit of Mount Owen in western Tasmania is a cave.
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The top of a mountain is one of the more unusual places to find a cave, but it is most certainly there and is a stunning formation.
For those of a photographic persuasion, the view back down to Queenstown can be artistically framed by the cave mouth.
Towards the back is a small passage through which adventurers scramble before scaling the final few of the mountain's 1146 metres.
And from the summit exist views - from windswept Strahan in the west to snow-capped Frenchmans Cap in the east - of such captivating beauty as to render the wind-chill factor almost unnoticeable.
The top of Mount Owen is just one, albeit extreme, example of the area's many natural attractions.
And yet despite such gems, the region is on its knees.
The coronavirus is but the latest body blow to a town still floored by the deaths of three miners more than six years ago.
The Mount Lyell copper mine has been in caretaker mode since 2014 as a coronial inquest into the deaths rumbles on.
The results can be seen in the traffic-less streets and abandoned houses throughout the town.
Deprived of work close to home, many local miners have plumped for the lucrative fly-in, fly-out work on offer in Queensland and Western Australia.
The local economy took another hit when COVID-19 restrictions severed the vital tourism market revenue stream.
However, a visit to Queenstown following the recent easing of those restrictions provided grounds for optimism.
With international and even mainland travel hardly a healthy option at the moment, there has never been a better time for Tasmanians to explore Tasmania.
United by a shared ability to tame the coronavirus by taking it seriously, New Zealand is seeking to strengthen travel links with Australia's island state.
But why cross the Tasman for a Queenstown when there's a perfectly good one here?
And even at this time of year, with the notoriously fickle West Coast weather living up to its reputation, there was still plenty to do.
While peaks like Mount Owen require good conditions (and a significant workout), the Spion Kopf lookout, gravel footy oval, Horsetail Falls and magnificent Iron Blow lookout were all just as captivating in the bleakest of bleak midwinters.
And the traders that are persevering were welcoming and hopeful for the future, from Phil Evans' splendid Marketplace to Rick Snell's Missing Tiger bookshop and Noddy Reid's Queenstown Gifts and Souvenir emporium, all just about still pumping along the town's major artery, Orr Street. And you won't go wrong with the Tassie Devil parmigiana in Smelters Restaurant at Silver Hills.
Tasmania needs unique places like Queenstown and right now places like Queenstown need Tasmanians.
Not only is it a chance to savour what makes our state great, but, until border restrictions are lifted, we don't even have to share the experience with inter-state or international visitors.
And here's a fun fact. The mountain with the penthouse cave view which looms above Queenstown was named after controversial English biologist Richard Owen who not only established the Natural History Museum in London but also coined the term from which the word dinosaur is derived.
Two centuries later, Tasmanians are entrusted with staving off another potential extinction.