After the cold and windy welcome to Stanley yesterday we woke to a glorious warm, sunny, and not to windy day. Our plan was to get to the top of The Nut, hopefully by chairlift but only if the wind wasn’t blowing. We were in luck.

Once on top of The Nut there is a 2km walk around showing incredible views of the town and surrounding areas.

The area is looking very golden and dry. It has been the driest January on record and contributed to the fires. Overlooking Highfield House which we visit next.

The walk back down The Nut is very steep and hard on the legs. The $11 for the chairlift up was well spent.

Highfield House was built in the mid 1800’s as the residence for the manager of The Van Diemen Company, a position with much power at the time. Convict labour was used to build and later run the place. After numerous owners and years of neglect it is now owned and run bu Tasmania Parks.

We didn’t have a lot of time available because we had to collect our vans from the park so we only scratched the surface. It warrants a return with much more time.

A fascinating piece of our history.

Next stop Burnie. This was once a grubby industrial town which I visited in the 80’s. The paint factory spilled waste into the bay which stained red and the paper mill, which employed 3000, was old and very environmentally unfriendly.

Both factories have now closed down and Burnie is a prosperous and thriving tourism city. Like most Tasmanian towns Burnie can turn a tourist dollar out of just about anything.

One we set up the caravans in the park we set off back to Wynyard to explore Table Cape. Collette and I were here in October for the tulip festival and thoroughly fell in love with the place. It is green and lush and the pastures go right to the sea. The views are spectacular and the feel is peaceful.

Then back to Burnie. One of the attractions is the opportunity to look into a penguin nest 24 hours a day. Sounds great so we went for a look. The penguins were smart enough to block the viewing hole so couldn’t see a thing.

The penguins beach in Burnie.

Next is a place down by the river where platypus are ‘plentiful’.

Looks like heaven for any platypus, doesn’t it. We sat perfectly still on the banks at dusk for an hour. Not a platypus bill to be seen. The marketing worked on us.

Off to Hobart tomorrow for he girls to see celebrity chef Yotam Ottolenghi.