The Nut at Stanley

Fairy penguins in Burnie

Old homes in Stanley

After a late breakfast, we tool off to Stanley in the Volvo we certainly are getting to know well. Stanley is a beautiful, tiny port town about an hour from Wynyard. It’s the birthplace of Joseph Lyons, the only Tasmanian to become Australia’s Prime Minister, and home to “The Nut.”

Stephen spots a squid boat in the harbor, the lights it uses to attract them to the surface strung like huge, clear Christmas ornaments on racks across the back of the boat.

David climbs The Nut while Stephen, Maureen and Cynthia look at the 14 historic houses and cottages that constitute the heritage walk in town. The Nut is a smaller version of Uluru and is almost exactly the same shape but not the same color. It’s massive black and gray and craggy stone juts straight up from both land and the Tasman Sea. It has a gondola ride that’s closed for Easter weekend, so the climb, often at a 50 degree angle, takes your breath away.

The two-kilometer walk around the circumference of its relatively flat top is fun: lots of orange butterflies and pademelons, which are like small wallabies or baby kangaroo, and wonderful vistas of stunning coastline.

We motor back toward Wynyard where we stop for views of a lighthouse and of the coast toward Burnie, where we will go tonight to see penguin chicks in the rocks and scrub. Named Emu Bay a long time ago, the town’s name was changed to honor William Burnie, a director of the Van Dieman’s Land Company in the 1840s. The town’s paper mill supported most everyone there until it shut down. Now, the port ships wood pulp and lumber. The abandoned paper mill is a rusting hulk with a tall steel chimney at the west end of town, near the tall cranes looming over the docks.

The volunteer-operated Burnie penguin center sits on a windy stretch of rocky coastline at the east end of town and we rug up and get a quick lecture and then crowd along a fence and try to spot penguin chicks that have just finished growing their first set of feathers. We see four of the cute little fellas and Cynthia is jumping like an excited 14-year old.

A late dinner with a lovely artisan Shiraz — no sulfites, no added sugars, single vineyard, an actual cork in the bottle and it’s not made anymore — and we crash into sleep.

Another day of penguins in Paradise.