Friday, 13 April 2018                                       Moina  -  Stanley

We’ve had an excellent day today for our last full day in Tassie! Travelled a lot, did heaps of things and saw wonderful sights. Unfortunately, these did NOT include the fabled Cradle Mountain – alas, it was not to be third time lucky with it.

 Lovely view from our verandah

Time to pack up and leave Wombat Cabin, sadly

We were up and about in our lovely little chalet at Moina bright and early – and it WAS bright – the sun was shining through the trees, the sky was blue and from our little verandah we could see the wallabies having their breakfast and the mountains in the distance – just lovely! We hurried to sort and pack before setting out about 9. We’d debated which way to go, as we basically had a choice of two ways – to go north to Burnie, then west, or to head back past Cradle Mountain then up to Wynyard. We ended up deciding on the Cradle Mountain route as tomorrow will take us right along the highway from Stanley back to Launceston, so we figured this way we would see more countryside. We also thought that we might just have a chance to glimpse the ever-elusive Cradle Mountain itself while the sun was shining….

 Raining again  :(

 The waterfall in Waratah

Looking towards Hellyer Gorge from Waratah

However, inevitably as we headed towards it, the clouds rolled on in (giggling softly to themselves, no doubt) and of course by the time we got to the national park, it was beginning to gently rain. We thought we’d try our luck with the boom gate to see if we could drive closer, but the lights were flashing, indicating No Access,  so we gave up and headed north-west! The highlight of this part of the drive was when we noticed a wombat ambling happily across the road ahead of us. I lunged for my camera but was too late to photograph him.

The road headed higher into more mountainous territory. We stopped in the little town of Waratah, an old tin mining town, for a look, and admired the waterfall there, then decided to go via Hellyer Gorge, as it wasn’t far out of our way. I knew had visited this in 1978 on my school trip, but couldn’t remember any of it! Anyway, we had a nice walk through the forest down to the gorge and along the creek before coming back to the parking area. Then we drove through miles of forestry areas. A bit further along, we just had to pull over as we had noticed the most incredible bright red toadstools. I think we’ve mentioned the spectacular Tasmanian fungi before, but these were straight out of the pages of Enid Blyton – they just needed some fairies or elves to make their homes in them. We have never seen anything like them before! To make things even more bizarre, there was a stirring in the bushes….and a lovely little chook walked out. It seemed quite happy to see us, especially when I got out some of our biscuits and threw them to it!

 Hellyer Gorge

 

Amazing fungi  -  and chook!

 

 

The chook was explained when we resumed our drive, and very shortly found ourselves out of the forest and into dairy farming country, almost abruptly. We arrived in the fairly large coastal town of Wynyard in time for an early lunch. A perusal of Trip Advisor brought up the name of ‘Bruce’s Café’, right on the beach at the eastern end of town. It was very popular, and our meals and drinks showed us why. Lex had the salmon and quinoa salad, and I had soup of the day (a delicious potato and bacon). Then I succumbed to the cake fridge and a piece of Banoffee Pie that would inspire poets! Absolutely delicious. After lunch, we wandered across the road to the beach, dominated by the impressive headland of Table Cape, for a look, then headed west once more.

 Lunch at Bruce's

Beach at Wynyard across the road looking towards Table Cape

 

 

Here, we got a bit distracted when we saw a sign towards a historic lighthouse and lookout up on Table Cape, so we just had to go and check them out. Although it was very overcast by this stage, the view was incredible, and we could look in several directions. Far in the distance to the west, we could just make out the shape of ‘The Nut’, the huge ex-volcanic plug which dominates the town of Stanley, our destination for the day. We continued westward, only being distracted a few more times by things like stopping to photograph a field full of deer, lovely scenery etc. The day had turned quite warm by this stage – a heady 16 degrees so very pleasant!

Looking west from Table Cape lookout

 

 The old lighthouse, and looking east (below)

 

We finally got to Stanley a bit after half past two, and drove in marvelling at the huge shape of ‘The Nut’ which looms over the town. It’s a very old settlement dating back to the 1820s, with some absolutely beautiful old buildings. Our hotel, The Stanley Hotel, was built in 1847. We have a lovely room upstairs with the verandah outside looking towards The Nut.

As soon as we’d booked in, we got ourselves some warmer clothes (not liking the look of the clouds rolling in yet again) and headed up the hill to the chair lift, as we’d been advised that it closed at 4.15. Here we paid $16 each for a return trip up the hill – excellent value! At the top of The Nut, we had an hour or so to do the 2km walking track which took us right around the top. Some absolutely stunning views up there, plus quite a few of the lovely little wallabies feeding just near the track and pretty much unconcerned about us. Excellent views of the sea and the land, and over the fishing docks – you can see that seafood is a huge industry in this area. Of course, it decided to rain occasionally, but generally we were very lucky and had a lovely walk before getting the chair lift down again just after 4.

 Chair lift to The Nut

Our hotel seen from The Nut

After a visit to the gift shop there, we went for a drive around the town, then came back and parked again at the hotel before going for a wander up the street in search of a café for afternoon tea. We found ‘The Brown Dog’ which gave us tea, coffee and some lovely scones with home-made raspberry jam. After this, we had to go for a longer stroll to walk that off. The terrace above the main street in town is an almost unbroken row of beautiful heritage houses, some dating back to the mid-1800s. It was lovely to walk along it and see all of the different styles. Then we followed the main street down, turned past the old Catholic ‘Star of the Sea’ church and very early burial ground to the beach.

 No penguins here, sadly

 The Nut

 Late evening sunshine in Stanley

History AND wine.....how could it get better?!

Here we discovered that apparently, Stanley is famed for its Little Penguin colony! Sadly for us, though, penguin season has ended. We did look hard for quite a while, but I’m afraid that penguin-spotting will have to be right up there with platypus-spotting for us…..we returned to the hotel and visited its historic (1840s) wine cellar. I, of course, thought this was sheer bliss – two of my favourite things combined! We bought a bottle of Tassie Pinot Grigio to souvenir.

View from our hotel balcony this evening

We’d made a reservation for dinner in the hotel’s dining room for 6.30, as we’d been advised that it books out quickly (like Strahan – lots of diners and not that many places to dine!). Just as well we did; the room was fully booked by the time we got there and turning people away. We smugly ate our delicious meals (chicken and camembert pie for me, crumbed local scallops for Lex) then returned to our room for the dreaded final pack. Ugh! The wind is howling around outside and rain is forecast again for tomorrow, so I’m so glad we got here in time to do the chair lift today.

Tomorrow, we head back into Launceston and fly out tomorrow night to Brisbane, where poor Cait and Mikeal will be staying up late to get us from the airport! Then Sunday it will be home to Emerald. Sigh. It’s been a wonderful holiday! Stay tuned for the final Tassie blog   😊