We left Queenstown and headed north to Stanley. I had picked that town on a whim when I discovered it had a famous local landmark called “The Nut“. How could you resist an evocative place name like that? The Nut is a volcanic plug on the end of a small peninsula on the north cost of Tasmania. The town of Stanley is nestled at its base.

We stayed at the VDL Stanley, which was FANTASTIC. It was actually the old Van Dieman’s Land Company Store and it’s right down at the water’s edge. It has three suites all kitted out in hipster luxury.

The view from our room was spectacular. After we were settled, we walked up the hill to the center of the village for dinner.

We found out that a major Hollywood film production had been in town the week before! If we’d been a week earlier, we could’ve ran into Michael Fassbinder and Rachel Weisz on the street.

We had taken the advice of the hotel website and had them book us a table at Xanders Brassierie. The place was full of locals, and I think our server might have been the actual owner? We were charmed. It was charming.

I nearly fell over when I saw Biscuits & Gravy on the menu. Apparently the owner has an American friend who was staying with him, and she lamented not having had biscuits and gravy in a long time. So he looked it up on the Internet and had them make it as a treat for her. So of course I had to order it. He asked my honest opinion, and I told him that it was delicious and clearly they had used top notch ingredients… which isn’t really the spirit of biscuits and gravy. His version was gourmet, and it was great. But my grandma wouldn’t have recognised it! 🙂

The Snook went retro with his entree, the Escoffier Prawn Cocktail. He shared some with me and it was terrific. Really fresh and crisp and beautiful.

For our main, we shared a giant ribeye. The beef was local, and it was cooked to perfection. Very, very good.

We also shared a simple dessert of profiteroles and ice cream. (We had a croquembouche for our wedding reception.)

The next morning was Thanksgiving Day. We got up very early and drove southwest to Arthur River, a tiny township on the northwest coast of Tasmania. We had some time to kill, so we followed some tourist signs to a scenic lookout.

It was stunning. There was a plaque there with a poem titled “The Edge of the World” by Brian Inder.

We also went searching for a cup of coffee. Unfortunately Arthur River is very, VERY small and the only place was the local general store, which had nothing but instant. Ugh.

They made up for it with their awesome sculpture of “Arthur” though.

The two halves of the town are joined by this single-lane bridge across the mouth of the river.

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