Burnie Tasmania Australia - What a fabulous day!

The weather was fabulous for our Burnie visit. The first pic is from the back of the boat while I was having breakfast and we pulled into port. The city of Burnie did a fabulous job welcoming us. They had free buses to town, a free hat pin for bus riders, the mayor dressed in costume available at the gangway for pictures and maps telling us where the ATMs/banks, visitor center, shopping, internet etc. were. The town is very small and it is easy to walk to any of the 3 shuttle bus stops as it is only about a 5 min. walk across town.

I got off at the visitor center. They had a tour operator offering the Wings Wildlife Park for a significant savings over the ship's tour but I had already booked my ships tour for the afternoon so had to forgo. There is a hop-on/hop-off bus available from the visitor center that went to 5 local (out of town) attractions for $15 AUD. I heard good things from those who took this option. I did go to the Pioneer Village Museum at the visitor center. I would give this a miss as it is not good value for the $4.50 entrance fee. However the visitor center is a must do as it had great souvenirs and information for tours or things to do. From here to the second stop is about 2-3 blocks so no need to ride the bus to the downtown, you can just walk over.

I spoke with one of the tour operators as I just wanted to get a good walk in. They indicated taking the boardwalk to Burnie Park was a good option so that is what I did. I walked back through town to the board walk entrance. This is pic. 2. I included this pic because throughout the day we were treated to the fabulous views of the coastline with sandy beaches, rock outcroppings and stunning turquoise, blue and green water. The main roads that we later went on also followed the coast. I couldn't take my eyes away from it. Due to the shape of Tasmania the land is always curving away from the water which made the water feel more expansive. The way the light was hitting the water brought out the most fabulous colors. In addition I read that it was a very unpolluted area which may have also affected how the water appeared so brilliantly colored.

From the boardwalk I walked down to the local penguin observation blind. This was an area where you could stand behind wood panels and observe penguins coming in to rest at night and going out in the morning. Since I was there in the middle of the day I did not see any, but I did see a bunny rabbit. The 3rd pic. is the view from the blind.