Tasmanian Wonders

The Tasmanian capital of Hobart may be small in size, but it’s big in attractions, as you’ll discover this afternoon. Put your destination into perspective from the summit of Mt. Nelson, offering endless vistas over Australia’s southernmost city. View the charming Georgian cottages of Battery Point and explore the cobbled streets and convict built warehouses along Salamanca Place, the backdrop of epic Saturday markets. Visit the waterfront area including Constitution Dock where the yachts finish when competing in the annual Sydney to Hobart race, and take a stroll in the second oldest Botanical Gardens in Australia with its amazing collection of plants from around the world.

Western Tasmania is like nature writ large, a place where the wilderness rules and people are few and far between. Visiting Mount Field National Park is a humbling experience, not only for the fact it’s part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, but also because it’s home to some of the tallest eucalypts and tallest flowering plants on Earth. Wander amid these giants to reach Russell Falls – take a deep breath; your Tasmania tour has begun. Records continue to be broken at Lake St. Clair, the deepest freshwater Lake in Australia, before you arrive in Strahan, gateway to World Heritage-listed Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park.

The Gordon River is your playground today, the dark waters here given their colour by amber button-grass tannins. The only thing breaking the mirror-like surface is your chariot as you cruise through Hells Gates, the treacherous entrance to the harbour before returning to Sarah Island, a former penal colony where convicts would fell Huon pines for boat building. Disembark at Heritage Landing to view one of these 500 year old majestic trees. From Strahan motor on towards Cradle Mountain. This evening you can choose to visit some Tasmanian Devils at a sanctuary, or head out to spot wombats, wallabies, pademelons or maybe an elusive quoll who all call this wilderness home.

Today has multiple highs – quite literally. The first is the 1,545-metre Cradle Mountain, your backdrop as you wander to Dove Lake and explore this ancient national park. The second high is ‘The Nut’, a dramatic 152-metre plateau created by the remains of an ancient volcanic plug. It guards over Stanley, a tiny village with swagger to spare. You could spend days exploring the town’s remarkably well-preserved heritage buildings. But more Tasmania holiday highlights await around the corner.

If there’s a town with a cuter name than Penguin, we’re yet to find it. Locals embrace its appeal – there are penguin sculptures at every turn, including one measuring over 3 metres tall. Your journey along the northwest coast also passes through Burnie, Ulverstone and Sheffield, The Town of Murals, boasting over 100 large paintings depicting the area’s rich history and local characters. All this exploring builds an appetite. Refuel at Ashgrove Tasmanian Farm, where happy cows contribute to award-winning cheeses – everything from cheddar and red Leicester to creamy Tasmanian blue.

There are few places in the world where you can leave the city behind and within minutes be amid an immense wilderness area. Launceston is one. Blink and you’re at Cataract Gorge, a yawning chasm carved by ancient rivers. This rare natural phenomenon unites bushland with neat Victorian gardens, replete with ferns and exotic plants. Get a different perspective of the green cavern on the scenic chairlift, zipping you over the water to a lofty lookout. We wouldn’t blame you for lingering here, perhaps to venture deeper into the gorge. Or sample further afield with a selection of optional experiences. This afternoon, the choice is yours.

You’ll smell Bridestowe before you see it, this enormous lavender farm perfuming the Tasmanian countryside. The flowers grown here aren’t just used in fragrances – they’re also infused into ice-cream, teas and jams. It’s a tasty entrée to the Legerwood Carved Memorial Trees, sculpted into World War One soldiers. Little penguins come out to play in Bicheno; sign up to spot them after dark as they waddle to shore from the water.

The colours at Freycinet National Park are so vivid you’ll think someone has taken the glasses off your nose and cleaned them for the first time: The patchwork of ocean blues that lap Coles Bay and Wineglass Bay. The dramatic pink granite cliffs. There’s a reason why Freycinet adventures star on postcards. The other place on postcards is Richmond, its grand 1820s Georgian buildings today home to bijou boutiques, galleries and cafes that appear to be lost in time

The Isle of the Dead, Devil’s Kitchen, the Blowhole, Tasman Arch and Eagle Hawk Neck, just some of the remarkable natural attractions found on the Tasman Peninsula, home also to Port Arthur where you’ll be emersed in the region’s notoriously harsh history. This is the best-preserved convict site in Australia, and among the most significant convict-era destinations worldwide. The stories these walls could tell.

It took early explorers months to circumnavigate Tasmania. You’ve completed your Tasmania tour in just 10 days. What a wild ride.