> > by Lee Atkinson
A four - day driving holiday around Tasmania's beautiful south
Tasmania has always been Australia's favourite holiday playground a place of rugged, ancient beauty and vast tracts of World Heritage wilderness contained in a compact package. Within just a couple of hours drive from Hobart you can experience the world's last temperate wilderness, ancient rainforest, glacial tarns, stunning waterfalls, secluded ocean beaches and towering sea cliffs. Day 1: The Huon Trail
The best way to explore the Huon Valley is via the Huon Trail, a sign-posted route that travels south of Hobart to Huonville and beyond, through apple orchards that in early spring blanket the slopes in white and pink blossoms. Here the road begins to meander its way south beside the Huon River: follow it to Franklin, home of the Wooden Boat Centre, a showcase for traditional boat building skills, and on to Geeveston, a sleepy timber-getting town on the edge of the Southern Forests. It's a lovely 29 kilometre winding drive though the Arve Forest on a sealed road (watch for logging trucks) to Tahune Forest Reserve, where you can wander above the treetops on the Tahune AirWalk, see some rare Huon Pine on a 20 - minute boardwalk or picnic beside the river. From Tahune, backtrack to Huonville and head south on the right bank of the Huon to Cygnet. Stop at a roadside stall to buy some fresh fruit, browse through one of the many small art and craft studios along the way or snap a photo at one of the lookouts as you wind your way south along the coast through Verona Sands and Gordon to Peppermint Bay, a perfect place to linger over a long lunch as you gaze out over the D'Entrecasteaux Channel towards Bruny Island. Grandvewe Cheesery, which supplies the delicious cheeses at Peppermint Bay, is just up the hill from the restaurant. It's an organic sheep dairy, specialising in hand-made sheep and cows - milk cheeses.
If time is short, you can cut across from Cygnet via Gardners Bay - the views of the Channel and Woodbridge as you crest the hill are spectacular.
Day 2: Tassie's Wild Heart
Head back towards Hobart and follow the signs to Launceston before turning off just before Bridgewater and on to New Norfolk. It's a pretty drive through the Derwent valley, past farmlands and hop fields, forests and remnants of rainforest and charming historic towns full of convict era buildings. It can be tempting to spend a couple of hours exploring the too-cute villages, but resist the temptation for now, because once you get to Mt Field National Park, you'll wish you had more time. It's Tasmania's oldest national park and one of its most popular, and it's easy to see why, with a rich variety of vegetation ranging from tall swamp gum forests (some of the tallest trees in the world), immense tree ferns, lush rainforest, pandanus groves and alpine vegetation, sphagnum bogs and alpine tarns at the top of the mountain. Highlights include the beautiful three-tiered Russell Falls (one of the prettiest in Tasmania), stunning short walks, the fabulously scenic but windy road to Lake Dobson (usually covered in snow in winter) and lots of wildlife. You can camp in the park, but if roughing it is not your style, it's about 40 minutes driving time back to New Norfolk.
Day 3: The Convict Trail
Retrace your tracks back towards Bridgewater, this time crossing the mighty Derwent River and cutting across to Richmond. In Tasmania the past is never very far away particularly its convict past and the grand bridges, colonial buildings and haunting ruins that were built by their labour, and this historic town has more than 50 buildings classified by the National Trust. It's also home to Australia's oldest bridge, built in 1825, its graceful stone arches also making it one of the most elegant. Stretch the legs (and the credit card) in the many galleries, craft shops and boutiques and refuel at one of the many cafes. The best place to explore convict history and its legacy is on the Tasman Peninsula, home to Port Arthur penal settlement, a mixture of intact buildings and atmospheric ruins and one of Australia's most significant historical sites.
From Richmond, head east to Sorell and then cut across to Dunalley and wind down to Eaglehawk Neck. This narrow isthmus of land only a few hundred metres wide is the reason Port Arthur was chosen as the site for a prison in 1830 the tiny strip of land was easily patrolled, few people could swim, the surrounding bush was dense and inhospitable and if all else failed, a line of snarling dogs roused the soldiers if anyone tried to get by. The coastline of the Tasman Peninsula is riddled with dramatic rock formations, extraordinary rock pillars and sea stacks. The Tessellated Pavement, a stretch of coastline resembling giant tiles, is on the north side of Eaglehawk Neck and the Tasman Blowhole and the ruins of once huge sea caves at Tasman Arch and the Devils Kitchen are on the southern side. There are more than 30 historic buildings, some fully restored and furnished, at Port Arthur, as well as photogenic crumbling ruins and gardens. By staying overnight, you can also join in the historic ghost tour of the site. Led by guides dressed in black and carrying glass lanterns, you learn about the most documented ghost sightings and unexplained happenings in many of the houses and cells during the former convict settlement's history.
Almost all the guides insist they believe in ghosts and will enthral you with their own on-site encounters with the supernatural. If you didn't believe in ghosts when you arrived – you will by the time you leave.