IN SEASON
Tasmania
Summer days in Tasmania are long and inviting, the air is fresh, and the food is even fresher.
WORDS Andrew Bain
PHOTOGRAPHY Kylie Hunter, Tourism Australia
Sunlight pours down onto the island for more than 15 hours a day in summer, nourishing the land and sea, and casting a literal spotlight on Tasmania’s (lutruwita) extraordinary landscapes. Along the state’s east coast, beaches jostle for attention, from the dazzling white sands and signature orange lichens of Larapuna/Bay of Fires to the perfect curve of Wineglass Bay on Freycinet Peninsula (Toorernomairremener).
TO THE MOUNTAIN
Inland from the beaches, Tasmania is very much a place of mountains. The island state has more than 450 peaks, many whittled into dramatic shapes by long-gone glaciers. It was these rivers of ice that moulded the craggy likes of Cradle Mountain. A new viewing shelter, opened in 2023 on the shores of Dove Lake, has made it even more comfortable to admire this most famous and shapely of peaks, while the more energetic way to take it in is to walk the Dove Lake circuit, one of Tasmania’s 60 Great Short Walks. Looping around the alpine lake, with Cradle Mountain looming overhead, the six-kilometre track passes through a stunning section of temperate rainforest known as the Ballroom before popping out beside an old wooden boatshed with one of Australia’s great mountain views.
ON THE WATER
In the sunny season, it’s hard to resist the lure of the water that surrounds and enriches this island. Tasmania’s west coast is a wild place, hit hard by weather and waves, but you wouldn’t know it on the Gordon River. Boat trips out of Strahan cross Macquarie Harbour (Toogee Country) – a body of water six times the size of Sydney Harbour – and disappear into the wilderness that blankets the banks of this river. Things get more exciting on boat trips along the southern edges of Bruny Island (lunawanna-allonah), where Pennicott Wilderness Journeys’ fast boats skim beneath some of Australia’s tallest sea cliffs.
Traffic on the water might consist of nothing more than dolphins and migrating whales, while more languorous fur seals lounge about on the offshore Friars islands.
“Inland from the beaches, Tasmania is very much a place of mountains.”
ART AND WILDLIFE
Head to Hobart (nipaluna) and the subterranean exhibitions at crazy, clever MONA – the Museum of Old and New Art. It will lure you underground, but on a summer day it’s often music on the lawns overlooking the River Derwent, with flame-grilled feeds from Dubsy’s food van, that might entice you to linger. Wherever you go in Tasmania, there’s wildlife – from wombats along walking trails to wallabies in Hobart – but the surest and most personal way to get a critter fix is to head to Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, just outside of the capital. Witness the feeding frenzy that is Tasmanian devil mealtime or get up close and personal with the likes of quolls, echidnas and tawny frogmouths.
FLOWERS AND FOOD
Tasmanian gardens are as bright as the days across summer, and nowhere more so than in the lavender fields. Find the perfect purple stripes at Port Arthur Lavender where peak flowering season is from mid-December to mid-January.
If a Tasmanian summer can be described in a single word, however, it is this: berries. Wash them down with a crisp sparkling or light pinot noir from the Tamar Valley or Piper’s Brook, and shucking-good oysters harvested straight from the racks at various oyster farms, and you’ve found yourself the taste of a Tasmanian summer.
THE DETAILS
TOUR The 12-Day Tasmanian Wilderness Explorer tour with Outback Spirit offers experiences like soaring over Wineglass Bay in a helicopter, and an adventure cruise to Bruny Island. Prices start at $8,525pp 2024 dates: Feb, Mar + Oct, Nov
STAY Across the tour enjoy 11 nights of hotel, resort and wilderness lodge accommodation including the luxurious Freycinet Lodge.