From Lake St Clair in central Tasmania, the Derwent River flows past Mount Field National Park , Tasmania's oldest and most popular national park, through well-preserved New Norfolk , and towards Hobart , Tasmania's capital. Here, the river estuary widens to form a fine harbour before flowing into the waters of Storm Bay and out to the Tasman Sea. Hobart is Australia's most southerly city, battered by winter winds roaring in from the Antarctic, while the coastline around it is so jagged it looks as if someone has poured acid on a map of the area. The hook-shaped South Arm , at the entrance to Storm Bay, is echoed on a larger scale by the Tasman Peninsula , with its infamous convict settlement at Port Arthur . To the south, the two tenuously connected halves of Bruny Island protect the waters of the D'Entrecasteaux Channel . On the mainland opposite Bruny Island is the fertile and cultivated Huon Valley , but as you head further south the coastline becomes increasingly wild: there are caves and thermal springs, the Hartz Mountain National Park inland, and the Picton River , where there's good rafting. The last settlement in this direction is Cockle Creek , the starting point for the South Coast Track which takes you towards the South West National Park, the great mass of wilderness forming Tasmania's southwest corner.

 

North of Hobart, the east coast of Tasmania is the tamest and most temperate part of the island, providing a popular cycling route past numerous sandy and deserted beaches and some lovely national parks. The Tasman Highway follows this coastline from Hobart to Launceston, heading inland through the northeast at St Helens , the east coast's largest town. The northeast corner is virtually unpopulated, and the Mount William National Park here is a haven for the Forrester kangaroo. Inland are some old tin-mining towns, and superb rainforest remnants and mountain scenery at Weldborough Pass , beyond which you pass through rich agricultural and forestry country to Launceston.