True Colors, Real Scenery – In-depth Across Australia: Solo 4WD Adventure in Tasmania_Tasmania_Blogs_About

Jun 30,2025

True Colors, Real Scenery – In-depth Across Australia: Solo 4WD Adventure in Tasmania

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The year was 2017. Just me, myself, and I... so all the photos are landscapes. And not the best photos either... I flew direct from Sydney to Hobart. When I picked up the car at the airport, all the small cars were gone – only 4WDs left – so I had to rent a 4WD, and it turned out to be a huge Nissan Patrol! This thing felt like it would float off on the highway! Tasmania is Australia’s largest island and is its own state, the smallest except for ACT. It’s so sparsely populated it’s almost unnerving. Nearly half the island is national park or World Heritage Area. It’s the most mountainous state, but the mountains aren’t high – honestly, there are no real mountains in Australia, nothing like China’s four-seasons-in-one-mountain, misty peaks. Here, it’s all about the sea. You’ll see later that any place called Button Grass is usually a World Heritage Area. I started driving the main ring road around the island, to Cradle Mountain (a World Heritage site), then passed through the small town of Strahan, up to Launceston, and then back, taking the inland route instead of the coastal one. Flew back to Sydney from Launceston. There were almost no people on the road. My first fill-up cost over $200, and only then did I find out the car had a secondary fuel tank – thank goodness, because later on there were stretches of 500km with no gas station! Sometimes you’d drive forever without seeing another vehicle; when you finally did, people didn’t just flash their lights – they’d start honking from far away to say hello! In New Zealand, drivers only wave to others from the same rental company, but here, everyone honks at everyone! There were kangaroo carcasses everywhere, hit by cars – kangaroos love lights, and when they see headlights from afar, they actually run toward them and get hit. That’s why rental companies won’t insure you for driving at night – it’s too easy to hit kangaroos, which causes a lot of damage to the car. But in Tasmania, with fewer natural predators, the kangaroo population is a little crazy. I saw big ones just standing by the roadside, watching me drive past with their joeys... The Derwent River is beautiful, especially in autumn. Tasmania is cold – it’s Australia’s southernmost state, so bring plenty of warm clothes. The local specialties are berries – cranberries, blueberries, etc. – and you can try berry pies. Granny Smith apples are best here too, and apple pie is famous. Hobart has lots of old buildings that used to house convicts, big houses where each prisoner had their own room, with their name on the door. Now, locals have bought them and turned them into B&Bs. I rented one online – it was huge and beautiful, $200 a night. I arrived late at night, found a letter at the door with my name on it, and inside was the key. The next morning, an elderly gentleman showed up – it turned out he owned the place, and he personally made me a Western-style breakfast, even invited me to tour the other rooms: a piano room (I’d been wondering why I kept hearing piano music – turns out it was a 3D automatic piano, like a music box!), a wine tasting room, billiards room, reading nook, stargazing room, game room, wine cellar... It was just gorgeous, but I didn’t take photos because it was someone’s private home! There were a dozen rooms, about half rented out – that’s good money, probably about $1,000 a day, tax-free! Overall, my impression of Tasmania: unpopulated, wild, pristine, covered in wildflowers, chilly water, lots of wildlife! But I didn’t see the famous Tasmanian devil, though I did spot countless kangaroos, wallabies, possums, loads of cats, and all sorts of birds.