10 things Tasmania does better than the rest of Australia

Arriving from Sydney - a place where bus drivers shake their heads severely as you try to hail them down twenty metres from the stop -  into Tassie where I met the nicest bus driver in the world, had me hearing Tasmanian devils yowling for me to join them in paradise.

The creek gurgles, waves crash and an invisible hand paints an orange streak across the sky. I sit in the sand, waiting for the freeze dry packs of food to morph into something edible (after pouring boiling water into them, you wait about 10 minutes).

The conversation among my friends has just died down, as we all sink into a kind of exhausted hiking savasana - a posture only achievable after lugging a ridiculous number of possessions for a ridiculous number of hours. 

Welcome to South Cape Bay - a heritage listed wilderness at the southernmost point of Tasmania. We arrive there after an 8km walk from Cockle Creek (the closest place you can park to South Cape Bay - a 120km, two hour drive from Hobart) through swamps, rainforest and sweeping clifftops. 

This walk is also the first (or last, depending on how you do it) section of one of Tasmania's most iconic walks, the South Coast Track.

Left image: South Arm RSL. Right: hiking Cape Pillar

The little moment described above is just one snippet of a recent van trip around Tasmania, which made me realise this land of Nice People and Nicer Views does a lot of things better than the mainland. Here are 10 of them.

1. Van life

Living in a van used to mean you were down on your luck. Now it's a luxury lifestyle aspiration...

Unlike the mainland, where people look at you like suspiciously and caravan sites cost an arm and a leg, in Tasmania, van life is amazingly easy. You can stay in free campsites indefinitely (in NSW, usually there is usually a limit of a few weeks). Beyond this, even when you pay it's reasonable - I paid something like $15 a night to park up and sleep at a RSL in South Arm (a coastal outpost near Hobart) and $30 per night to stay at a caravan park on the Tasman Peninsula (our basecamp each night after driving over to Fortescue Bay each day to hike sections of The Three Capes).

Cooking up a storm in our "yacht on wheels," which you can rent on Camplify, @yotchico.

There are also sneaky Wiki Camp spots everywhere, where you can post up at the end of a dirt road and chat with friendly communities of vagabonds in everything from beaten up station wagons to kitted out Sprinter vans. 

Tasmania may be Australia's last "van life" paradise.

On that note: on the odd night or two we did sleep on the side of the road in Tasmania and provided we had parked in a sensible spot, rather than huddle under the covers hoping not to have the rangers called (as we would be in NSW), we were able to cook ourselves up a feast on the barbeque, have sunset drinks on the rooftop deck and laze on the pull out bed reading our books.

See also: 8 essential items for car camping in style

2. Eco friendliness

Taking in the views at South Cape Bay. Image Credit: @saltywanderersau

We talk a lot on the mainland about sustainability, but Tassie actually puts its money where its mouth is. There were no bags in the supermarket (not even paper ones), just free recycled cardboard boxes you could grab if you needed, and we struggled all week to find a public bin.

3. General friendliness 

I thought bus drivers would hate me. But no.

Stepping off the plane I dragged a Cradle Mountain sized load of bags over to the airport shuttle bus, expecting abuse from at the very least the driver. To my surprise, he was possibly the nicest guy I have ever met, and other passengers even offered to help me. Coming from Sydney where people would have looked at me wishing death, this was a revelation. 

4. Hiking 

Hiking to Cape Pillar was a highlight.

Hiking on the mainland is great, but often it's a slog. In Tasmania, however, hikes tend to have some kind of cinematic landscape payoff (see: Cape Pillar, which we decided, had views akin to Sauron's mountain from Lord of the Rings).

5. Beaches

Not a bad view... Image: @saltywanderersau

The sense of isolation, especially down in places like South Cape Bay, is spectacular. 

6. Serenity

Fortescue Bay looking as serene and unbothered as a pensioner at the supermarket (with a large line behind them).

In between bouts of rain, the serenity sung. 

7. Pristine drinking water 

Doesn't get much fresher than this.

Rather than drinking the dodgy water from Leura Creek in the Blue Mountains (another lovely experience I don't recommend to anyone) on mainland Australia, it was nice, in Tasmania's South Cape Bay, to see some of the most pristine water I've ever dipped my face in. Kind of like how most beach lagoons and creeks in NSW used to look before we polluted them all.

8. Seafood

In a shock to my taste buds, you could taste more than just the batter.

One friend said he had "the best fish and chips of my life" in Tasmania. And he doesn't even like fish.

9. Camping

We found a beautiful campsite on the last section of the South Coast Track.

We marvelled walking around the streets of Hobart in January that this was peak season (it still, compared to Sydney, felt like there was hardly anyone around). This sense of peace and remoteness was heightened still when camping.

10. Culture

Forget the exhibits, jumping on the trampoline at MONA is the quickest way to change your perspective.

I've never been a fan of museums or art galleries. But I'd probably go to MONA again. 

This writer travelled in @yotchico, as a guest of Camplify (an app like Airbnb, but for vans)

Originally published as 10 things Tasmania does better than the rest of Australia