Ready To Become A Winter Person
Most of Australia treats winter as something to ski through or escape. But what if there was a third option? A place to lean into the seasons and come alive in the cold. In Tasmania, snow dusts the peaks in wild places. The cultural calendar fills with festivals. And summer’s fervour gives way to long nights by the fire.
If you’ve never considered yourself a ‘winter person’, visiting Tasmania in the Off Season (that’s May to August) might just change your
mind.
Wild places
Does it snow in Tasmania? Does it ever. Snow caps the jagged dolerite edges of Cradle Mountain, blankets the Ben Lomond National Park plateau and regularly settles on Kunanyi / Mount Wellington in plain view of Hobart. While the snow comes and goes throughout the
winter – you won’t need a chairlift to find it.
Head out for a snowy stroll around the Dove Lake Circuit (6km, 2 to 3-hour) at Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park and you’ll find wombats grazing amongst snow-covered buttongrass plains and an amphitheatre of snow-capped mountains. For a full-on snow immersion, head to Ben Lomond for snowman building and tobogganing.
Feeling cold? Warm up your bones at Cradle Mountain Sauna, or with fireside hot chocolates and s’mores at Ben Lomond Base (included in your snow play ticket).
Eclectic festivals
Winter is when Tasmania programs its biggest cultural moments, bringing its own light to the longer nights of winter. Hobart’s Dark Mofo (June each year) bathes the city in red light, art and fire, including the Winter Feast in Salamanca with more than 70 stallholders, Night Mass turning the CBD into a labyrinth of music and unexpected installations, and the Nude Solstice Swim welcoming 3000 punters for a butt-naked plunge into the River Derwent.
Light Up The West (19 to 28 June) brings similar solstice energy to the west coast towns of Strahan, Zeehan and Rosebery with light shows and community celebrations. July brings Festival of Voices (3 to 12 July), a 10-day singing celebration filling Hobart and regional venues. Bicheno Beams (27 June to 25 July) lights the east coast skyline nightly. Devonport Jazz (23 to 26 July) takes the north-west. Tasmanian Whisky Week (1 to 9 August), Beaker Street Festival (6 to 17 August) for all things science and culture and the Australian Antarctic Festival (20 to 23 August) round things out. Dark Mofo may be the headliner, but there’s fun to be had all winter long.
Cosy moments
Just because it’s cold, doesn’t mean you have to be. No Tasmanian winter experience is complete without a crackling fire or some contrast therapy. At Hastings Caves and Thermal Springs, 90 minutes south of Hobart, you’ll find a steaming, forest-fringed pool fed by mineral-rich spring water sitting at 28°C year-round.
Tasmania’s sauna culture is alive and well. In fact, you’ll find one in every corner of the state. For an enlivening experience, book into Kuuma Nature Sauna and brace yourself for an invigorating dip in the sea.
If a glass of red by the fire is more your style, turn your sights to the Tamar Valley just north of Launceston. Be sure to check out Holm Oak, Evenfall and Westella Vineyard & Cellar, where you’ll find pinot noir pouring and woodfires cranking all winter long. Life’s too short to hibernate. Start planning your winter holiday to Tasmania at DiscoverTasmania.com.au/off-season
