Launceston

A fifteen-minute riverside stroll from the centre leads between the cliffs. First Basin has a free outdoor pool, and the chairlift over it is said to have the longest single span in the world. Towards evening peacocks come out on the lawns and call.

Fifty minutes' drive north-east of the city, rows of lavender over the hills turn purple between late December and January. An entry fee applies only in flowering season; in other months the fields show just green stripes.

Thirty-odd cellar doors are scattered along the banks of the Tamar. The river splits the route into an east and a west road, so many people do one side per day, crossing Batman Bridge to switch.

On a wharf down the Tamar, a seahorse farm with a display centre stands beside another that shows platypus and echidnas. At the seahorse centre a guide explains the tanks where males carry the young.

Inveresk's former railway workshops now house this museum, with the blacksmiths' shop and locomotive repair bays kept as they were. No charge applies to the permanent galleries; only the planetarium inside sells separate tickets.

In the middle of a Victorian park lives a troop of Japanese macaques, descended from monkeys sent by a sister city in Japan. Entering the park costs nothing, and office workers watch them at lunch. In winter the monkeys sit pressed close together for warmth.

Two farms in the village of Longford, worked with convict labour by brothers of one family. They are listed together among the World Heritage convict sites, and Brickendon is still farmed by descendants of that family. A riverside path links them on foot.

A plateau ninety minutes' drive south-east; the final climb, Jacob's Ladder, is a gravel road zigzagging on a rock face. In winter a small ski field opens, and in that season every car must carry snow chains.

The headland where the Tamar meets the sea keeps a 19th-century pilot station and a lighthouse. After sunset little penguins come ashore to their burrows, and guided viewing tours use only red torches.

A Saturday morning market in a city car park where only northern Tasmanian growers and makers may sell. Fresh bread, oysters, apple juice and cheese turn up, and packing begins as noon nears.

A national park about two hours' drive west, its jagged peak mirrored in Dove Lake. Walking the shoreline loop needs just over two hours, mostly on boardwalk. You leave your own car at the visitor centre and ride a shuttle bus to the lake.

Falls tumbling down several steps through rainforest beneath the Great Western Tiers, south-west of Launceston. From the upper car park the fern-lined path down and back takes under an hour. After rain the falls swell and the track turns slippery.

Minutes north of the city, a boardwalk crosses the Tamar River reedbeds to an island midstream. It is free to walk, on a path flat enough for prams. For waterbirds, come at dawn or dusk.

A cave near the village of Mole Creek to the west, known for the stream running through it and its glow-worms. On the guided tour the lights go out and blue specks shine overhead like stars. Flash photography dims them, so put the camera away.