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The Drunken Admiral is my neighbour. In a hotel on the Hobart waterfront at Sullivans Cove this is not a complete surprise as the maritime theme here is stronger than Black Beard’s rum.

The cove was the site of the Hobart’s first white settlement in 1804 and all of Hobart town’s earliest inbound cargo was unloaded hereabouts. While a modern fishing fleet has taken up the moorings where brigantines and other tall ships once berthed a captivating sandstone facade of a hulking Georgian warehouse foments the lingering historical tales.

The Sullivans Cove Apartments are at the north-west end of the cove, just a road’s width from the water. The sandstone facade, circa 1825, makes a grand entrance to my two-bedroom first floor apartment. The Drunken Admiral (it’s a memorably titled restaurant) proves entirely harmless. Another neighbour, the much celebrated Henry Jones Art Hotel is on the same waterfront strip.

The two bedroom apartment’s white-washed walls, chunky columns of aged timber and Aboriginal art are immediate delights. The more practical amenities – free wifi, the dishwasher, oven, freezer and a second bedroom and bathroom – doubtless explain why the apartment and others in the complex of similar layout are popular with families.

The spacious lounge and dining area have views over the waterfront. The furnishings are simple yet stylish and armed with a few good books and hotel coffee pot at arm’s length, I could sit for a month in the petite lounge by one of the three bay windows, look regularly up from the pages of my book and take in the fishing boats, restaurants and forested Mount Wellington in the background.

The point is a lead to the common flaw of all captivatingly fine hotel rooms. Sometimes it is so wonderful to wallow in them it can be difficult to leave, to forsake their lusciousness and step out into whichever world you happen to be a visitor in.

There is of course an altogether simple way around this. Never rely on yourself to get you out of the room. Reserve a table at a restaurant, or better still book (and pay) for a tour that offers a hotel pick- up service.

Mt Wellington Walks is a company that operates guided hikes on the mountain and they offer a pick-up service from the hotel. Guide, Luna Oestereich who moved from Germany to Tassie 10 years ago for the island’s wilderness, is on my doorstep at 8am on a Saturday morning. There are other walkers in a mini-van: this is a well orchestrated get-out-of-your-room intervention.

Wellington Park is an au-naturale theme park of 18,000 hectares on the verge of Hobart. Extraordinarily it is one of the largest reserved areas in Tassie outside of the state’s 1.3 million-hectare World Heritage Area. The park includes Mount Wellington (1270 metres) and the summit is only some 20km from the Hobart CBD.

Within minutes of Ms Oestereich’s blitz we have driven half way up the mountain to the point where we set off walking. It’s a 5.5km walk to the summit. The path will take us under the base of the Organ Pipes, a wall of fractured dolerite (rock) that is rock climbing nirvana for Hobartians. Dolerite is rare across the world but Tassie has mountains of this dinosaur-era igneous rock.

We are following some old footsteps. The Tasmanian Aboriginal people strode the mountain slopes and foothills some 30,000 years ago. The mountain had various Aboriginal names including Ungyhaletta, Pooranetteri and Kunanyi. More recently Charles Darwin hiked up it after the Beagle docked in Hobart.

Indigenous fauna including wallabies and echidnas gad about some of the mountain’s many walking tracks. Wedge-tailed eagles, green rosellas and swift parrots can be found having a riot in these parts too. According to the Wellington Park Management Trust at least 67 bird species can be variously spotted on the mountain.

The vegetation changes from hardwood to rainforest and alpine vegetation almost as fast as a pademelon disappearing into the scrub. Under the towering eucalypts there’s a host of endemic plants including dragon heaths and Tasmanian waratahs, Tasmania’s floral emblem.

We walk up into the clouds. We climb high enough so the world of south-east Tasmania lies before us. We stop for morning tea on a picnic table fashioned from the dolerite rock. We can see along the River Derwent, over Bruny Island to Cape Raoul and the Southern Ocean. We are privy to much of southern Tasmania.

Reza Amiri, a student from Iran, talks about the symphony in the building wind. And while it’s fresh nobody is in a hurry to return to the warmth of their hotel room.

More Information
The Mt Wellington Walk costs $70 per person ($60 concession). Lunch is included in the price along with the pick-up and return to your hotel. The tour lasts about four hours which includes about 2.5 hours of walking. The company has a variety of walks and or packages (that combine bike riding down the mountain or kayaking around the Hobart harbour) to choose from.

The Sullivans Cove apartments cost from $320-580 per couple per night. Extra guests cost from $40 per person per night. Children under 3 stay free if using existing bedding. The apartment sleeps five people.

www.sullivanscoveapartments.com.au
www.mtwellingtonwalks.com.au

For more information on cycle tours, winery tours and other ways to force you from a splendid hotel room see www.discovertasmania.com

The information was correct when published in 2009. Prices and information may have changed.