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Tasmania's southern coastline is an untamed, unspoilt wilderness. A thrilling close encounter with this fascinating world can be experienced on a super-charged boat - the 4WD of the sea - purpose-built for low-emission speed and comfort.

This is not a sedate cruise. This is an eco-cruise for thrill seekers and nature lovers taking in the sights of Storm Bay and the D'Entrecasteaux Channel aboard Bruny Island Charters.

Board Bruny Island Charters between October and May for high-speed cruising out of Adventure Bay, zipping inside sea stacks and through sea caves, spotting seals and seabirds and circumnavigating remote islands off the island. Beneath the towering sea cliffs that border the eastern edge of South Bruny National Park, the velocity subsides and you drift quietly allowing the magnitude of the peaks to touch the senses.

South Bruny's coastal landforms reflect the geological processes of 160 million years - the intrusion of molten magma as the southern super continent Gondwana split apart; massive down-faulting during a period of mountain-building; then millions of years of erosion by the forces of frost, water and wind, which continue to change the landscape today.

It's an awesome experience to hear the man behind Bruny Island Charters, Rob Pennicott, explaining these earth-shattering events - while you drift at the foot of the huge crags themselves.

But fascinating as the geology of the island may be, it's the bird and animal life that leave the strongest memories with Bruny Island Charters' guests.

Great rafts of shearwaters, the southern hemisphere's most numerous bird species, take off with a clatter of wings and showers of spray; sea eagles float high above the cliffs; Australasian gannets circle and plummet down on their prey; black-faced cormorants perch on untidy nests of sticks on sheer crags; albatrosses wheel on the wind.

Fur, fat and blubber help the marine mammals of the Southern Ocean maintain their body heat. Australian and New Zealand fur seals also use the warmth of the sun, basking on rocks at The Friars and Tasman Head, at the southern end of the voyage - Rob takes the boat in close enough for his guests to hear the seals' grumbling roar and inhale their characteristic pungent smell.

Dolphins are frequent companions on the journey, playing and leaping in the bow wave of the boat; and whales, once common in the bay, are returning in bigger numbers each year.

Tasmania has a range of breathtaking cruises that can take you to the edge of civilization from Bruny Island to the Tasman and Freycinet Peninsulas and into Tasmania's World Heritage Area.

Their richness, variety, interest and spectacle offer a powerful journey to satiate thrill seekers and nature lovers alike.