Shared cabins from £47 per person per night: 020-7805 3875; www.cradlemountainlodge.com.au.

Wheelhouse Apartments

IN a league table of the world’s best sundowner spots, the Wheelhouse Apartments are a surefire title contender. Perched on a cliff above the west coast town of Strahan, they look out across Macquarie Harbour — an inlet more than six times larger than that of Sydney — providing a truly epic location to crack a cold one and watch the sinking sun.

It’s a setting fully exploited by Richard Dyson, its builder and owner. Both properties have living rooms raised on steel beams with enormous glass fronts angled outwards and upwards. From inside it appears you are directly over the sea, advancing like the prow of a ship. Upstairs, spa baths and beds have equally memorable if less expansive views.

“We watch winter storms roaring in,” says Richard. “You see rain squalls smash into the bank below and shoot up.” On more sedate days you can spot pods of dolphins.

The cool contemporary design of the apartments lives up to the setting: stainless steel kitchens with Italian marble tiles, superb bathrooms and a wealth of mellow Tasmanian oak, myrtle, cedar, celery and huron pine. To get a unique perspective I took a sea-plane from Macquarie Harbour, heading over the 25-mile (40km) long Ocean Beach, lashed with huge surf, and out across the vast wilderness of the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park.

From £81 a night: 00 61 3 6471 7777, www.wheelhouseapartments.com.au.

Moorilla Estate

MOORILLA’S chalets are a classical scholar’s dream retreat. Pre-Columbian corn grinders, sculpted into stone anteaters, sit nonchalantly next to kitchen units. Syrian mosaics from AD300 decorate the walls, while the hallways display collections of Egyptian and Roman gold coins. The rare artefacts overspill from Moorilla’s Museum of Antiquities, one of the southern hemisphere’s most respected private collections.

But while the five-star accommodation will attract devotees of ancient history, it should also appeal to fans of clean modern architecture. The simple angular design of the chalets fuses steel frames, wood beams and windows that flood the interiors with light.

Moorilla also contributes to Tasmania’s burgeoning gastronomic reputation. It claims to be the island’s premier boutique winery with a top-rated 2001 reserve chardonnay and estate pinot noir.

My stay was rounded off at the estate’s museum, located in a 1950s building modelled on a Roman villa. Its eclectic collection spans 40 centuries including mosaics, coins, statues, mummy cases and West African beadwork.

From £98 a night: 00 61 3 6277 9900, www.moorilla.com.au.

Need to know

Getting there: Ian Belcher travelled with Qantas (0845 7747767, www.qantas.com.au), which has flights from London to Hobart from £692.

Reading: Tasmania (Lonely Planet, £11.99).

Further information: Tourism Tasmania (www.discovertasmania.com, 00 61 3 6230 8235). Australian Tourist Commission (0906 8633235 (60p per minute), www.australia.com).

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