The pit stop: Woodbridge
With a village-like calm, Woodbridge is little more than 30 minutes’ drive – and yet worlds away – from Hobart. It hugs the shores of the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, with front-row seats to Bruny Island.
Eat
General stores were never as cosmopolitan as the Woodbridge Village Store, where the deep space is largely given over to a cafe serving breakfast dishes and a menu of Vietnamese favourites – banh mi, pho, rice-paper rolls – for lunch. The walls have local art and photography for sale, and the sources of the produce out front can be measured in food metres rather than miles.
Shop
Peering over its ridgetop paddocks into Bruny Island’s Great Bay, Grandvewe is well named. Ostensibly a food and drink stop with an open-deck cafe, the sheep farm is also the place for sheep-cheese tastings, purchases of Hartshorn spirits made from sheep whey (its vodka was named the world’s best in 2018) and Grandvewe’s own Ewe Care skincare range.
See
With a 2km walking trail that loops across bush-covered slopes, Art Farm Birchs Bay would be a lovely short bushwalk in its own right, even if it wasn’t dotted with dozens of open-air artworks. The trail begins through pear orchards and rises into tall native forest populated by an ever-growing collection of artworks – from mosaics to scrap-metal sculptures – and keyhole views over the Channel.
Drink
The water and island views at Mewstone’s beautiful timber-and-glass cellar door, set among farmland beside the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, have as much character as the wines. Book ahead for a personal guided tasting of eight or nine Mewstone and hughes & hughes wines.
Stay
Backed up against bush on the slopes above town, Hill House Panorama is an eclectic, view-rich holiday rental that doubles in its off-time as a photo studio. The interior could pass as a hunting lodge or museum, and there’s 1.6ha of gorgeous garden wrapped around it. And did we mention the views, even from the bathroom?
