How clear is the southern sky in Tasmania? The moon was full and bright as a heavenly lighthouse. Even partially cloud-covered it obscured most of the stars. All I had at hand was my iPhone (my camera was with our lost baggage at the time) and I hand-held the above shot. That pinpoint of light at the moon’s 5 o’clock is Jupiter. I captured a “star” with my iPhone in Tasmania!

What makes Tasmania magical? I’d argue geology. In the slow ripping apart of the once supercontinent of Pangea, what is now Tasmania was caught between Australia and Antartica like a little child in a rough divorce. The resulting trauma has created a confused and erratic landscape, a prime example of which is the stunning Cradle Mountain National Park.

In the U.S., you want sedimentary you go to the Grand Canyon. You want metamorphic, try Great Smoky. And for igneous, the Sierra Nevada. In Tassie, you get them all in Cradle Mountain, staked like a badly baked, but wonderfully dramatic, layer cake of rock. And then you have the primeval forests, glacial lakes, and the wildlife.

Usually the weather closes in and the mountain is visible perhaps once a week. We got lucky and the days were sunny and warm. We only spent three days at the park, but we could easily have spent a week.