Aunita Cherries
Follow the East Tamar Highway north out of Launceston, past the river's wide bends and the vineyard signs, and the road eventually delivers you to Mount Direction and Aunita Cherries. It's the kind of place best visited with a wide-brimmed hat and no particular hurry, from December through to February, when the season is running and the trees are heavy with fruit. The orchard opens daily, from nine until six or until the day's cherries run out — a policy that says something about how quickly a good crop moves once word gets around. The appeal here is direct and unfussy: at selected times through the season, visitors can walk the rows and pick their own cherries straight from the branch, still warm from the sun, in a stretch of the Tamar Valley known for exactly this kind of fertile, river-cooled ground. For those who'd rather not do the reaching and gathering themselves, pre-picked cherries are sold on-site too, so there's no wrong way to leave with a box of them. It's a rare kind of outing — equal parts orchard visit and small pilgrimage — that rewards you with fruit you've chosen yourself, off trees you can see stretching down toward the highway and the water beyond. Aunita Cherries is a family-owned operation, its orchard established decades ago and still very much a working one, now turning its attention to building a name for itself beyond the valley, sending cherries out across Australia and further afield. But the heart of it remains what happens on-site during those short summer months: a straightforward invitation to come out, wander the rows, and taste Tasmanian cherries at their freshest, picked by hand, largely by your own.