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"I love walking this track in the rain," says guide Gus Goodwolf, 23 and already a veteran of Tasmania's tracks and trails. He isn't forecasting the weather - it's already tumbling down out in the street as we meet, greet and go through the gear checks early one Hobart spring morning.

Into the mini-bus and we're away, driving towards Port Arthur through drizzle, mizzle or rain, stopping at Eaglehawk Neck for the lookout and group photo. The hikers are all smiles, but the sea, supposedly just over our shoulders, is nowhere to be seen through the mist.

Onwards to a little cove near Port Arthur and into a boat for the short trip across the water and the start of the Three Capes Track on the Tasman Peninsula. As though by design, the rain clears and the sun shoots some rays through the cloud, searchlights on the sandstone walls of the Port Arthur penal settlement in the distance.

It's less than two hours, or about six kilometres walking through forests, past little pockets of native orchids and up on the boardwalks to clear some marshland, then past Surveyor's Hut, where the public walkers stop on their night one before we take a discreet turn to our own hut.

Hut did you say? No, Crescent Bay is every bit the lodge, with a massive lounge and dining area, all timber and glass with its drying room, bathrooms and row of bedrooms. It's an off-the-grid solar-powered, tank-watered hideout with sea or bush views at every turn.

The group gathers in the lounge for drinks - Tasmanian wines and beers - and dinner but most take an early night for the walking today and the walking to come tomorrow.

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I wake with the dawn and the trees thrashing outside the window. For a moment I think I'm in the mountains, but the sight of the sea helps me out of that waking dream. The bush around the lodge is quite stunted and gnarly, with eucalypts shaped like snow gums, and this morning I know why - we're being attacked by a south-westerly wind and horizontal rain.

We head out after a hot breakfast and never was the adage Tasmanians embrace truer: "there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices."

With merino layers, down jacket and a waterproof shell, I have a weather shield worthy of a superhero, enjoying every step through the forest and then up a ridge by the sea to Arthurs Peak. In the distance, the wild weather has armies of showers marching towards us over the sea, the wind and the waves whipping the spray up over the rocks and cliffs.

I'm not a storm-chaser, so I think there are two reasons I'm enjoying this so much - one, I've made the right gear choices for the weather and two, I know how good the lodge is going to be when today's 11 kilometres of walking is done: hot shower, big views, rewarding refreshments.

I'm right about that - Cape Pillar Lodge, as deep as you get in the Tasman National Park, looks over a vast scallop of cliff and ocean called Munro Bight towards Cape Hauy. This is our home for two nights and is slightly bigger than the other, with an additional pavilion for yoga and massage; and evening drinks for the less reverent.

Again the design and construction is extraordinary, striking that balance of blending into the bush, but catching the views of the sea and cliffs beyond, with the occasional whale making a splash in Munro Bight as if on cue.

Perhaps we have already paid our price in bad weather on some kind of walker's ledger. Day three is a there-and-back-again day, a walk without packs along the clifftops and we have it with a thin cover of cloud, barely a breeze and seas you can see forever.

The day's walking starts below the lodge, winding through a small valley of rainforest, then we hop on board a three-kilometre boardwalk that snakes through the heathland (so much so there's a snake's tail imagined out of stones at one end and the head at the other).

We rise to reach the clifftops and a modest sign warning of the extent of the drop. The cliffs rise (or fall, depending on your phobias) about 300 metres. The views hold you in suspense - across the water at Tasman Island, the palette changes from the blue and swirling white of the sea, over the glossy brown kelp, up the flinty rocks and into the various greens of the shrubs and grasses that can find a life there amid all that exposure.

We stop at The Blade and The Chasm, two more spectacular viewpoints, exposing the sea below and Bruny Island and mainland Tasmania in the distance. We eventually make our way to Cape Pillar where we can make out Cape Hauy - tomorrow's destination - and Maria Island and Freycinet off in the distance. After lunch, we're free to make our way back to the lodge at our own pace, with our guides sweeping up behind.

Our final day is full of highlights, the first being a steady climb to the Peninsula's highest point - Mount Fortescue (490 metres). From there, we set off through rainforest with a few minutes' space between walkers so we can contemplate in silence.

We emerge from the forested gullies to the clifftop, looking back towards Cape Pillar with some whales in Munro Bight below entertaining us over the lunch break. There is an optional sidetrip to Cape Hauy - about a 90-minute detour for extraordinary sights.

Looking down at the sea swirling below, seals move through the swells, sea birds circling and squawking above them, getting pretty excited about whatever it is the seals are chasing or leaving behind.

Rock climbers make their way here to climb features known as the Candlestick and Totem Pole. I need a fair amount of courage just to look down - goodness knows how they make the climb up.

It's then back to the main trail for the final leg of the walk through heathland and alongside gums and melaleuca, turned bonsai by the weather, to Fortescue Bay, our finishing point. Off with the boots and into the bay for a some salt water to soothe the feet, after quite a feat.

Hobart is the starting point with airport drop-offs possible after the walk (not at the start, an early departure for the walk means overnighting in Hobart). Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all fly from most capitals to Hobart.

The four-day, three night Three Capes Lodge Walk includes transfers to the Tasman Peninsula from Hobart, guiding, meals, drinks (including wine), lodge accommodation, backpack and a weatherproof jacket, from $3395 a person. The track is well-made and the guides forever patient, but a reasonable level of fitness will make it all the more enjoyable. See taswalkingco.com.au

Jim Darby was a guest of the Tasmanian Walking Company.