Picnic Island

• Hotel
• 10 Guests (5 beds)
• 5 Bathrooms

Picnic island offers the unique experience of living on your own private island with only 10 other people 800m offshore from Coles Bay and the Freycinet National Park and just around the corner from the world famous Wineglass Bay.

There are 5 private cabins on the island linked to a communal building known as the "Birdhouse" which is the place to congregate for a meal and to relax on the deck or by the suspended open fire place behind a wall of glass cantilevered over the high water mark. The stunning lodge is designed by Tasmanian architect, John Latham who set out to design a simple and unassuming lodge that had all the modern touches without the glam.

"The copper (roof) looks like it's been there for 100 years - a weathered old beach relic, washed up on the shore," says owner and manager Newton-Brown. Everything from the floorboards of century-old redwood milled nearby to the open kitchen handcrafted in copper and Tasmanian oak off-cuts is sourced locally. "It's rudimentary but it's authentic," he says.

Picnic Island is a former convict sandstone quarry and home to hundreds of local penguins and shearwaters. When the sun goes down the little birds all swim in for the night and waddle ashore to their nests. Guests can walk safely among the bird colonies at night via a 300-metre boardwalk that encircles the island. If sea life is more your thing can also sometimes spot a whale, dolphin or seal just off the island (depending on the season and time of year). If you love to fish, flathead and squid are abundant as well as mussels you can pick off the rocks and abalone and sea urchins under the water.

The lodge is mostly off-grid and has an array of Solar panels for electricity generation and numerous rain water tanks for drinking and washing water.

Facilities

• Coffee machine
• Essentials
• Fireplace
• Heating
• Self-service kitchen
• Self check-in
• Wi-Fi (free)