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On Rob’s 106-acre hillside plot cocooned by swathes of old gum trees, four spacious tents on wooden platforms provide the bedrooms, each with king-size beds. You could call it “glamping�, but that doesn’t really capture the experience, with Rob rustling up delectable fare: succulent Tasmanian lamb, Nick Haddow’s cheeses, Spring Bay mussels in a white wine and saffron cream, panna cotta anointed with herby Leatherwood honey. The chef makes a tongue-in-cheek claim to a calorieneutral break, incorporating hearty strolls to counter the indulgence. So next morning we ventured into South Bruny National Park to walk the circular Labillardiere Trail,
(R`Q_LMR_?_BGCR DPGCLBJW_ BCQRGL?RGML _@SR_RFC_ CNGACLRPC_MD_3?QK?LG?`Q_ EMSPKCR_PCL?GQQ?LAC a perambulating natural-history class. Beautiful bronzestriped skinks basked by the track, alongside earth grubbed up by ant-mining echidnas, while yellow-tailed black cockatoos daintily de-seeded banksia pods above our heads. The real treat, though, was the near-complete solitude. Bruny boasts glorious beaches with sand so fine it sings under your feet and Swarovski-clear waters off Butlers Beach, where we watched an eagle ray glide beneath us, before returning to the shore for a gastronomic picnic. More wallaby carpaccio, anyone? You should, though, never meet your meat – a lesson learnt next day when, having transferred to nearby Inala
Private Reserve, I came face to white-eyelashed face with one of Bruny’s famed white wallabies. Inala means “a peaceful placeâ€? in the Aboriginal dialect: aptly named. Again, the luxury here comes not in the form of butlers and pillow menus, but full-immersion nature therapy, with guides revealing the treasures of Inala’s 1,500 diverse acres. I was fortunate its founder, Dr Tonia Cochran, was on hand to introduce its wild inhabitants. No sooner had she arrived at my cabin than a mob of wallabies appeared to wheedle a snack of kangaroo pellets. There were Casey and Daisy, Oscar, Annie and Violet, and the unnamed white wallaby with her russetgrey joey. The guilt was overwhelming, so I was happy when Tonia led me away into the surrounding forest. There may be no spa, but delving into the trees was as soothing as the most fragrant aromatherapy: wafts of tea tree and boronia blended with sinus-clearing eucalyptus aromas. Birds love these woods, too, which are home to two-thirds of Tasmanian species, which we spotted the next afternoon with Tonia during an island tour. We roamed soft-sand beaches, spying seabirds; at dusk we watched little fairy penguins waddle up to their burrows, then on a night safari spotted wallabies and pademelons, brush-tailed possums and gorgeous eastern quolls. The final act was quintessential Bruny. Tonia’s excited “Ahhhâ€? announced a foot-high furball with twitching snout. “A long-nosed potoroo!â€? Tonia exclaimed. “It spends each night snuffling for truffles.â€? Welcome to Bruny, where even the animals are epicureans. 1AUL #LOOMĹśELD Tasmanian Odyssey (01534 735449; tasmanianodyssey.com) offers a seven-night trip from ÂŁ2,770, including two nights on the Bruny Island Long Weekend and three nights at Inala Bruny, both full-board. Etihad (0345 608 1225; etihad.com) offers return fares to Hobart from ÂŁ1,164.
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he dawn chorus on Bruny Island has an especially punchy rhythm section. “Thump, thump-thump swish,� rolled the beats, filtering through my tent’s netting. “Thump, swish thump-thump.� Gradually, the rest of the house band introduced themselves. Green rosellas parped out the brass parts, a brush bronzewing pigeon set a tenor drone and a grey shrike-thrush trilled a lilting piccolo solo. As wake-up calls go, it was hard to top. It took a more primal urge to lure me from my king-size nest, though: the aroma of coffee brewing and sausages sizzling. Peeling back crisp cotton sheets, I strolled across the clearing to a cabin where the first of the day’s feasts was being conjured by my host, Rob Knight. Another morning, another inch on the waistline. Bruny is not a diet-friendly destination. Though a mere 60 miles long and with just 620 residents, this Siamese twin of an island – North and South Bruny conjoined by a narrow spit – is the epicentre of Tasmania’s gourmet renaissance. It’s where the first apple trees and vines were planted by Captain Bligh in 1788, and today is the site of Australia’s southernmost winery, produces acclaimed Black Devil cherries, berries, oysters and salmon, and is home to Australia’s best-known TV foodies, cheesemaker Nick Haddow and pork maestro Ross O’Meara. Yet relatively few tourists explore the island – something Tasmanian entrepreneur Rob is addressing with his Bruny Island Long Weekend. Over three days of walking, talking, eating and drinking, he introduces discerning visitors to the island’s varied delights. The weekend began with a private cruise from Hobart, exploring the Tasmanian coastline en route to Bruny. An afternoon’s stroll to Cape Queen Elizabeth was followed by a beginners’s guide to oyster husbandry at Ford Bay, before traversing south via a peculiarly Australian pastoral idyll of weatherboard farmhouses, passing as many grazing wallabies as sheep.