Qantas

A Weekend on the... Freycinet Peninsula

A playground for whales (and humans) on Tassie’s unspoilt East Coast

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IT’S become an iconic image of Tasmania’s wildly beautiful Freycinet Peninsula: the deep, sweeping crescent of white sand layered against turquoise-teal water, cupped by a low-lying rocky headland of pink granite that juts out into the sea. Add its romantic-sounding name, Wineglass Bay, and it’s a picture-perfect coastal scene – except for that blot on its history, between the 1820s and ’40s, when the pristine bay was stained by the slaughter of whales.

Today, the unadultera­ted colours of the East Coast region are on spectacula­r show. It’s late afternoon and we’re aboard a rigid inflatable boat (RIB) en route back to Saffire Freycinet (saffire-freycinet.com.au), a luxury retreat nested on the edge of this wilderness sanctuary and our base for the weekend.

Bouncing along at 40 knots – the wind and salt spray whipping our faces ruddy – we pass Gates Bluff, around the midpoint of the peninsula’s eastern flank. Rising out of the water, the rocky parapets of this famous landmass are painted in black and orange lichen and bull kelp clings to its amorphous edges, waving its thick green tentacles.

Then, suddenly, a crackle over the two-way radio and our skipper slows the RIB to a stop, the vessel churning up a foamy wake. A humpback has been spotted ahead, its pectoral fin slapping the water. Her gleaming black body is partially submerged, betrayed only by that telltale flash of white. Our euphoria is palpable and just as it begins to subside, a calf appears alongside its mother, breaking the surface and breaching clear of the blue. We watch, transfixed. The sweet irony of a whale sighting, here in this former hunting ground, isn’t lost on us.

Nor is this experience. What was supposed to be a pleasant daytrip – it started with a guided walk to Wineglass Bay Lookout, followed by a gourmet picnic on the beach – has turned into a thrilling encounter with nature.

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