The human brain makes an average of 35,000 decisions a day, of which up to 200 are what scientists call “conscious” – what to eat, what activities to undertake etc. So when I think about the holidays that have left me feeling totally relaxed, it’s no wonder all-inclusive jaunts rank high on the list. For me, a true holiday requires a break from the mental load.
Can I achieve the same feeling in just 36 hours, including a journey dogged by flight delays and ferry cancellations due to bad weather? To find out, I have come to Kangaroo Island – Australia’s third-largest island, not including the mainland, and home of the luxurious Southern Ocean Lodge.
Thanks to Mother Nature’s sense of humour, my husband and I arrive in pitch darkness after the 100-kilometre drive from Adelaide to Cape Jervis in our loaned Polestar 4 EV sedan, a bumpy ferry crossing, and further 90-minute drive to the lodge (flights also operate from Adelaide to Kingscote Airport). Hard work, it turns out, is the price of seeing nice things.
As soon as we walk through the timber doors into the lodge, rebuilt three years ago after it was destroyed in the 2019-20 Black Summer fires, my blood pressure starts to fall. We take a seat by the fire in the sunken lounge as our host, Melissa, hands us a drink and says, “We’ll take care of you now.”
The lodge accommodates 58 guests across various room types, including a sprawling four-bedroom villa with two plunge pools. We’re told that in summer, most guests hail from the US, while in winter, the majority are Aussies.
Almost everything you can do, eat and drink at Southern Ocean Lodge, part of the Beckons group (formerly Baillie Lodges), is included. Meals are served à la carte, but no request seems too grandiose for the staff. Want two serves of entrée from the tasting menu? Done. Fancy a cheeseburger instead of the lamb? Not a problem. Can’t decide between three different South Australian reds from the walk-in wine cellar? Try them all.
The spirit of abundance continues in our Flinders Suite, which offers total privacy and uninterrupted views of the Southern Ocean towards Antarctica. At 61 square metres, it’s the entry-level room, but it’s filled with luxurious touches, including a minibar that’s replenished daily, deep-soaking bath, bury-me-in-these sheets, and an electric fire that’s lit each night while guests are at dinner.
That night, I fall into bed feeling calm for the first time in weeks and leave the remote-controlled blinds up so I can wake with the sun at what feels like the bottom of the world (Kangaroo Island is, in fact, on a latitude two degrees north of Melbourne).
Visiting during low season has its advantages. On our small-group excursion to Flinders Chase National Park, we are promised an intimate audience with the colony of New Zealand fur seals that live near Admirals Arch, a rainbow-shaped rock formation formed by millions of years of erosion.
As we hop off the lodge’s minivan with our guide, Sydney, and a couple of honeymooners from Pittsburgh, I’m reminded of the opening bars of Icehouse’s 1982 anthem to Australia’s vastness, Great Southern Land. “Standing at the limit of an endless ocean,” I hum as it takes all my core strength to walk straight in the 45km/h winds carrying me along the boardwalk.
As the sea thunders around us, I spot a mother seal and her juvenile pup resting. After my eyes adjust, I see dozens more dotted along the hillside. Sydney, who studied the species, says their numbers here have increased to about 100,000 since the island’s seal trade ended in the 1800s. With so much uncertainty in the world, it’s reassuring to see something thriving in nature.
After returning to the comfort of the van, Sydney doles out snacks and hot chocolates before we drive 15 minutes to the Remarkable Rocks, which look like the surface of a distant planet. Climbing around the formations, thought to date back 500 million years, becomes a game of cat-and-mouse with the wild winds and we’re reminded of the raw power of the sea by an information board detailing the site’s history of dangerous swells, including several fatalities.
After our busy – and windy – morning, our reward is a three-course lunch back at the lodge featuring cajun prawns, barramundi and homemade sorbets. But it’s not all action stations. Stay long enough – three nights is the sweet spot – and the team will ensure there is time to savour the day spa (for an extra cost) and plunge pools, or to help yourself at the open bar, sink into a sofa and stare out to sea.
Following an afternoon trip to Kelly Hill Caves, we walk to Hanson Bay, the closest beach to the lodge, to watch the sunset. After writing our daughter’s name in the sand for a photo, I look at the lodge on the cliff above, appreciating both its harmony with the environment and the resolve it must have taken the owners to rebuild it after the fire.
The next morning, I wake early to the rumble of the ocean. After a quick breakfast of flatbread with chilli eggs, and yoghurt with Ligurian honey from the island’s indigenous bees, we hop in our fully charged EV for the journey home and program the GPS. Decisions, I figure, can wait a little longer.
The writer travelled as a guest of Polestar and Southern Ocean Lodge.
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Melissa Singer is Associate Editor of Sunday Life magazine, and was previously national fashion editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
