130 GOURMET TRAVELLER
Clockwise from
top: burning
native botanicals
at the Relaxation
Pavilion, Cape
Pillar Lodge;
the lounge room
at Cape Pillar
Lodge; the Cape
Hauy track.
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Pillar Lodge.T
here’s silence apart from the crunch
of gravel underfoot and the low
echo of the Tasman Sea foaming
below. A yellow-throated honeyeater
dips and hides between eucalypts.
A stiff sou’easter rolling in from
Antarctica chills my cheeks. I breathe deeply.
We’re winding through coastal heath dotted with
guinea flowers and boronia bells as Heath Garratt
explains the Japanese notion of shinrin-yoku, or “the
benefits of going for a long walk in the woods”. It
makes perfect sense as we stride along the 46-kilometre
Three Capes Track, one of the newest walks in
Tasmania. Garratt has been engaging in shinrin-yoku
since he was a baby perched in his father’s hiking
pack. As general manager of the Tasmanian Walking
Company, the “woods” are both business and pleasure
for him. “The effect wild spaces can have on a person
is remarkable,” he says. “All that fresh air, the views,
the quiet moments – it’ll catch you off guard.”
The company opened two exclusive lodges in
Tasman National Park late last year – controversially,
the only private accommodation in the park – and
launched a four-day guided walk between them. The
experience follows the pattern set by the company’s
other Tasmanian ventures, which include Cradle
Mountain Huts, the only private-hut accommodation
on the Overland Track; the Bay of Fires Lodge
bordering Mount William National Park; and the
Wineglass Bay Sail Walk.
Crescent and Cape Pillar lodges, about 11 kilometres
apart in the park’s east and invisible from the track,
are models of low-impact architecture and understated
beauty. The building materials were chosen for
camouflage – non-reflective lightweight steel
and timber in varying shades – and construction
techniques chosen to minimise the impact on the park.
The build began off-site in July 2017, modular panels
were dropped in by helicopter and the method of
excavation limited ground disturbance.
Lodge access is restricted to foot, and every six to
eight weeks everything from food and laundry to waste
collected in the 400-litre composting toilets is flown in
or out of the lodges. Both lodges, designed by Sydney
architect Andrew Burns, are powered by a mix of solar
and wind (via a bird-friendly turbine) and a state-of-
the-art Swedish recirculating shower at Crescent Lodge
is said to use 70 per cent less energy and a fifth of the
water of a regular shower. “It might be a one-in-five-
year scenario where we have to switch on a gas
generator,” says Garratt.
Each lodge has seven guest rooms, with calming
views, Tasmanian recycled-wool blankets and hot water
bottles. The communal kitchens and living rooms
have floor-to-ceiling glass doors that slide back to
admit birdsong and the scent of eucalyptus, and as➤