Wineglass Bay

Of all Australia’s untamed wildernesses, Tasmania serves up some of the rawest — the type that slaps you in the face and doesn’t apologise (and you sort of like it?). And nowhere is Tassie’s natural beauty more BDSM than Wineglass Bay in Freycinet National Park. Freycinet is a mountainous, rocky, tree-covered delight found on the east coast of Tassie. Halfway down this peninsula, the aggressive pink granite coastline collapses away into seemingly nothing. But on closer inspection, this nothing isn’t nothing at all. In fact, it’s quite something. Wineglass Bay is a perfectly protected Australian beach filled with tranquil waters of piercing blue. Where the gentle waves lap the shore your eyes are met by a stunning crescent of pure white sand, sandwiched between the turquoise of the ocean and the emerald of the surrounding scrub. Here you’ll find wildlife too; wallabies (the smaller, cuter version of a kangaroo) laze in the sun, and the water is brimming with action. Remember that this is Australia’s southernmost state, which means that it’s the coldest, so swimmers should be prepared for icy pain most of the year. But this is Tasmania, so maybe you like it that way.