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Visit Rumi on Louth, a dreamy island resort sitting off Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

By Alexis Buxton-Collins

NZ Herald·

7 Dec, 2024 11:00 PM5 mins to read

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The island offers activities such as paddleboarding, catamaran cruises, and electric buggy tours. Photo / Supplied

Just off the coast of South Australia lies a sun-kissed island resort where days that pass in a dreamy haze of sand, surf and thrillingly fresh seafood will leave you feeling like royalty, writes Alexis Buxton-Collins

Robinson Crusoe never had it this good. As I drift slowly over startlingly clear

Carl Cove features white sand, turquoise waters, and cliffs, rivaling Queensland’s beaches. Photo / Supplied

“Let’s have a look,” he says before giving me a mournful shake of the head when it falls just under the 30cm limit. “That’ll make a great lunch for someone in a few weeks,” he says as it slides gratefully back into the water, but thankfully I don’t need to wait that long for a feed.

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Vogelgsang is my personal guide while I’m staying at Louth Island, a tiny speck in the deep blue waters off South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. Jutting into the Southern Ocean like a jagged shark’s tooth, this region is Australia’s aquaculture capital; from the island’s shores I can spot kingfish pens, mussel lines, abalone farms and tuna boats dotting the horizon. And despite my failure to catch anything worth keeping, Vogelgsang soon provides evidence of the local bounty by reeling in my lunch.

I’m here to visit Rumi on Louth, a dreamy island resort that currently includes four suites and an apartment but will soon grow to cover the entire 135ha island. After landing at Port Lincoln airport, a short transfer brings me to the launching point for Sealegs. This eye-catching boat lets me keep my feet dry by driving right down onto the beach and into the water before skipping over the small swells for eight minutes. But, while the private island getaway and amphibious vehicle might carry a whiff of James Bond, it’s Louth itself that proves to be the master of disguise.

Louth Island’s first phase includes just four suites and an apartment, ensuring an exclusive experience. Photo / Supplied

From some angles, it resembles a sun-bleached islet cast adrift in the Med, but it also has room for patches of dense mallee and she-oak woodland that come alive with birdsong at my approach and stretches of slick granite boulders covered in bright orange lichen that call to mind the rugged Tasmanian coast. Best of all is Carl Cove, a perfect new moon of squeaky white sand bookended by rusty red cliffs, that rivals Queensland’s most picturesque tropical beaches. To get there, I cross a dune flecked with silvery coastal daisy and sage green saltbush before emerging on to a beach littered with iridescent abalone shells and lapped by turquoise water so luminous it seems to be lit from within.

Dining at Rumi on Louth, a dreamy island resort sitting off Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Photo / Supplied

This island isn’t merely pleasant to look at; it also functions as a market garden for chef Jono Sweet, who scours the dunes for crispy saltbush, glittering ice plant and zingy beach mustard to use in the kitchen of fine dining restaurant Samphire. On my first evening, I’m treated to a six-course degustation that makes the most of the local bounty with dishes including lightly seared tataki bluefin tuna dressed with ponzu and lemon myrtle oil and whole abalone that’s gently cooked in fish stock to soften the thick flesh then finished on a grill and coated in a viscous chilli oil. The equally complex cocktail list includes a whisky sour that softens the sweet, almost tropical flavour of foraged coastal daisy with a hint of she-oak smoke.

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The seafood odyssey continues throughout my stay with chilli crab scrambled eggs, wood-fired pizzas topped with Spencer Gulf prawns, fermented chilli and green tomatoes and fish and chips so fresh the fillets almost swim off the plate. During the day, goannas and sleepy lizards sun themselves on the outdoor deck while I dine, and in the evenings the surrounding bush comes alive with the sound of purring quails and the startling child-like screams of bush curlews.

Luxury, seclusion, and adventure await at Rumi on Louth, a private island resort off South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. Photo / Supplied

With just four well-appointed suites and a larger apartment in the first stage of Rumi on Louth, it’s easy to feel as if I have the entire island to myself. But this is no castaway experience. The entire resort runs off a massive one-megawatt solar array that also powers a desalination plant, so my room is filled with all the mod cons you’d expect. They see little use, though, as I spend my days cruising around the bay on a 12.5m catamaran, testing my stand-up paddle boarding prowess and exploring the island on the electric buggies provided for guests.

When even that feels like too much effort, the helpful staff erect a cabana at Carl Cove and set me up with a well-stocked chilly bin and a radio in case I need more supplies. I don’t quite have the beach to myself – a regal pelican patrols the shallows, sooty oystercatchers stalk the tide line and hooded plovers skitter across the sand – but it’s pretty close. Looking up from my book to take it all in, I can’t help but think about what Tyler told me when he first showed me this spot. “This is the closest you’ll ever get to being royalty … when guests have this beach to themselves, they say it’s like they’re the king and queen of Louth Island.”