Hotel review: Capella Lodge, barefoot luxe in Australia’s own Galapagos Island

There aren’t many places in the world where you get to feel like you’re at the pointy end of the plane. Capella Lodge is one. While most visitors to Lord Howe stay on the north side of the island, we head south to Capella, the only accommodation on the island with views of the beach, lagoon and mountains.

This back-to-nature beauty was the first of Baillie Lodge’s properties when it opened in 2008, and has recently emerged from a stunning $4 million makeover. All nine suites now sport their own private outdoor deck, with a hot tub or plunge pool – making it even harder for guests to tear themselves away.

My stay in the Makambo Loft is a case in point. The split-level suite – all nautical reds and blues, with dramatic views of Mt Gower and Lidgbird – opens onto an expansive outdoor deck, with bright blue day beds and heated plunge pool shaded by lush kentia palms. It’s easy to laze away the hours here, sipping Champagne, sunning and taking refreshing dips. Mt Lidgbird feels close enough to touch.

Earthy hues and lots of natural wood are splashed across the upstairs loft bedroom, where dreamy 180-degree postcard views of Lord Howe’s twin peaks greet me when I wake. Sea birds ride the salty breezes and black cows graze on grassy slopes. Beyond the lush tangle of palms and pandanus trees, is the dazzling blue scoop of Lover’s Bay framed by mountains, sky and sea.

Rooms with a view

Sparkling views are never far away at Capella. The main dining pavilion, with its beachy palette of sand, stone and sea, vaulted ceilings and floor to ceiling glass, is my favourite spot to watch the weather race in from sea. Squalls that turn everything grey and sodden and just as quickly are gone again. Blue skies. Mist. Cottonwool clouds that gather over Mt Gower like some magical Enid Blyton “Faraway Tree” visited by strange lands.

It is here in the evening that sunset cocktails are served, and where executive chef Cooper Dickson showcases local produce. The seasonal menu changes daily, inspired by what’s in the kitchen garden, and locally farmed, foraged or caught fresh in the pristine ocean waters. Edible flowers and sea herbs appear on my plate at dinner, a four-course offering with matched wines. The breakfast buffet is an eat-the-rainbow feast of tropical fruits, smoothies and made-to-order eggs with wholesome additions like smashed avocado, mushrooms and kale.

Newly located to a tranquil, sun-kissed loft, the Capella Spa has bright blue ocean views and treatments using indigenous Li’tya spa products. The Burawang Dreaming, a two-hour combined massage and facial is heavenly respite from a morning spent hiking and cycling. Those who tackle Mt Gower can indulge in a soothing post-climb Gower’s Foot Therapy.

Island charm

Just 700kms separates Lord Howe Island from Sydney, but this UNESCO treasure off the east coast of NSW is blissfully lost in time. There is no mobile reception, the Wifi is patchy, and the maximum speed limit on the island is a sedate 25km per hour. Anyone needing to make a local phone call can use the free public phone in town.

With tourist numbers capped at 400, a visit to Lord Howe feels exclusive without being elitist – a place where honesty boxes dot the beaches and people stop to say hello and chat. Arriving at the small airport, with its quaint white picket fence, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d landed in a sleepy coastal Australian town circa 1950.

At Capella, doors are left unlocked and guests are encouraged to unburden themselves of snorkelling gear and bicycles at whim. Someone will eventually pick them up says our host Libby with a nonchalance that seems to prevail throughout the island.

Diver’s delight

I’m snorkelling with Lord Howe Environmental Tours – a coral reef known as Erscott’s Hole. The water is crystal-clear; the sun warm on my back, as I paddle and float above bright bunches of staghorn coral and flat coral discs like lily pads. There is the pucker of large blue-lipped clams and feathery coral fronds. Parrot Fish dart in and out and large Double Header Wrasse glide by, oblivious to my gawking girth.

Snorkelling adventures can be found close to shore too. At Ned’s Beach, I swim out along a thread of blue to where a forest of bommies branch out across the seabed. Others come here to feed the schools of large sandy mullet and wrasse that mill at the shoreline. At Settlement Beach, high tide brings sightings of sea turtles munching on the long strands of sea grass.

Diving enthusiasts will have their work cut out for them narrowing down the list of 60 dive sites, including the challenging Ball’s Pyramid, the world’s tallest sea stack. These waters are the world’s most southerly reef, an underwater city of trenches, volcanic run off and reefs at the meeting of five oceans. Brimming with unique coral and a rare mingling of tropical, temperate and sub-tropical fish, diving here rivals the Great Barrier Reef.

Pristine wildlife

Formed more than seven million years ago when a necklace of underwater volcanoes erupted in a ball of fury, Lord Howe is filled with dramatic peaks, ancient lava flows and thick pandanus forest. Woodhens walk the forest floor without threat of predators; large providence petrels build their nests in the basalt cliffs, and thousands of rowdy muttonbirds court in the fringes of Ned’s Beach from May through to September.

This is my return visit to Lord Howe Island. The first trip, two years previously, stretched from two to four days when wild weather forced Qantas to ground their fleet of tiny Dash-8 planes (not uncommon, so it’s a good idea to have travel insurance). Each time though, I’ve arrived on a Saturday, in time to hear local guide and naturalist Ian Hutton speak about the wonders of this primordial slip of land.

It may measure just 11km from top to toe, and 2km at its widest point, but Lord Howe packs an evolutionary punch – with almost half its plants and insects (microscopic and prehistoric), endemic to the island. Hundreds of thousands of migrating sea birds visit or nest here each year. Then there is the story of the ‘rock lobster’, the island’s only stick insect, thought to be extinct, but amazingly rediscovered in 2001 on Ball’s Pyramid. It’s any wonder, David Attenborough thought Lord Howe “so extraordinary, it is almost unbelievable.”

Climb every mountain

Criss-crossed with walking trails, Lord Howe is a nature-lover’s dream. From Kim’s Lookout, on the north side of the island, the cliffs drops dizzyingly into the sea and free wheeling petrels cry into the wind. Near Capella Lodge is the easy-going Transit Hill walk and guided one-day summit hike of Mt Gower, the island’s highest mountain. Less challenging but no less beautiful is the hike of Mt Lidgbird to Goat House Cave, a 400-metre ascent through fern gullies and pandanus forest to a rocky ledge reached by ropes. Up here, Lord Howe curls away like a green snake slithering into the sea. I wonder at the odds of being granted two visits to this paradise in as many years. It doesn’t matter. I’m already plotting my return.

Rates from $750 a person a night.

More info: www.capellalodge.com.au; www.visitnsw.com

Belinda Luksic was a guest of Baillie Lodges and Destination NSW.

Source: Nine Honey