Consider signing up for a shore excursion, since Kangaroo Island’s best sights are a distance from Penneshaw, and you’ll want to admire the island’s rugged cliffs, rolling farmland and bird-filled lagoons. Little Sahara showcases huge sand dunes, while Vivonne Bay has startling turquoise water. Cape Willoughby has an old but still operational lighthouse. Seals bask and penguins burrow on beautiful, windswept beaches, koalas snooze in the trees, and you might spot unusual Rosenberg goannas.

Don’t miss

Seal Bay Conservation Park has one of Australia’s largest colonies of sea lions. Sometimes up to 600 animals lounge on the sand or, on colder days, in the dunes. Stick to the boardwalk unless you join a guide to walk among the sea lions on the beach for a great wildlife experience. Kids will enjoy the small visitor’s centre, with its touch-and-feel displays of bones, skins and feathers.

Get active

Penneshaw has a beach for safe swimming and snorkelling, and you may spot dolphins. Various walking trails lead from town into bushland where you can encounter kangaroos, wallabies and black cockatoos. Head east and, in 90 minutes’ return, you can hike up past farming ruins in Baudin Conservation Park to Ironstone Hill for a great view.

Best bites

Kangaroo Island is well known for gourmet produce such as olives, cheese, abalone and marron, a type of freshwater crayfish. You can visit several farm gates to chat to local producers and sample the fare. Taste bottlebrush, banksia and ti-tree honey at Clifford’s Honey Farm and learn about the life cycle – and extraordinary sex life – of bees. For something different (although inedible) call at Emu Ridge, the last remaining commercial eucalyptus distillery in South Australia, for a tour.

Further afield

Flinders Chase National Park at the island’s far end from Penneshaw has wonderful coastal scenery, turquoise bays and abundant wildlife such as possums, kangaroos and seals. From the visitor’s centre, an easy two-hour walk brings you to platypus water holes and trees favoured by koalas. Remarkable Rocks features outcrops of precariously balanced rock, eroded by wind and rain, that turn bright orange at sunset. At Admirals Arch, fur seals bask on the rocks right by the side of a spectacular boardwalk.