The national park office (daily 9am–5pm; tel 03/6257 0107), where you can get advice on bushwalking and buy maps and booklets on day-walks, is just 1km from Coles Bay. Opposite, the national park campsite, with water and toilets but no showers, is in a sheltered location among bush and dunes behind Richardsons Beach; it’s packed in holiday season, when you’ll need to book ahead through the park office. Otherwise, you can walk into the national park and camp for free.
Tracks into the park begin at the Walking Track Car Park, a further 4km from the office. Water is scarce, so you must carry all you’ll need, although the ranger can advise if there are any streams where the water is safe to drink. The shorter walks are well marked and not too difficult: exquisite Wine Glass Bay, with its perfect curve of white beach, is where most walkers head (1hr one-way). The peninsula circuit is a wonderful walk (10hr), best done over two days; it makes a good practice run for the big southwest hikes. There’s a campsite at Cooks Beach, with a pit toilet, water tank, and a rough hut where you can stay; the beach has a lot of marsupials who’ll pester you for food, so wrap it up tight.
Schouten Island, off the tip of the peninsula, was included within the national park in 1967: it’s perfect for really secluded camping, as you’re quite likely to have it all to yourself. Freycinet Sea Charters, in Coles Bay (tel 03/6375 1461), will drop you off there for around $100 per person return, or you could spend the same amount on a day-trip with them which could take in a walk on the island and a visit to a nearby seal colony; try Keno Sea Fisheries, also in Coles Bay (tel 03/6257 0344), who also do charter trips. If you’re charming enough, you might get a ride for free from a fisherman at Coles Bay. There are campsites with pit toilet, a hut and two water tanks at Moreys Bay, and the creek at Crocketts Bay has reliable upstream water. Although there are no proper tracks on the island, walking is easy.
Rafting Tasmania (tel 03/6239 1090) offer sea kayaking tours on Coles Bay (half-day $60, full-day $105) which can be extended to include overnight camping in the national park (three-day trip $540), while Tasmanian Cliffhangers (tel 03/6257 0500), run abseiling and rock-climbing trips (half-day abseiling $70; full-day rock-climbing $100).