Australasia

Australia: Surﬁng dune under

Andy Mossack — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:54:55 +0100

Imagine you’re looking at a giant, powdery sand dune that’s over 100 feet high. Now imagine 20 miles of them. You might think you’re in the Sahara, but this is no desert. This is Stockton Beach in the Worimi National Park on Australia’s eastern coast, and these are some of the largest sand dunes in the world.

I’m not stopping here merely to marvel, I’m going to have some fun sliding down these glorious slopes on a plastic board and a prayer. Frankly, the hardest part of sand boarding is walking back up for another go, but it’s well worth the toil.

Sand boarding is the highlight of a dunes safari, a tour that rekindles the ghost of Mad Max (this was where the movie was shot.

Stockton Beach is just one of the many treasures waiting to be discovered along the legendary drive up the Pacific Highway from Sydney to Brisbane. Australia’s Pacific Highway 1 is not an ocean drive as is the case from LA to San Francisco, rather an inland freeway sweeping through rainforest. But taking a signposted coastal detour reveals miles of the most jaw dropping coastal scenery you’re likely to witness.

Driving north from Sydney across the harbour bridge, the highway takes you towards Newcastle, once the working class centre of Australia’s coal industry and now gradually being gentrified.

Much of Newcastle’s original turn of the century architecture is still very much in evidence and it’s worth stopping here for lunch and having a wander along the beachfront.

We’re now in the Hunter Valley region, the birth place of Australia’s wine industry and for those of you partial to the fruits of the vine, it is worth a detour to visit some vineyards. I’m continuing northwards, heading to Port Stephens and the charming Nelson Bay. This is the dolphin capital of Australia, with more than 150 bottle nosed dolphins living around a bay twice the size of Sydney harbour.

It’s a lovely resort town and a perfect base for exploring the abundant marine life. Dolphin trips abound, some outstanding coral diving and fishing too, but for me, a morning’s kayaking around the bay was a perfect way to learn about the area.

We glide past impossibly white beaches and kayak further out into the bay searching for some playful dolphins but today they obviously had better things to do than entertain me.

A gentle afternoon hike on a raised boardwalk up through rain forest to the summit of Tomaree Head reveals a stunning panoramic view right around the coastline. A true South Pacific vista and perfect for dolphin and whale watching.

Nelson Bay has a clutch of restaurants, shops and hotels and my dinner at Sandpipers, the locals’ favourite for fresh fish, topped off a great day.

The quaint towns of Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest are an interesting diversion but I’m back on the highway towards my next stop some three hours away at Port Macquarie. Once infamous as a particularly brutal penal colony, Port Macquarie has developed into a bustling coastal town. Koala bears are officially classed as a vulnerable species and the Port Macquarie area is one of the few locations where koala’s still roam in the wild. The koala hospital is run almost entirely by volunteers, and I drop in to visit during one of their feeding sessions.

The hospital takes in hundreds of sick koalas each year, and whilst many are released back into the wild, there are some that take up permanent residency like Clara, blind in both eyes and missing a limb. Admission is free and there are guided tours each afternoon at 3pm.

A new day dawns and after a detour to South West Rocks a national park with 20 miles of walking trails past grazing kangaroos and across craggy coastal cliffs, I head to Coffs Harbour. Captain Cook charted these shores and there are reminders on lookouts all along the coast of Cooks’ diary musings, noting landmarks as his ship sailed by and looking out at those very same contours and islets, I can’t help but feel a little thrill.

The scenery and the weather is becoming noticeably more tropical now as I inch nearer to Queensland. Coffs is a perfect place to stay a day or two and soak up the tropical sun.

I spend a thrilling afternoon on a guided bike ride down through the Dorrigo National Park. This is the Dorrigo Freefall — no pedalling needed, just a freewheel down past waterfalls and bush land with my hands very close to the brakes.

Coffs is adjacent to the Solitary Islands Marine Park, a 50-mile stretch of protected ocean containing a myriad of residents from turtles and coral, to marine mammals.

I’m well on my way north now and Queensland is within reach. But there is one place I’ve been looking forward to visiting for many years. Byron Bay may be just a three-hour drive from Coffs Harbour, but it’s light years away in contrast.

Back in the 60’s it was a hippy hang- out where an alternative lifestyle was de rigueur.
Today it is still new age; the hippies may have long gone and the lifestyle more high end, but it’s still laid back. Byron Bay, with its quirky cafes and shops, boutique hotels and gorgeous beachfront is, a veritable holiday paradise.

The town is lovely to wander around, but the walk along the beach and up to the historic lighthouse, the most easterly point in Australia, is even better.
This is where I cross into Queensland for the short hop up to Brisbane and journey’s end. It’s been a trip where l overdosed on visual stimulus.

It is hard to imagine such vast areas of unspoilt beauty can exist in today’s world but Australia’s eastern coast proves they most certainly can.

STAY: Nelson Resort
http://nelsonresort.com.au

Apartments Inn Byron
www.apartmentsinnbyron.com.au

Anuka Beach Resort
www.breakfreeaanukabeachresort.com.au

FLY: Cathay Pacific flies daily to Sydney via Hong Kong from £927 return.
www.cathaypacific.com

Bali is beautiful even away from the beaches

Anthea Gerrie — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:40:07 +0000

If there could be a greater treat for the spirit than swinging gently in a hammock taking in the fragrant scents and exotic sounds of a warm Balinese night, it could only be having a clutch of wellness gurus waiting in the wings to tend to mind and body when a new day dawns.

Rural Bali is a healer’s dream of peace, stillness and beauty — think shimmering rice paddies, silent stone temples and exquisite little offerings of carved fruit and flowers set in trays outside every doorway.

The celebration of life and nature which pervades the island’s interior must explain why so many health retreats are making their home around Ubud, at the jungle-surrounded centre of a beautiful island whose rich Hindu culture is concentrated in settlements far away from the crowded coast.

No question that Bali has some spectacular beaches and a few lovely seaside hostelries — as well as a few unlovely ones for the package tour crowd. But the coastal resorts themselves — largely eschewed by the natives, who associate the sea with evil spirits — can be bland, leaving those who come with high expectations of the ultimate exotic destination wondering what all the fuss was about.

The interior, on the other hand, remains true to island traditions and has everything the traveller could require except the sand.

At the fore of rural delights are hotels to suit every pocket built in the Balinese vernacular style. This means pavilions open to the elements in which to eat and relax, outside showers allowing a sublime communion with nature during ablutions, and beautiful infinity swimming pools overlooking the palms, paddies and banana trees.

Ubud itself fields a lively town centre packed with shops and galleries and a wealth of cultural opportunities, from museums and dance performances to cooking and painting lessons.

It’s a rich mix, particularly for those lucky enough to hit the island on one of the many auspicious days when the Balinese drop everything to prepare huge, multi-tiered offerings of fruit and cakes, which they carry gracefully on their heads to temple. One memory which still haunts this traveller is being lulled to sleep in a four-poster by the sweet sounds of a distant ceremony far below in the ravine.

Those who want the romance of these far pavilions — plus modern comforts like big-screen television and a state of the art spa — will love Como Shambhala, an island relative of the chic Metropolitan Hotel on London’s Park Lane. That hotel has its own Como Shambhala spa, but owner Christina Ong intends the Bali property on the beautiful Begawan Giri Estate to be the flagship of her spa portfolio, and has aimed to create the most comprehensive “wellness centre” in the world.

So every guest gets an exhaustive consultation and prescription for improving their lifestyle from a resident ayurvedic doctor or the western dietitian, not to mention guides who lead yoga, walking and biking tours, and a bevy of therapists to deliver a wide range of treatments.

Although the traditional Balinese restaurant is very handsome with its dark carved wood, it is best savoured over breakfast, leaving lunch and dinner to be enjoyed in the airier healthy-eating pavilion where the fusion food and freshly-prepared juices are quite spectacular. In fact juice is a spectacular event anywhere on Bali, where even bananas and avocadoes are succulent enough to be pressed.

Como Shambhala offers smaller suites for those who come in search of wellness with slightly thinner wallets. But for those who crave luxury, there are villas on the edge of the jungle with huge indoor-outdoor bathrooms, separate dressing-rooms, private pools and the all-important verandah — that outdoor room in which to enjoy the Balinese night which always seems so sensuous, exciting and alive.

However, there is no point in opting for a secluded health retreat unless mind and body makeovers are seriously on the agenda. For culture vultures more interested in exploring island life than their own psyche, Como’s Uma Ubud resort is a less pricey, more informal (and more centrally-situated) offering.

Uma offers pretty, if rather less traditional, accommodation, and a spectacular yoga pavilion as well as its own spa treatment rooms. There’s a good pool, too, but its best asset is its good location in Champuan, a little suburb of Ubud comprising a strip of galleries and funky restaurants.

Next door to the hotel stands the Neka Museum, where several pavilions tell the story of Balinese art, and also showcase the work of ex-pat artist Arie Smit, who was instrumental in developing the work of local painters. A morning here is delightfully followed by lunch at Naughty Nuri’s Warung, much patronised by ex-pats and locals alike — the fresh-tuna fest every Thursday is a major event. Also worth a visit is the nearby Lotus Cafe, named for the spectacular water-lily pool in the back.

An afternoon might be spent browsing the shirts, silver jewellery and hand-made bags in the boutiques lining Monkey Forest Road, followed by a sortie into the forest itself for those who can stand being frisked for food by persistent little simians. Dinner could be taken in one of many eclectic little places in the centre of town where Italian food predominates, after a highly professional dance performance. Different dances are on offer each night, from the delicate Legong to the macho Kecak, and on Saturdays the enchanting swaying kulit, or shadow-puppet theatre. All these are performed to the hypnotic accompaniment of the gamelan, an orchestra of xylophones, gongs and cymbals whose sound resonates in the memory forever.

Given that Ubud has a whole clutch of museums and galleries, including the charming, sprawling Agung Rai, old hands just chill out, feeling little inclination to tour. However, first-time visitors will probably want to follow a well-trodden path, consisting of a morning performance of the barong (a dance featuring a spectacular manmade dragon), followed by a trip to the volcano at Mount Kintamani, which is invariably shrouded in mist.

As well as a clutch of temples dotted around the interior, the tourist-besieged temples at Uluwatu and Tanah Lot enjoy spectacular seaside settings and are best viewed in silhouette at sunset. Either way, it’s best to tour privately with a reputable local company like Tour East, and restrict sightseeing to four-hour chunks

As far as shopping goes, men’s colourful batik shirts and high-quality woven place mats and boxes are ubiquitous and cheap as chips. Leather shadow puppets are less so but worth seeking out. Art collectors and souvenir hunters will want to visit the wood-carving village of Mas, near Ubud, for some really spectacular masks and figures; the gallery of Ida Tagus Tilem is recommended for quality work. The old tribal village of Tenganan on the east side of the island is also worth a visit to see the wonderful woven ikat cloth.

But the converted will want to rush back to enjoy the frangipani-scented Balinese night in the peace and solitude of their own private space. While party people play away on the coast, the secret, still nightlife is, for aficionadoes of Bali’s interior, the greatest gift of this very special island.

Travel facts

The Flight Centre (0870 499 0042; www.flightcentre.co.uk) offers London-Bali flights from £665 return. Three-night programmes at Como Shambhala Estate at Begawan Giri (00 62 361 978 888; cse.como.bz) from around £550 per person plus tax, including airport transfers, meals, consultations, treatments and activities. Rooms at Uma Ubud 00 62 361 972 448; www.uma.como.bz) from around £125 double, with breakfast plus tax. Tour East (00 62 361 23 77 82)offers cars with English-speaking driver-guides for around £45 per half-day

Australia: Flights, camera, action

Anthea Gerrie — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:39:00 +0000

Far more potently than any travel brochure, the vast sweeping landscapes of Baz Luhrmann’s new movie, Australia, are bound to fuel mid-winter dreams of a trip to that majestic land Down Under.

Bush fever, rather than a longing to see Sydney’s iconic skyline, is what this epic inspires, and who can blame the director for making his country’s rugged and dramatic open spaces the stars of this homage to his homeland?

While Sydney does, indeed, boast the world’s most exciting modern cityscape and Melbourne exudes an unmatchable cosmopolitan cultural buzz, it is Australia’s natural wonders which thrill to the core — and which, thanks to the film, have been made more accessible than ever to visitors, as its furthest-flung nooks and crannies finally get digestibly packaged.

That’s just as well, since few Brits would easily find their way to the Kimberley, Kununurra and other locations which wowed Luhrmann but have yet to be discovered by the British public. The film was largely set in the far frontiers of Western Australia and Northern Territory, where urban Australians themselves aspire to take adventure holidays and which are thousands of miles from Sydney and Melbourne, the principal international gateways.

Perth, however, is also a gateway, and one several hours closer to Britain. It is a jumping-off point — which, given Australia’s vast distances, tends to mean a domestic flight — for the majestic Kimberley, with its red rock table-top mountains, and the many other jaw-dropping delights of Western Australia.

These include Broome, with its miles of crystal-white beaches; the mysterious Bungle Bungle range and the rugged Dampier Peninsula.

Perth itself is a lively modern city, and wine-lovers may want to take a side-trip to the excellent vineyards of nearby Margaret River. Souvenirs, as almost everywhere in Australia — but particularly in the west, north and Red Centre — include spectacular and surprisingly affordable Aboriginal art.

Thanks to Australia, a new tourist route has opened up all the way across the north-west from the Kimberley to Darwin, where the film draws to a climactic close.

Northern Territory, which occupies a vast swathe of Outback, has hitherto been best known for Uluru — aka Ayers Rock — and it has to be said that this is one of the great wonders of the world, of which more later.

But the film is bound to focus attention on what is known as the Top End — not just Darwin but the Aboriginal homelands of Arnhem Land, and the slightly tamed-for-tourists wonderland of Kakadu National Park.

I would like to say I enjoyed the same sense of wonderment as Nicole Kidman expressed when she flew over Kakadu in her downtime during filming.

If I did not, it is only because Northern Territory is so wild and primeval that by the time I reached the park, Kakadu looked positively manicured beside some of the more rarefied experiences available out of Darwin. My own Kidman moment involved flying over an ancient escarpment in a two-seater plane to visit ancient cave drawings in Arnhem Land.

Another day-trip offered an introduction to the artists and rituals of the Tiwi Islands off Australia’s north coast, whose inhabitants happily share their culture, show their sacred burial places, sell their exquisite art and offer a swim in their idyllic waterholes before the short flight back to the mainland.

But while these experiences involve a bit of research, packages incorporating Kakadu and Uluru are ready to go and will knock the socks off those who have not already hit the wilder shores of Northern Territory.

It’s better to savour one of these national parks than dilute the wonder by attempting both; Kakadu has crocodiles and cave drawings, Uluru the great red mountain.

There’s a choice of accommodation at Uluru, with the Sails in the Desert the premium hotel, though far from sumptuous. Even if you don’t stay there, indulge in the evocative Sounds of Silence dinner in the nearby desert, featuring a look at the night sky with a story-teller and astronomer and full silver service.

The Whitsunday Islands of Queensland doubled for some of the Darwin locations in the film, and indeed the whole top half of this north-eastern state is positively packed with wonders which deserve exploration even though they did not feature.

Few could fail to be staggered by the beauty of the Daintree Rainforest, the mangrove-fringed beaches of Port Douglas, the underwater tropical fish-fest of the Great Barrier Reef and the fascinating rainforest hinterland accessed via the Kuranda scenic railway.

All the attractions of FNQ — as tropical Far North Queensland is chirpily referred to by the Aussies from cooler climes who regard it as their prime sun’n’fun playground — are easily accessed by foreign travellers via a fourth international gateway, Cairns and can logically be combined with a visit to Darwin and Kakadu.

While the southeast tip of Australia is known mainly for its cities and vineyards, there’s a lot more to New South Wales than Sydney and Canberra.

The Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley wine region are within an easy drive of Sydney, and for real bushwhackers there are opal mines and stunning lunar landscapes further afield, using Broken Hill as a starting point.

Victoria has Melbourne (less spectacular than brashly beautiful Sydney, but with an interesting dining, shopping and art scene), as well as a bit of bush, plus the beauty of the Great Ocean Road and Philip Island, with its penguins and koalas. But the one state which has all the majesty and wild beauty of the film locations, yet is inexplicably overlooked by many visitors, is South Australia. It has fantastic Outback, kangaroos and other native wildlife, amazing beaches and the country’s finest vineyards. And while it was not featured in the film, South Australia is also home to the experience which inspired Lurhmann in the first place — the Great Australian Outback Cattle Drive, such a huge event it is only organised every few years.

The next go-round, lasting five weeks and involving 500 head of cattle and 120 riders, will be in 2010. Those who can’t spare that kind of time — or can’t wait — can enjoy a three-day droving experience in the Flinders region, involving sleeping under the stars in a “swag” and a night at Australia’s most iconic Outback hotel, the Prairie. Mini-cattle drives are also available in other states including New South Wales.

Personally, on my own recent bush exploration of South Australia I was happy to sit on a verandah by the creek at Portee Station, a fabulously comfortable Victorian homestead, sip a glass of an excellent chilled local plonk and gaze on thousands of sheep tinted pink by the earth.

Travel facts

Travelbag(0844 8804406; www.travelbag.co.uk) offer a 10-day April bargain at £998 per person for return flights to Perth and a motorhome to tour. Or combine a return flight (from £700) from a consolidator like the Flight Centre (0870 499 0042; www.flightcentre.co.uk), with one of the many Australia the movie-themed land packages. Netflights(0800 747 0000; www.netflights.com) offers an 8-day Top End tour from £1,059 combining Arnhem Land with Darwin and Kakadu. Qantas Holidays (020 8222 9124; www.qantasholidays.co.uk) offers 10 days of location highlights including those of Western Australia from £2,062. For just £815, OzXposure (020 8772 3770; www.ozxposure.co.uk) offers a Broome to Darwin jeep safari through the Kimberley. Contact Portee (0061 8 8540 5211; www.portee.com.au) for details of private air tours, double rooms from £126 with wombat safari and sundowners

Jewish Australia

Jewish convicts aboard the First Fleet founded Australia’s community in 1788.
Today, it is 120,000- strong, mainly descended from refugees and Holocaust survivors. Recent immigrants are from South Africa.
Half them live in Melbourne and a third in Sydney, with smaller populations in Perth, Adelaide and the Queensland Gold Coast.
Monash University, which houses the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation was named for Sir John Monash, commander of the Australian Corps from 1918, and a leading member of the Jewish community

Wave farewell to the Queen

Vivien Creegor — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

We cruise on QE2 before the ship drops anchor for the last time

I have wanted to go to Australia for more than 20 years but my husband wasn’t so keen. I think the idea of getting on and off internal flights and checking in and out of hotels put him off. So when we heard the QE2 would be hanging up her sails in 2008, and found that her final world cruise itinerary featured a Sydney to Singapore segment, we realised we could get a snapshot of Australia’s main cities in comfort with no packing and unpacking of bags.

Much nicer than all those flights, as well as a chance to rekindle fond memories of two previous trips aboard the Cunard liner.

So Sydney was where we began, with four nights in the Four Seasons Hotel at The Rocks, with views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House from our window.

We also had a stunning vantage point when crowds thronged the quayside as Cunard’s new flagship, the Queen Victoria, symbolically gave up her berth to the QE2, the “old lady”.

Sydney, I had been told, is very much like London but with better weather. I actually thought it was a mixture of New York and Los Angeles.

The iconic QE2 sailing into New York: she is due to cross the Atlantic twice more

We did a lot of touristy things — lunch on Bondi Beach (at Sahnia, an Israeli friend’s restaurant); we saw Moriah College, the largest Jewish school in the southern hemisphere; we ate fish at one of the city’s most famous restaurants, Doyles in Watson’s Bay; and we took one of the famous green-and-yellow ferries from Circular Quay to Manly Beach where we walked around people-watching, before brunch by the beach, observing the surfers risk their necks riding the waves.

One evening I left my husband nursing his jet lag and went to the Opera House in the hope of getting a ticket for Carmen. It was sold out, but a single ticket was returned 30 minutes before the performance.

I bought a glass of wine and went on to the wide terrace with the massive shells of this iconic building shimmering in the warm night air. It was fabulous, and so was the opera.

Next day, at embarkation time, we found ourselves in the same queues to board as everybody else, despite having “priority boarding”. Once on board though, the service was impeccable.

Our cabin was spacious and comfortable. We had a large balcony, a benefit enjoyed by just 25 staterooms — which is another reason why she is being retired. While undeniably looking a little tired, QE2 is still magnificent; her interior still gleaming, her small synagogue still impressive.

Once on board, you quickly slip into the ship’s routine, beginning with the splendid ritual of dinner which for us was in the Queen’s Grill — one of the ship’s best restaurants — where you can opt to dine á deux, or at a table for six or more.

You can order from the menu or order pretty much whatever you fancy; there are plenty of fish and vegetarian options and service is so good it can border on the obsequious.

The first day was “at sea”, which means a chance to find your way around the ship and find out what is on offer. There were plenty of opportunities in the daily activity programme for burning off any excess calories.

Personally, I found that line dancing for an hour burned off a satisfyingly high number. There was also the less energetic Bible studies, deck quoits or beading, knitting and stitching; we chose to lay out on deck soaking up the sun.

Our first port of call was Hobart, Tasmania, the Australian island state. It is a pleasant enough town but you wouldn’t want to holiday there. We had a quick tour to Blackman’s Cove with a guide who had a specially adapted Harley Davidson with two seats at the back, a splendid fish lunch at Mures on the wharf where we watched fishing boats bobbing on the water, and then back to the ship.

The next day was again “at sea” and our cabin staff brought us breakfast in bed. Omelettes arrived piping hot and beautifully presented, and sipping coffee on your own, sunny balcony with the coast of Australia slipping by is truly heavenly.

The schedule gave us just one day in Melbourne which was a pity. We decided to use the city’s clean, efficient trams and found our way to Old Melbourne Gaol, where Ned Kelly was hanged. Then it was out to the seaside suburb of St Kilda’s — home of the city’s original Jewish community — where we ate fresh marinaded fish, cooked to perfection and served at an outside table overlooking the beach.

Adelaide, the Australian city which is believed to most closely resemble England, is nicely laid out, with lots of green spaces, gardens and churches everywhere — in fact it is called the Church City.

We wandered around the grounds of Government House watching members of the Victoriana Society of South Australia dressed in period costume playing croquet on the lawns. Later in the day, the heat of Adelaide pretty much engulfed us as we walked through the Sunday market watching street entertainers, most of whom were engrossingly talented.

The ship’s final call was at Fremantle, the port city on the far west coast of Australia that sits handily close to Perth. We had a coffee on Fremantle’s Cappuccino Strip and then strolled to the station where we took a train into Perth, the most isolated big city in the world.

Despite its isolation, the atmosphere was buzzy and bustling. We took in the Western Australia Museum with its striking collection of Aboriginal artefacts and then, as the heat outdoors became intolerable, dashed into a fish-and-chip restaurant for some air conditioned lunch.

Four days at sea rounded off our nostalgic farewell to the QE2. During this time we crossed the Equator and sailed past a benign looking Krakatoa.

It has to be said that entertainment on board was of variable quality, indeed, fellow passengers Richard and Barry Wright, Jewish brothers from Cape Cod, who had been backing singers for performers such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, were deprecating about the quality. On our first evening, we saw Syd Little, of Little and Large fame. To say he was less than fab would be an understatement. On one of the at-sea days there was a truncated performance of Macbeth by four ex-RADA students, who also did a drama workshop for passengers. On another evening we saw a magician-cum-comic called Mel Mellers who had our vote as the best entertainer in our two weeks on board.

Apart from a great snapshot of Australia, we have great memories of the send-off she was given at every Australian port. Clearly, she is held in huge affection by the Aussies and at every port we sailed from there were waving crowds, balloons and small boats bidding farewell to QE2.

Indeed, at times we were quite emotional ourselves, realising that this was the last trip to the southern hemisphere for the fine but superseded ship before she heads for her final berth in Dubai in November.

Travel Facts

Queen Elizabeth 2 (www.cunard.co.uk; 0845 678 0013) has a full programme of cruises in the Mediterranean, British Isles, Northern Europe and across the Atlantic from now until the final 16-day cruise in November to Dubai, where she will be permanently berthed. Many sailings are round-trip, from Southampton. Prices are from £1,057 per person for a three-night cruise, and from £1,524 for a 10-night Mediterranean cruise

Come to the beautiful south

Anthea Gerrie — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Visitors invariably head to Ayers Rock and Sydney neglecting South Australia. Don’t, we say.

In a country packed with show-stoppers like Ayers Rock, Sydney Harbour and the Great Barrier Reef, it is not surprising South Australia remains relatively undiscovered by visitors.

But that is a real shame, for packed into one easy-to-navigate state (if “packed” is the right word for such magnificently empty territory) are hundreds of tourist treats, from beautiful wine country to breathtaking the Outback and some of the most spectacular beaches in the world — all within an easy drive of Adelaide international airport.

The prettily named Fleurieu Peninsula is the place to go for a heady combination of vineyards, beach and wildlife. A good focus is McLaren Vale, known for a handful of acclaimed vintages. Touring and tasting has been made easy by an ingenious cheese-and-wine trail which involves picking up a hamper at the town’s Blessed Cheese café. This contains crackers, local cheese and other picnic fare, plus map and suggestions for matching wines. In practice, the wineries will arrange tastings of their range — and the best bit of the scheme is the voucher to exchange for a take-home bottle.

A particularly good vineyard to visit is the highly rated Wirra Wirra, which has lovely grounds and is close to a delightful country gallery, the Red Poles, which has a garden, enticing jewellery, pottery, pictures and rooms to stay.

But it would be hard to find a more sybaritic dwelling than the Vintage B&B, just outside McLaren Vale with a fabulous view of vines. It is a shame the DIY breakfast, lets down the quality of the beautifully-decorated suites — on the second morning we opted to breakfast instead at Blessed Cheese.

The best place to dine among the vineyards is the award-winning Salopian Inn, which serves French fare with soft lights and music. But for lunch on a sunny day, there is no better place than the Star of Greece, a sophisticated and colourful beachside restaurant which has attracted celebs from Kylie to Sting, serves delicious food, wine and cocktails all day at reasonable prices yet displays no attitude.

It was at Port Willunga, a 15-minute drive from McLaren Vale at the top of a long stretch of fabulous clean, white sand which on the day we visited was pretty well deserted. After whiling away post-lunch hours swimming and beach-combing, we headed to nearby Aldinga Beach just for the pleasure of driving the long stretch of sand designated for vehicles, and photographing the arty shelter complete with canine sculpture and inscription in memory of a much-loved local fisherman.

At the bottom of the peninsula is the resort of Victor Harbour, which has all the attractions strangely absent along the Aldinga stretch, perhaps the reason the beach is so delightfully underused. Victor Harbour has less charm and more crowds, but for bird lovers it is the jumping off point for Granite Island. Here, 2,000 of the tiny fairy penguins only found in the Antipodes return each night after a hard day’s fishing, and visitors can book tours and travel the causeway to the island on a horsedrawn tram.

But a more intimate option is to take the tram by day, enjoy a super fish lunch at the outdoor café overlooking the rocks, then inspect the little birds at the rescue centre set up by Brit Dorothy Longden and her husband Keith.

Wildlife enthusiasts with time to spare will also want to visit Kangaroo Island, just a 45-minute crossing from the Fleurieu, which boasts not just a collection of marvellous marsupials, but many of the other curious and endearing animals for which Australia is famous, from shy echidnas to even more bashful koalas; here, also, are white dunes and spectacular boulder-strewn beaches.

Foodies on a tight schedule may prefer to stick to the wine country — there is much of it to explore in South Australia, notably the Barossa, where the big-name vineyards are situated, and the more rarefied boutique operations of the Adelaide Hills. Here, the lunch-only Petaluma Restaurant at Bridgewater Mill winery is one of South Australia’s most attractive.

But there are also unmissable surprises not far from the vines.

Heading north from McLaren Vale and skirting the Barossa — pausing perhaps at the pretty town of Hahndorf for a delightful alfresco lunch of dips and local cheeses at Udder Delights and a tasting at the top-rated Henschke winery near Keyneton — visitors will suddenly find themselves encountering unexpected and breathtaking Outback very close to the Sturt Highway which connects Adelaide with wild bush.

This is the jumping-off point for Portee Station, home to thousands of sheep coloured pink by the red earth; a long stretch of river frontage with ochre-coloured banks; and an absolutely delightful Victorian homestead run with great panache as an inn by Pat Kent and his wife Sally, a Brit and former air stewardess.

The river view from the house is so stunning, it is tempting to just crash in the spacious and comfortable bedrooms with their picture windows, or on the delightful verandah with a chilled bottle from the reasonably-priced wine list. However, the delights which come as standard with the first night’s stay are not to be missed. This is wombat country, and at dusk there is a chance to drive out along the outback plains to look for the shy little creatures emerging from their huge burrows. The trip is timed to coincide with a spectacular sunset along a private stretch of beach where Pat pours bubbly over hibiscus flowers at a table by the river. Then it is back to the ranch for dinner under the stars cooked by the rancher’s daughter and served elegantly on white linen; with advance notice, kosher-observant guests are catered to, as this is very much a tailor-made experience.

Extra activities from hot-air ballooning to in-room massages can be laid on, and guests staying at Portee during the last week of June this year can experience the thrill of watching an authentic Australian activity on a world class level, as the national sheep shearing team hones its skills prior to the 2008 world championships.

While the real draw of South Australia is truly fabulous places like Portee, which combine Outback adventure with stylish home comforts, and the aforementioned coast and countryside, it is worth noting that the once rather staid city of Adelaide — a couple of hours’ drive from Portee and barely more than an hour from McLaren Vale — has livened up in recent years. It now fields a slew of interesting restaurants, good galleries and an acclaimed annual arts festival.

Next year in ... Sydney

Jan Shure — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Israel is not the only popular destination for British Jews seeking a new life in the sun among others of their faith. It may not quite be aliyah — but Australia’s pull is rising

You are a twenty or thirty-something UK Jew, possibly married, possibly not, and you fancy a new life in another country. You are looking for a place with almost guaranteed sunshine, a laid-back, outdoorsy vibe, world-class Jewish schools and a vibrant Jewish life. You might think the obvious destination would be Israel — but for a significant number of young Jews, their “aliyah” is not to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, but to Sydney, Melbourne, or even Canberra, Perth or Darwin.

In 2006, a total of more than 400,000 people left the UK, up from 359,000 recorded in 2005 and the highest rate since current records began in 1991. Correspondingly, the latest figures from Britain’s Office of National Statistics — issued in November 2007 — reveal that Australia is still Britons’ favourite place to which to emigrate. Although it is difficult to find hard statistics about specific Jewish emigration to Australia, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to indicate that significant numbers of young UK Jews are drawn by the sun, sea, sand, the easy access to the great outdoors and the Aussie lifestyle.

The most compelling evidence is Project Sydney, a new community-sponsored initiative to help UK and South African Jews move to the city. A joint initiative by the New South Wales Jewish Communal Appeal and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Project Sydney was established towards the end of 2007 following data from migration agents that showed a hike in the number of Jews applying for visas to Australia. The project helps with job interviews, finding Jewish schools for immigrants’ children, and generally offering support to newcomers.

In February, the project’s director, Selwyn Shapiro, came to London, where he interviewed more than 50 Jews. He also spoke to a number of families from Manchester and Leeds by phone. He said the bulk of the people he spoke to were young, as “you are much more likely to get a visa to Australia if you are young and professional”.

The project’s mission statement explains: “Historically, Sydney’s Jewish community has been sustained by immigration, and the community recognises and appreciates the crucial role that immigrants play in our society. We welcome and encourage immigration as a way of enhancing and sustaining our Jewish life in Sydney.”

Many UK Jews decide to move to Australia after travelling around the country during gap-year or post-university trips. One of those is Glasgow-born Adam Kay, 37, a TV producer-director who is now head of programming for the Australian arm of British independent production company North One TV. He went to work at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 and returned soon after on a “distinguished talent” visa, lured by the beach lifestyle, the Australian ethos of “fair go” and the laid-back atmosphere. A Manchester graduate who lived in Muswell Hill, North London, Kay is a self confessed “sports and TV nut” who has produced and directed TV at the Commonwealth Games and African Nations Cup. He is now gearing up for the Beijing Olympics.

“I didn’t like the hustle and bustle of London, the incessant rush, the pollution and poor quality of life,” he said. “Sydney, by contrast, is all sun, sea, sand... and I like the outdoor sporting life and the opportunity to use my worldwide experience on TV to better the quality of television in Australia.”

A graduate of Habonim-Dror, he says he made countless Australian friends when he was on the organisation’s Shnat programme in Israel in 1988-89. “The transition from London to Sydney was easy,” he says, “because I had many friends whom I’d met back in 1989, thus providing an instant infrastructure.”

Another Brit lured by the combination of climate and sport, plus a vibrant commercial environment, is Martin Kelly, 33. Originally from Clayhall, Essex, he moved to Sydney just over three years ago, initially working with Ernst & Young and now in corporate development with Tower Australia. Kelly, who has an economics degree from Birmingham University and passed out from Sandhurst as a captain in the British Army, says the weather and outdoors lifestyle always appealed to him.

“In Sydney, I am able to work in financial services in a challenging job, and yet also live by the beach and have a great time after work and at the weekends.

“There were things that were difficult, but considering it is an English-speaking country and its culture is largely British, moving to Australia is about as easy as moving countries can be. I like the lack of ceremony, the informality, working culture, great weather and the fact that the outdoor pursuits are easily accessible to all. There is also the sport, affordability, and the ferry commute to work.”

Kelly, who has an Australian girlfriend and cousins in Melbourne, says his employers and the large ex-pat community were very supportive in his early days in the country. But leaving his family in the UK was painful, he concedes. His sister, Pauline Nel, and her husband and children will be emigrating to Oz in a couple of months, and his parents are waiting for their visas.

“It was tough leaving them, and I am not sure how it would have turned out had they not decided to join me. But I am ecstatic they are coming. It will enrich my life and provide stability.”

The only down-side he sees is Australia’s remoteness from the rest of the world “which manifests itself, at times, in a fairly insular culture”. But despite that, he says he “wouldn’t move back to Britain for a million pounds”.

Other migrants make the move because they marry Australians. Jayne Wise, who grew up in Chigwell, Essex, married her Australian husband Dion in 1986.

The couple initially lived in Chigwell, before deciding in 1998 to head for Melbourne, Dion’s home town.

Wise, who now has two daughters, aged four and two-and-a-half, explains her decision: “After a conversation with my cousins who were considering going to live abroad, I told Dion I didn’t want to wake up in 20 years and think, ‘I wonder what it would have been like to live in Australia’. At the time, we had great jobs, owned our own home, had great friends and family around us, so it would have been so easy to stay, but I kept thinking that if we were going to go we had to do it before we had children. I don’t think I could have taken grandchildren away from my parents.”

A teacher at Bialik School, one of Melbourne’s leading Jewish schools, Wise believes she settled more quickly because she had a job to walk into and a ready-made family. “I’d been communicating with the school for a while, and a day after my plane landed I had an interview. I started work about three weeks after and made some really fantastic friends who are among my closest and most valued today.

“Dion’s family were so understanding and compassionate, and they forgave me every time I said, ‘Oh at home we do it this way’. Also, my mum’s cousin moved here about 25 years ago, so I had cousins of my own who included me in everything. They have been a real support. After the initial culture shock wore off, I started to feel very settled. Indeed, after six months I said that I’d never go back to live in London again.”

Apart from the obvious attraction of her husband, who owns a graphic- and web-design company, Wise finds much else to like about Australia: “It’s very laid back here. Melbourne, particularly, is a wonderful place to bring up children. We have beautiful parks on every other corner with well-maintained play equipment. Coffee shops and restaurants have colouring books, paper, crayons and they invented the baby-cino — frothy milk with chocolate powder — to keep the little ones happy while the parents drink their lattes, espressos or whatever. Melbourne has a great outdoor lifestyle. We often head down to the beach for a swim around 6pm. After work a few days ago, I fed the children, popped them in the pram and went for a three- kilometre walk to the park where we met Dion, had a quick play and we all walked home again. You can do that here as the weather is so good.”

Jewish life is strong, too. Bialik, where Wise teaches, is one of 11 Jewish schools in Melbourne, and one of 24 in Australia (nine of them in Sydney), in a country with a total Jewish population, officially, of 98,000.

Pauline Nel and her South African-born husband, Louis, met in Israel almost 15 years ago and lived there for a year. But while they loved the country, they have decided that Australia is where they want to make a new life with their son Jannie, four, and daughter, Mia, two. They are moving to Sydney later this year.

They first visited Australia just over a year ago for a holiday, but also for what Pauline calls “a bit of a recce to see whether it was somewhere we could live. We visited Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne to get an overview of each city. Louis grew up with a very outdoors lifestyle. In addition we lived in Israel in 1995 and spent a year in Singapore, so I suppose we have always known that England is not the only place to live your life. In 2005, Louis was offered a role in South Africa but ultimately we realised it was not stable enough. We then started to think about other options.”

Nel, 35, a company director with a background in human resources, said the toughest aspect has been the immigration process, which she describes as “a very long, arduous process”.

She hopes the settling in will be made easier by the fact that her brother, Martin Kelly, is already in Sydney, and their parents are currently applying for visas to join them.

“When we were in Sydney in March 2007, we spent all our time with Martin who showed us around and gave us an insight to the Aussie way of life. He was very honest and said that not having close family around was the hardest part about being in Oz.”

Apart from the outdoor life and the climate, it is the work-life balance which especially appeals to Nel. “Work is just one part of your life. When you are finished, you go home and spend time with your family or do other activities. Also, the facilities there are much more affordable — you can go out for the day without spending a fortune, and there are beaches, mountains, parks, public barbecues you can use.”

She is also pragmatic about the future: “I’m under no illusions of us being financially better off, but I do believe our quality of life will be richer.”

Additional reporting by Dan Goldberg

Good reef

Jan Shure — Fri, 21 May 2004 00:00:00 +0100

We dive into the warm blue waters of Australia’s Barrier Reef

‘A slice of paradise between the reef and the rainforest.” That is how the marketing blurb describes northern Queensland, and it really is hard to argue. The day mama nature was distributing her bounty, tropical Queensland was at the front of the queue.

The first view of this paradise comes as the Qantas city-flyer descends towards Cairns airport. From the window, the view is of impenetrably dense swathes of forest intersected by an intricate pattern of rivers and lagoons, and conical, dark green hills everywhere that look like those drawn by kindergarten kids before they get the hang of reality.

Cairns is back-packer heaven, a town of cheap, few-frills hotels used by gap-year travellers as a base to explore the Barrier Reef and the magnificent rainforest.

For those travelling with suitcases, Cairns is not a place to linger in but to be collected from. In our case, by a shiny limo organised by upscale travel firm Abercrombie & Kent, which whisked us along a corniche road that swooped between rainforest and coast for much of the 35-mile drive north to Port Douglas.

A glossily prosperous resort town at the top of a peninsula, Port Douglas has a swathe of good hotels, lively restaurants, great shops and the laid-back, hippy-chic vibe of Florida Keys. The luggage there is more likely to be a Vuitton valise than a Berghaus backpack, and nowhere more so than at the luscious Sheraton Mirage.

One of Australia’s most luxurious mainland resort hotels, the Sheraton Mirage has fives acres of gardens, golf courses, tennis courts and every other amenity that even the most demanding guest could wish for.

Here, necessity has been the mother of blissful invention. For much of the year, Four Mile beach, beside which the hotel is built, is a no-go area due to the Box jellyfish — the planet’s most venomous creatures — which live in its waters. Without a usable beach, the hotel has supplemented the usual pools — of which it has several, including kiddie ones — with a magical series of palm-bounded lagoons.

All cool, blue water, the lagoons are safe, swimmable and designed so you can glide languidly around, or laze in the shallows as you lap up the sun or read. Alternatively, you can perch on one of the loungers dotted in pairs away from other sunbathers.

Rooms are wonderfully spacious and well equipped — sunken spa bath included — as one would expect from a hotel boasting five stars and dozens of accolades.

As well as offering golf, tennis, bicycles and free shuttle buses into town, the hotel can also arrange excursions to the rainforest and boat-trips with diving or snorkelling on the Barrier Reef.

Breakfasts here are lavish, with a seemingly endless menu of hot and cold food, fruits, breads, cereals, smoked salmon, cheeses, fresh-made omelettes, teas, tisanes and coffee.

In the hotel’s main fine-dining restaurant, your table is on a candlelit — and if you are lucky, moonlit — terrace overlooking one of the lagoons.

There you can eat very well from a menu featuring sensationally well-prepared veggie dishes like wild-mushroom risotto and, as befits an area where the waters teem with fish, fresh and deliciously prepared cod, sea-bass or halibut.

Another clever service from A&K is a list of recommended restaurants for the area in which you are staying. From their Port Douglas list, we chose On The Inlet. Al fresco, buzzy and fabulous, its pierside location and wood benches belie a restaurant with excellent food and great service.

It also serves what may be the biggest Margaritas and the largest Caeser salads on the planet, fish so fresh it probably left the water only half an hour before arriving on your plate and perhaps the yummiest chips in the southern hemisphere.

Suffering slight Margarita damage, we were picked up the next morning by limo to return to Cairns for a 40-minute flight by tiny Cessna to the elegant P&O-owned resort at Lizard Island. A&K had warned us in advance about baggage restrictions on the flight, so we were able to pack accordingly in Port Douglas. Others were not so fortunate, scrabbling around on the floor of Cairns airport fretfully trying to work out what they could deposit at left-luggage.

Lizard Island was named by Captain James Cook because of the abundance of lizards rather than for its contours, which is odd since part of the island exactly echoes the shape of one of these scaly reptiles.

In tribute to the English sea-captain who clambered ashore while trying to navigate a safe route through the coral outcrops, the island’s highest point is known as Cook’s Look. Cook, incidentally, also named the Great Barrier Reef. Or rather mis-named it, since it is not a single “great” reef or a barrier, except in the sense that it barred his way to the mainland.

Today’s visitors to this sublime resort come for boho-chic atmosphere, the exclusivity (it can accommodate a maximum 80 guests), the vast, secluded beach-side bungalows equipped with every possible amenity and comfort, and for the collection of top-of-the-range toys (boats of every sort, bikes and pedaloes) available for guests’ use.

Lizard general manager Caroline Dey knows what her guests value most: privacy, comfort, quiet pampering and time to themselves.

And all these are provided in abundance, from the second you arrive when, over iced tea and nibbles, she enquires about culinary preferences and ensures any special dietary requirements are met, to guaranteeing that the island is a paparazzi-free zone (the resort controls its airspace and guards the ocean, so celebs can — and do, though it is P&O policy not to reveal names — sojourn here in peace).

A typical Lizard day might start with a stroll along a shady path, or on the fine, sandy beach to breakfast in the vast, open-sided pavilion that houses reception, lounge and restaurant. Breakfast is a healthy feast of fresh, tropical fruits, Bircher muesli, breads, a buffet of fish and cheeses and hot dishes to order.

From breakfast, you might visit the spa, the pool, the tennis courts, a beach or go down to Anchor Bay to hop aboard the glass-bottom boat for your first introduction to the reef.

Alternatively, having pre-ordered a picnic, you could collect your motor launch from the flotilla free for guests and take your own cruise around Lizard or to a nearby uninhabited island. Before setting off you inform the beach crew where you plan to land, and that beach or islet is yours for the day. You can sail the beaches, bays and coves before anchoring. Then, with your lavish picnic and an umbrella to shade you, you can while away the hours reading, snoozing or swimming till it’s time to head back.

There are also half-day and whole-day cruises to the best diving and snorkelling spots where you get an up-close view of the breathtakingly beautiful, magical and colourful reef.

For an hour at a time, you flip around in the warm sea, swimming from an area of coral that looks like a forest of leafless trees, to another that resembles a field of technicolour mushrooms. And swimming around and through it are fish of every shape, colour and pattern to dazzle the eye and confound the senses.

Then it’s back on board for lunch and soft drinks — there is an alcohol ban on board that is part of a reassuringly strict safety policy — before sailing to the next dive spot to repeat the whole experience.

While Lizard lunches — if you are not out picnicking or cruising — are light and casual, dinner is a leisurely and romantic affair, with tables set out in a semi-circle with views of the moon-lit sea and beach.

Chef Mark Long prepares the kind of modern Australian gourmet food which features light, healthy dishes, fresh flavours and no rich sauces. His speciality is a selection of smooth, fat-free soups made with one or two vegetables (Jerusalem artichoke and parsnip and red pepper were our favourites), while there was always either a permitted fish or vegetarian dish among the main courses.

As those Queensland marketing people said, a slice of paradise...

Laud Melbourne

Jan Shure — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 00:00:00 +0100

The city named for our 19th-century PM is well worth a detour

Until 25 years ago (when both superlatives were snaffled by Sydney), Melbourne was Australia’s biggest and most important city.

Stinging from, among other things, Melbourne’s selection as host city for the 1956 Olympics, Sydney set out to become Australia’s first city. (In theory, that honour belongs to the federal capital, Canberra, but like Brazil and Turkey, Oz suffers from its capital being eclipsed by a more famous non-capital city).

Sydney and Melbourne still enjoy a keen rivalry, but having been to both on a recent visit to completely fabulous Australia, I would be very reluctant to choose between them. (If you forced me, I would probably declare for Sydney — but by a whisker, and only because of that fabulous harbour). And I would urge anyone Australia-bound on no account to miss out Melbourne.

Situated on Australia’s south-east coast about 250 miles south-west of Sydney, the city sprawls inland from the Tasman Sea amid low green hills. Its centre — ringed by prosperous suburbs — blends graceful, finely restored Victorian buildings with gleaming, steel-and-glass edifices, all flanking wide, tree-lined avenues that are intersected by parks and bordered by wonderful shops and malls.

The tallest building in Melbourne is the Rialto Tower on Collins Street, the city’s main drag. The tower has a 55th-floor observation deck which provides a 360-degree view of this vibrant, cosmopolitan and historic city. Australian seat of government until the mid-19th century, the Victoria state capital is now home to fabulous cuisine and arguably (Sydney naturally argues with Melbourne on this), the best shopping in the Antipodes

If you don’t have a mass of time there — and sadly, we didn’t — the tower helps you get a sense of the city’s layout and also to glimpse Australia’s twin meccas of sporting excellence: Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Rod Laver Arena, home of the annual grand slam Australian Open tennis tournament.

In addition to a superb transport infrastructure (clean modern trams and underground trains), the city has its “Circle Line,” a series of free vintage trams which clank round the city at frequent intervals stopping at, or near, all the main tourist sights.

We got off on Flinder’s Street, near the main railway station — a glorious Victorian confection of pillars and iron fretwork — and opposite Federation Square, the futuristic and controversial new arts centre. Scheduled to open at the millennium, it was two years overdue and several million over budget, and it divides Melburnians as the Pompidou Centre once divided Paris.

Architecturally, too, it bears comparison with the Pompidou, with its intestines of intertwined pipes and cables visible through a vast glass roof space set into an asymmetric façade of marble and steel girders.

Federation Square has buzzy cafés, a restaurant, a gift shop and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, but highlight of the complex is the visitor-friendly National Gallery of Victoria, which is worth several hours of even the tightest tourist schedule.

If you have limited time, don’t miss the gallery’s ground floor, which is devoted to Australia’s indigenous art. Vibrantly coloured paintings, stunning sculptures and ancient ritual items are displayed alongside thought-provoking modern paintings and installations by young, contemporary aboriginal artists like Julie Dowling. Her stunning “Federation” series depicts, in photo-realism and collage, the history of the indigenous peoples of Australia. The floors above chronicle the development of non-indigenous art, and while interesting, most works merely substitute cows for kangaroos.

Like Sydney and many European and US cities, Melbourne has also glammed up its former docklands. The disused port region has been transformed, the pristine waterside walkways now lined with shops, galleries, cafés, restaurants and bars.

For those in need of a retail fix, Melbourne’s best shopping is in Collins Street and the parallel Little Collins and Bourke streets. In all three, top international designer boutiques (Hermes, Gucci, Vuitton, et al) vie for your cash with Aussie retail chains and clever local designers. Quirkiest mall is the Block Arcade on Collins, a lovingly renovated Victorian area where you can buy clothes, glass, hand-made chocolates and desirable stationery; The glitziest is Collins two3four, a repository of Aussie brands and designers as well as a few UK names, plus the usual cafés. This part of town also has the city’s two department stores: the up-market David Jones and the more basic Myer; as well as a raft of restaurants, cafés and bars.

The city has a number of markets, too, including the Queen Victoria, with more than 100 stalls inside yet another beautifully refurbished 18th-century building. For browsing, visit the Sunday craft market at the Vic Arts Centre on St Kilda Road and the Sunday arts and crafts

market in St Kilda itself. St Kilda, Melbourne’s seaside, is where the Jews settled when they first arrived in the city in the 18th century. The Jewish community has mostly moved on to populate the suburbs, and today St Kilda’s main drag, Acland Street, and the neighbouring Barkly and Carlisle streets are packed with funky boutiques, cafés and bars, creating a hang-out for the brunch-and-cappuccino crowd.

The once-thriving Continental-Jewish culture also survives in the form of coffee shops that nestle between edgier enterprises.

Names like Europa, Scheherezade and Monarch recall a mittel-European provenance, while their windows are filled with impossibly tempting pastries, gâteaux and cheesecake.

Bypassing St Kilda’s garish Lunar Park — currently undergoing refurbishment — the promenade boasts a cream-washed building that once housed Victorian baths and now an elegant complex of cafés and restaurants. Close by is Stoke House, a popular beach-side café-cum-bar-cum-restaurant, where you can have a chilled beer, a pizza or dinner with white linen. A few doors away is Donovan’s, one of Melbourne’s best restaurants, and impossible to get into without a reservation.

While you are at the coast — easy if you hire a car (and Aussies, of course, drive on the left, like us) — find an hour or so to visit Phillip Island Nature Park to see its most famous residents, the tiny, and achingly cute fairy penguins.

Of the town-centre’s stock of beautiful historic buildings, perhaps the finest is the State Parliament, a broad-fronted cream building with a sweep of steps and palladian columns that symbolise its power and authority. Until 1857 it housed Australia’s national parliament, and today visitors can take a guided tour on any weekday. A few hundred yards north, set amid the lawns of Carlton Garden, is the fine domed edifice of the Royal Exhibition Building, built in 1880 and fronted by lawns and an elaborate fountain.

Nearby looms the dour Victorian St Patrick’s Cathedral, a stone edifice that would not look out of place in Edinburgh. Almost in its shadow, on Albert Street, is the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation Synagogue. Built in 1877, the graceful white stucco shul is closed for refurbishment.

Our base, the glamorous Park Hyatt on Parliament Square, was conveniently close for those wanting to attend a Shabbat service. Decorated throughout in a modern take on Art Deco, its circular lobby achieves the “wow factor” with soaring atrium and lavish use of black marble and shiny bronze. Our huge room had a vast bathroom, outsize bath and a TV sunk into a wall. Ideally located amid restored Victorian terraces and close to Parliament and Collins Street, it had every amenity (shady gardens, pool, divine breakfast, superb restaurant) a Melbourne visitor could want.

It was recommended by up-scale travel specialists Abercrombie & Kent, who helped us plan our trip. As well as whisking us between airport and hotel by limo, they provided lists of recommended restaurants for every stop.

After dining at our lovely young friends Jayne and Dion on our first night, we tried Italy 1 (from their list) on our second. Handily located in George Parade, off Collins Street, it offers delicious, unabashedly authentic Italian cuisine including vegetarian antipasto, fish and veggie dishes and sumptuous puds.

Like its rival Sydney, Melbourne offers the visitor too much to see in a few days. We didn’t get to the Aquarium, the Immigration Museum, the fabled casino or any of Victoria’s lovely countryside. But on our return to Oz, we’ll just have to revisit Melbourne, too.

Oz 'pitality

Jan Shure — Fri, 20 Feb 2004 00:00:00 +0000

A vast country of jaw-dropping beauty, Australia is the perfect antidote to the jaded tourist

Sleek, stylish, endowed with great natural beauty and architecturally innovative, Sydney is perhaps the most beautiful modern city on the face of the earth.

It is also welcoming, efficiently run, a treasure trove of visual, cultural and gastronomic delights and Australia’s commercial hub.

Sydney’s biggest asset is that great artery of blue water that pours in from the Pacific, sweeping around bays and inlets to form its vast city-centre harbour. The imposing, 136-metre-high Sydney Harbour Bridge and the startlingly beautiful Opera House with its famous white “sails” shimmering in the sun are Sydney’s best-known sights; twin icons visible from almost everywhere in the city.

Close to the Bridge, in a glossily gentrified historic area known as The Rocks, are galleries, boutiques, a weekend street market and great cafés and restaurants offering views of the laser-lit bridge and opera house. Also here are Sydney’s coolest and/or swankiest hotels: the Four Seasons, The Observatory, the Park Hyatt and the Sebel Pier One, a former wharf transformed into a harbourside boutique hotel and our base for five days.

The location gave us a real advantage on New Year’s Eve when Sydney throws the biggest fireworks party on earth at the bridge. After a count-down to midnight projected in yard-high letters on a bridge pylon, £500,000-worth of fireworks burst across the sky and off the bridge in a series of eye-popping cascades and vivid, multi-coloured star-bursts.

Proximity to the bridge was also useful for what is billed, without hyperbole, as “Sydney’s ultimate tourist experience.” BridgeClimb, launched in 1998 and recipient of dozens of awards, involves an exhilirating ascent to the top of the 400-foot iron-work structure.

Because of its popularity, it is essential to book ahead (and at peak time, to book months ahead). In an operation run with military precision, you are required to turn up 15 minutes ahead of your time slot for a briefing and pre-climb preparation. This includes being breathalysed (quite reasonable as you will be climbing 1,495 steps, many narrow with steep drops below).

Assuming your blood-alcohol level is acceptable, you go into a changing cubicle to don a zip-up boiler-suit and remove watch, coins, earrings and any other items which could fall off and injure anyone below. You then buckle on a belt with a metal loop and wire that will tether you to the bridge throughout the climb.

The experience takes about three-and-a-half hours from briefing to collecting your souvenir certificate and photo, and if you are reasonably fit and not too petrified of heights, it is the most fun you can have with a boiler-suit on. As you climb, your guide recalls the history of the 72-year-old bridge and the amazing feat of engineering and human ingenuity required to build it (it has a span of 503 metres and was built out from each bank to meet in the middle). At the very top of the bridge, you can lean on the iron balustrade and look down on the Opera House — a mere 67 metres high — and enjoy a 360-degree panorama spread below you.

After the excitement of seeing Sydney Harbour from 400 feet up, it made a nice change to sit back, kick off our shoes and cruise the harbour aboard a gleaming 36-foot yacht. East Sail — which has 40 luxury yachts and cruisers moored in swanky Rushcutters Bay — runs a range of trips, from our two-and-a-half-hour “coffee” cruise to 14-day charters.

We cruised the achingly pricey Double Bay, Rose Bay and Point Piper, passed Nicole Kidman’s house at Darling Point and sailed under the bridge and round the Opera House before nosing into Darling Harbour. Yet another sparklingly redeveloped part of the city, it has the famed Aquarium with its walk-through shark tank, National Maritime Museum and pristine promenades with gleaming shops and restaurants.

On a back-stage tour of the Opera House, you learn it was designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon in 1959. He, however, has never seen it; after a row with the NSW authorities he left Sydney and has never returned. Scheduled to take four years and cost £3 million to build, it actually took 14 years and cost £50 million. But what they are most anxious to tell you is that “Opera House” is a misnomer, since only the second, 1,547-seat auditorium is designed for opera. The considerably larger 2,679-seat hall is home to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, while there is a third hall for drama and a studio for cutting-edge stuff and cinema. As well as a stroll through the mausoleum-like halls where scenery is built, the tour also gives a close-up view of those 10 roof vaults which give the building its unique and striking silhouette.

Leaving the Opera House via Opera Quays, yet another beautifully manicured precinct, we picked up a sightseeing bus at Circular Quay, the transport hub of the city. Tours take in the city’s wonderfully restored historic buildings, parks, the exotic Botanic Gardens, Governor’s House, St Mary’s Cathedral and several museums — few of which you will see inside unless you plan to spend at least a week in the city.

We hopped off first at King’s Cross, the stop for the Sydney Jewish Museum on Darlinghurst Road. In an attractive series of displays and tableaux that include a colourful reconstruction of a Sydney street in the 1840s, the museum records the history of Australia’s Jewish community. There’s also a Holocaust centre, its moving exhibits augmented by survivors who act as guides.

Back on the bus, we headed for Market Street where we disembarked for the futuristic, 250-metre Sydney Tower. An express lift whizzes you to the top for a stunning, 360-degree view of the city followed by the entertaining and informative Sky Tour. Back on the ground, you are in the city’s main shopping district, much of it located in arcades, some shinily modern, some lovingly restored Victorian edifices. Best are the Queen Victoria Building with five floors of local and international shops and the smaller, chic-er Strand Arcade, devoted to Aussie designers like Alannah Hill, Bettina Liano and Lisa Ho.

The city is awash with restaurants. I would happily return to La Mela at The Rocks, where a pretty outdoor terrace offers harbour views, while you enjoy a lunch or light supper. Wolfie’s, also at The Rocks — has incomparable views but for a truly fabulous dining, Salt on Darlinghurst Road is icy-cool, foodie heaven. Roux-trained chef Luke Mangan cooks divinely, teasing every atom of flavour from ingredients. And every menu has six vegetarian dishes.

With much of Sydney closed on New Year’s Day, we had just four full days in the city and it wasn’t enough. There are museums, galleries, restaurants, beaches and lots more that we did not have time to visit. You need at least a week before venturing elsewhere in this amazing country. Still, the up-side is that we have a compelling reason to return.