Australasia

Australia: Surfing dune under

By Andy Mossack, May 14, 2013

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.

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Bali is beautiful even away from the beaches

By Anthea Gerrie, March 19, 2009

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.

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Australia: Flights, camera, action

By Anthea Gerrie, January 8, 2009

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?

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Wave farewell to the Queen

By Vivien Creegor, June 13, 2008

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.

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Come to the beautiful south

By Anthea Gerrie, May 2, 2008

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.

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Next year in ... Sydney

By Jan Shure, April 18, 2008

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

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Good reef

By Jan Shure, May 21, 2004

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.

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Laud Melbourne

By Jan Shure, April 23, 2004

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).

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Oz 'pitality

By Jan Shure, February 20, 2004

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.

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