Welcome to the land down under, where kangaroos abound and wine never tasted better. Australia is quite a gorgeous country with something for every kind of traveller—great food, wine regions, natural landscapes, adventure activities, indigenous wildlife, (a relatively young) history and a fun, vibrant lifestyle. There’s much to discover in Australia.
Australia is home to some rare, fabulous natural wonders. There’s the Great Barrier Reef, the only living thing on Earth visible from space, and the world’s largest reef system. Along the Great Ocean Road (a spectacular driving site) are the Twelve Apostles (actually only 8), a collection of limestone stacks rising up from the Southern Ocean. There’s Uluru or Ayer’s Rock, a sandstone monolith, which is 600 million years old and a sacred site to the indigenous Anangu tribe. Near Perth are limestone formations created 30,000 years ago called the Pinnacles; they are found in the sand at Nambung National Park.
Other places include Fraser Island – the world’s largest sand island; Kakadu, with its tropical biodiversity and aboriginal rock carvings; the rainbow hued MacKenzie Falls; the Blue Mountains; and the condensed sandstone Bungle Bungle Range.
Australians love to eat, and they’re very particular about what they eat and where it comes from. Though the country doesn’t have a definable cuisine of its own, it embraces and seeks influence from food the world over. The focus is on traditional flavours and fresh produce, and farm to table is a way of life.
The country is home to top chefs experimenting with flavours to create a unique and modern dining experience. In McLaren Vale, the new d’Arenberg Cube’s restaurant is the first to use a 3D-printer for food. Head chef Brendan Wessels’ take on a lemon meringue pie features 3D-printed namaleka (white chocolate set with gelatine) and Italian meringue. In Melbourne at Lûmé, chef Shaun Quade’s degustation menu is a multi-sensory and artfully deceptive approach to dining – think crab custard moulded to look like corn, and rhubarb and passion fruit turned into vanilla stems. Over at Perth’s Wildflower, Jed Gerrard uses indigenous ingredients like peppermint tree leaf, salt bush, Davidson plum, and wattle seed in his meals.
It goes without saying that you will see kangaroos in Australia. You need not visit a reserve or wildlife park, they are literally everywhere. The country is also home to many animal species – 80 per cent of their plants, mammals, reptiles and frogs are indigenous. These include koala, echidnas, dingoes and wombats. Get a glimpse of these creatures at well-maintained and informative zoos and wildlife parks like Victoria’s Healesville Sanctuary, Sydney’s Taronga Zoo, Rainforest Habitat in Port Douglas and Queensland’s Australia Zoo, amongst others. In Ningaloo Reef, you can witness shark migrations; see quokkas (miniature wallabies) at Rottnest Island; dolphins at Moreton Island off Brisbane; come face to face with a devil at the Tasmanian Devil Unzoo near Hobart and in Kangaroo Island, meet Australian sea lions, echidnas, black swans and their own species of roos.
If you love cricket, then pay homage at the country’s iconic sporting stadiums used for cricket, football, Olympic games and even concerts. There’s the largest cricket stadium in the world (by capacity), the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). It is home to the National Sports Museum and a much-photographed picture of Donald Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar. Adelaide has the iconic Oval, known for its heritage scoreboard and expansive views of the city. These days, you can also climb up to the roof of the stadium for a bird’s eye view of the ground. The Sydney Cricket Ground, which hosts many Ashes’ matches, houses a museum too for visitors.
Prawn Cocktail is a traditional seafood starter. It consists of shelled prawns in mayonnaise and tomato dressing.
Cherry Ripe is known to be Australia’s oldest chocolate bar. It consists of coconut and cherries smothered in Cadbury’s Old Gold dark chocolate.
Native to eastern Australia, the macadamia nut is complemented with a variety of dishes.
Oven-baked to perfection, sausage rolls are meat wrapped in pastry sheets.