Sights in Pacific
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Melbourne Cricket Ground
It's one of the world's great sporting venues, and for many Australians the 'G' is considered hallowed ground. In 1858 the first game of Aussie Rules football was played where the MCG and its car parks now stand, and in 1877 it was the venue for the first Test cricket match between Australia and England. The MCG was also the central stadium for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The William Barak Bridge links it to the CBD. MCG membership is a badge of honour for Melburnians of a particular class. It involves having two members propose and second your nomination and a wait of around 20 years.
If you want to make a pilgrimage, tours take you…
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Sydney Opera House
Overcome with admiration for the Sydney Opera House, notable architect Louis Kahn said, ‘The sun did not know how beautiful its light was until it was reflected off this building.’ Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s competition-winning 1956 design is Australia’s most recognisable icon. It’s mused to have drawn inspiration from orange segments, palm fronds and Maya temples, and has been poetically likened to a typewriter stuffed with scallop shells and the sexual congress of turtles. While viewed from any angle it’s architecturally orgasmic, the ferry view approaching Circular Quay is hard to beat.
The predicted four-year construction started in 1959. After a…
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Sydney Harbour Bridge
Whether they’re driving over it, climbing up it, rollerblading across it or sailing under it, Sydneysiders adore their bridge and swarm around it like ants on ice cream. Dubbed the ‘old coathanger’, it’s a spookily big object – moving around town you’ll catch sight of it in the corner of your eye and get a fright! Perhaps Sydney poet Kenneth Slessor said it best: ‘Day and night, the bridge trembles and echoes like a living thing.’
Vital statistics: 134m high, 502m long, 49m wide and 53,000 tonnes. The massive bridge links the CBD with North Sydney, crossing the harbour at one of its narrowest points. The two halves of chief engineer JJC Bradfield’s mighty…
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Great Ocean Road
This is one of the world's most spectacular coastal drives, especially between Anglesea and Apollo Bay. Contrasting the fabulous surfer-style beaches is the lush green of the Otway Ranges, the dramatic limestone cliffs of Port Campbell and the pretty and fashionable town of Lorne.
The incredible Great Ocean Road (B100) cuts its breathtaking path from Torquay to Warrnambool, every fresh twist and turn inspiring passengers to exclaim 'Oh!', and frustrated drivers to say, 'What? What's it look like?'. The stunning stretch of road attracts seven million snap-happy visitors annually and is one of the world's most spectacular coastal drives, especially between Anglesea and…
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Central Market
Satisfy both obvious and obscure culinary cravings at the 250-odd stalls in Adelaide’s superb Central Market. A gluten-free snag from the Gourmet Sausage Shop, a sliver of English stilton from the Smelly Cheese Shop, a tub of blueberry yoghurt from the Yoghurt Shop – you name it, it’s all here. Good luck making it out without eating anything.
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Flinders Street Station
Melbourne’s first railway station, Flinders Street was built in 1854. Two railway workers won the design tender. This might explain why the station contained such fabulous facilities for railway workers, now, sadly, in disrepair. In its heyday the building buzzed with a concert hall, a library, a crèche, meeting rooms, even a ballroom. Stretching along the Yarra for a block, the station is a city landmark. You’d be hard pressed to find a Melburnian who hasn’t uttered ‘meet me under the clocks’ at one time. On any weekday, well over 100, 000 people weave through the station’s underpasses, escalators, stairs and platforms. The grand old dame’s underground tendrils…
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Aquabumps Gallery
Photographer/surfer Eugene Tan has been snapping photos of Sydney’s sunrises, surf and sand for 10 years and his colourful prints hang in this cool space, a splash from Bondi Beach.
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Paronella Park
Mena Creek’s main claim to fame is the unusual Paronella Park, which features the ruins of a Spanish castle hand-built in the 1930s. Floods, fire and moist tropics have rendered these mossy remains almost medieval. Entry includes free camping in the adjacent caravan park and a night tour at 6.20pm and/or 8.30pm.
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Te Papa
Te Papa is the city's 'must-see' attraction, and for reasons well beyond the fact that it's NZ's national museum. It's highly interactive, fun, and full of surprises. Aptly, ‘Te Papa Tongarewa’ loosely translates as ‘treasure box’. The riches inside include an amazing collection of Maori artefacts and the museum’s own colourful marae; natural history and environment exhibitions; Pacific and NZ history galleries; national art collection, and themed hands-on ‘discovery centres’ for children. Exhibitions occupy impressive gallery spaces with a high-tech twist (eg motion-simulator rides and a house shaking through an earthquake). Big-name, temporary exhibitions…
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Federation Square
Striking Federation Square has become the place to celebrate, protest or party. Occupying a prominent city block, the 'square' is far from square. Its undulating forecourt of Kimberley stone echoes the town squares of Europe. Here you'll find the subterranean Melbourne Visitor Centre.
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Abbotsford Convent
The convent, which dates back to 1861, is spread over nearly 7 hectares of riverside land just 4km from the CBD. The nuns are long gone – no-one is going to ask you if you've been to Mass lately – and there's now a rambling collection of creative studios and community offices. The Convent Bakery supplies impromptu picnic provisions, or Steve at the 1950s-style (no soy, no skinny, just what's on the menu) bar Handsome Steve's House of Refreshment will mix you up a Campari soda to sip on the balcony while you're overlooking the ecclesiastic architecture and listening to the footy on the radio. There's a Slow Food Marketevery fourth Saturday, and Shirt and Skirt Market…
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Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria Australia
This houses the NGV's extensive collection of Australian paintings, decorative arts, photography, prints, drawings, sculpture, fashion, textiles and jewellery.
The gallery's Indigenous collection dominates the ground floor and seeks to challenge ideas of the 'authentic'. Upstairs there are permanent displays of colonial paintings and drawings by 19th-century Aboriginal artists. There's also the work of Heidelberg School impressionists and an extensive collection of the work of the modernist 'Angry Penguins', including Sir Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Joy Hester and Albert Tucker.
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Queen Victoria Market
This site has been the market for more than 130 years, prior to which it was a burial ground. This is where Melburnians shop for fresh produce including organics and Asian specialities. There's a deli, meat and fish hall as well as a fast food and restaurant zone. On Wednesday evenings from mid-November to the end of February, a night market with hawker-style food stalls, bars and music takes over.
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Port Arthur
Port Arthur is the name of the small settlement in which the well-preserved Port Arthur Historic Site is situated. In 1830, Governor Arthur chose the Tasman Peninsula as the place where prisoners who had committed further crimes in the colony would be confined in an allegedly 'escape-proof' natural prison. The town is also the site of the tragic April 1996 massacre in which a lone gunman opened fire on visitors and staff, killing 35 people.
Between 1830 and 1877, about 12,500 convicts served sentences at Port Arthur and for many it was a living hell, though convicts who behaved well often lived in better conditions than those they'd experienced back home.
The penal…
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Parliament Haus
The impressive Parliament Haus was officially opened in 1984 with Prince Charles on hand. The main building is in the style of a Maprik, or Sepik-style, haus tambaran, while the attached, circular cafeteria building follows Highland design principles. The façade is quite stunning, with a mosaic featuring unmistakably PNG motifs. Photographers with wide-angle lenses will be rewarded with great shots in the late afternoon light.
The cavernous lobby is entered through doors whose handles are stylised kundu drums (an hourglass-shaped drum with lizard skin). Inside, huge Sepik masks share space with several display cases full of fantastic butterflies, including the native…
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Aquarium of Western Australia
AQWA offers the chance to enjoy the state's underwater treasures without getting wet…or eaten, stung or poisoned. You can wander through a 98m underwater tunnel as gargantuan stingrays, turtles, fish and sharks stealthily glide over the top of you. The daring can snorkel or dive with the sharks; book in advance ($159 with your own gear; hire snorkel/dive gear $20/40; 1pm and 3pm). To get here on weekdays, take the Joondalup train to Warwick station and then transfer to bus 423. By car, take the Mitchell Fwy north and exit at Hepburn Ave, or take the coastal road north from Scarborough Beach. AQWA is by the water at Hillarys Boat Harbour.
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Wellington Botanic Gardens
The hilly, 25-hectare botanic gardens can be almost effortlessly visited via a cable-car ride (nice bit of planning, eh?). They boast a tract of original native forest along with varied collections including a beaut rose garden and international plant collections. Add in fountains, a cheerful playground, sculptures, duck pond, cafe, magical city views and much more, and you’ve got a grand day out. The gardens are also accessible from the Centennial Entrance on Glenmore St (Karori bus 3).
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Arts Centre
This precinct is currently closed, pending strengthening and repairs estimated to cost $240 million. An enclave of Gothic Revival buildings (built from 1877), it was the original site of Canterbury College, which later became Canterbury University. One graduate of the college was Sir Ernest Rutherford, the NZ-born physicist who first split the atom in 1917. Before the earthquakes, the Arts Centre was a popular cultural precinct comprising artists' studios and galleries, weekend craft markets, restaurants and cinemas. One business still operating from a modern building within the Arts Centre is the excellent Canterbury Cheesemongers.
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Tamaki Maori Village
An established favourite, Tamaki does an excellent twilight tour to a marae (meeting house) and Maori village 15km south of Rotorua. Buses collect from the Hinemaru St booking office and local accommodation. The experience is very hands-on, taking you on an interactive journey through Maori history, arts, traditions and customs from pre-European times to the present day. The concert is followed by an impressive hangi.
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Gondola
At the time of writing, this attraction was closed but was planned to reopen by September 2012. Check the website for the latest information.
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Lake McKenzie
Lake McKenzie is a 'perched' lake, formed by water accumulating on top of a thin impermeable layer of decaying twigs and leaves. Here you can exfoliate your skin with the mineral sand and soften your hair in the clear water. Lake McKenzie is possibly the most spectacular of Fraser Island's lakes, but Lake Birrabeen is also amazing, and usually less crowded.
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Franz Josef & Fox Glaciers
NZ's two most famous glaciers are major attractions, mighty cascades of ice tumbling down a valley towards the sea. The heavy tourist traffic is catered for in the twin towns of Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. These small tourist villages provide accommodation and facilities at high-ish prices. Franz is busier but Fox has more of an Alpine-village charm.
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Aoraki/Mt Cook
The Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park is spectacular. More than one-third of the park has a blanket of permanent snow and glacial ice. Of the 27 NZ mountains that stretch over 3050m (10065ft) high, 22 are in this park. The mighty Mt Cook, known to Maoris as Aoraki, the 'Cloud Piercer', is the highest peak in Australasia at 3755m (12,391ft).
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East Coast Museum of Technology & Transport
Think analogue, rather than digital; old-age rather than space-age. Located 5km west of the town centre, this improbable medley of farm equipment, fire engines, domestic appliances and an electron microscope has found an appropriate home in a motley old milking barn and surrounding outhouses. Oh, the irony of the welcome sign...
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Australian Fossil & Mineral Museum
See Tyrannosaurus rex, Australia's only complete skeleton. You'll also see the internationally renowned Somerville Collection and over 6000 fossils from every period of the earth's history. It's fantastic.
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