Sights in Pacific
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Otago Museum
Explores Otago’s cultural and physical past and present, from geology and dinosaurs to the modern day. The Tangata Whenua Maori gallery houses an impressive waka taua (war canoe), wonderfully worn old carvings and some lovely pounamu (greenstone) works. If you’ve already been out on the peninsula admiring penguins and albatrosses, the museum’s wildlife collection will also fascinate. Join themed guided tours ($12, see website for times and themes). Children can explore at the hands-on Discovery World (adult/child/family $10/5/25). Check the website for always-excellent temporary exhibitions and special gallery talks.
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Balmain
Once a tough, working-class neighbourhood, Balmain now rivals Paddington in Victorian-era desirability – with the added advantage of being surrounded by water and city-bound ferries. Darling St traverses the spine of Balmain’s peninsula, and makes for a decent pub crawl. Balmain’s frangipani-scented streets contain dozens of historically significant buildings, most of which are privately owned.
The most notable is the graciously proportioned Hampton Villa, a Georgian marine villa (1847). NSW Premier Sir Henry Parkes, the ‘Father of Federation’, lived here from 1888 to 1892. Nearby is the squat, shingle-roofed Clontarf Cottage, an impressively restored house…
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Lake Te'Nggano
At 130 sq km, Lake Te'Nggano, in the southeast of Rennell, is the South Pacific's largest expanse of fresh water. The lake is the old lagoon floor and the tall cliffs that surround it are the old reef. Its western end has 200-odd coral islets and swamps. Four villages lie along the shore, including Te'Nggano, the subprovincial headquarters.
Several bird species are endemic to Rennell, including the Rennell fantail and the rare Rennell white spoonbill. There are at least eight subspecies that have been identified. Dawn and dusk see great flocks of frigate birds, cormorants and boobies circling over Lake Te'Nggano. The unique Rennellese orchid is also beautiful.
Despite the…
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Lake Kutubu
The Lake Kutubu area has one of just five national parks in PNG. South of Mendi, Lake Kutubu has some of the Highlands' most beautiful scenery. According to legend, the lake was formed when a fig tree was cut down by a woman looking for water. The story goes that whatever the tree touched turned to water - hence the lake.
The lake is beautiful, and the surrounding country is home to friendly people living a largely traditional life. Butterflies and birds of paradise are common. You can swim in the lake and visit local villages or walk and appreciate the beauty and peace. Kutubu is the Highlands' second-largest lake, and, at 800m (2600ft) above sea level, PNG's highest…
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Robert Louis Stevenson Museum
The Robert Louis Stevenson Museum is set in the Scottish author's beautifully restored former residence, Villa Vailima. Stevenson had the mansion built in 1890 after deciding the climate of 'Upolu might ameliorate his tuberculosis, but he died there a mere four years later. Stevenson and his wife Fanny Osborne are buried in the adjacent Mt Vaea Scenic Reserve.
His gravesite looks out over the 'Upolu's white fringe of reef and the distant horizon. After he died the people of Upolu worked 24 hours non-stop to hack a path to the top of the hill so that the body of their beloved tusitala ('storyteller') could be buried the next day with full ceremonial privileges.
On the…
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Giles Baths
If you’ve got kids, shark-paranoia, or surf isn’t your thing, Sydney’s blessed with a string of 40 man-made ocean pools up and down the coast, most of them free. At Coogee Beach’s northern end below Dolphin Point, Giles Baths is what’s known as a ‘bogey hole’ – a semiformal rock pool open to the surging surf.
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Nourlangie Area
The sight of this looming outlier of the Arnhem Land escarpment makes it easy to understand its ancient importance to Aboriginal people. Its long red-sandstone bulk, striped in places with orange, white and black, slopes up from surrounding woodland to fall away at one end in stepped cliffs. Below is Kakadu's best-known collection of rock art.
The 2km loop takes you first to the Anbangbang rock shelter, used for 20,000 years as a refuge and canvas. Next is the Anbangbang Gallery, featuring Dreaming characters repainted in the '60s. From here it's a short walk to Gunwarddehwarde lookout, with views of the Arnhem Land escarpment.
Nourlangie is at the end of a 12km sealed…
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Sydney Tower Eye
The 309m-tall Sydney Tower (built 1970–1981) offers unbeatable 360-degree views from the observation level 250m up. On a clear day you’ll see west to the Blue Mountains, south to Botany Bay, east across the harbour to the silvery Pacific and down onto the city streets. It's high enough to watch rain squalls shift across the suburbs on a stormy day.
The visit starts with the 4D Experience – a short 3D film giving you a bird's-eye view (a parakeet's to be exact) of city, surf, harbour and what lies beneath the water, accompanied by mist sprays and bubbles; it's actually pretty darn cool.
Luke Skywalker aspirations? Don a spiffy ‘skysuit’ and take the Skywalk…
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Salamanca Place
This picturesque row of four-storey sandstone warehouses on Sullivans Cove is a wonderful example of colonial architecture and Australia's best-preserved historic urban precinct. Salamanca Place was the hub of old Hobart Town's trade and commerce, but by the mid-20th century many of these 1830s whaling-era buildings had become decrepit ruins. The 1970s saw the dawning of Tasmania's sense of 'heritage', from which flowed a push to revive the warehouses as home to restaurants, cafes, bars and shops.
Showcasing a vibrant cultural scene, the Salamanca Arts Centre occupies seven Salamanca warehouses and is home to many galleries, studios, performing arts venues and public…
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Perisher
Perisher Valley, Smiggin Holes, Mt Blue Cow and Guthega make up the massive resort of Perisher. The terrain is roughly 22% beginners, 60% intermediate and 18% advanced with most of the action in Perisher Valley. Guthega (1640m) and Mt Blue Cow (1640m) are mainly day resorts so they're smaller and less crowded. From Guthega, cross-country skiers head to the Main Range or Rolling Ground.
Mt Blue Cow is accessible via the Skitube. Because of Perisher's sporadic layout, it doesn't have the village ambience of Thredbo, but it's widely held (though still debated) that the skiing is superior. Boarders should head for the half-pipe park where there are rails, boxes, kickers etc…
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Moore Park
Part of the broader Centennial Parklands (a huge green swath that cuts from Surry Hills to Bondi), Moore Park covers 115 hectares south of Paddington. With sports fields, tennis courts, an 18-hole public golf course and a site for visiting circuses, there’s plenty here to keep you off the streets.
The broader precinct also includes the homes of the Sydney Swans Aussie rules team, the Sydney City Roosters rugby league team and the Sydney Mardi Gras party – the historic Sydney Cricket Ground, the Sydney Football Stadium and the Hordern Pavilion, respectively; try not to get them confused! The Entertainment Quarter spices up the mix.
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University of Sydney
Australia’s oldest tertiary territory (1850) has over 45,000 students and even boasts its own postcode. You don’t need to have a PhD to grab a free campus map and wander around. Flanked by two grand halls that wouldn’t be out of place in Harry Potter’s beloved Hogwarts, the Quadrangle has a Gothic Revival design that tips its mortarboard towards the stately colleges of Oxford.
Also here is the arresting Nicholson Museum and the small University Art Gallery. Nearby, the Macleay Museum has a musty dead smell (old dons or the historic collection of taxidermied Australian fauna?).
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Thredbo
At 1370m, Thredbo has the longest runs and some of the best skiing to be had in this big ol' sunburnt country. The village itself is eye-candy compared with other Australian ski villages, with blue, green and grey tones ensuring chalets and lodges blend with the surrounding snow gums and alpine flora.
It sleeps approximately 4300 people and most of the infrastructure has been built on one side of the valley so that visitors holed up in their lodges on the other can kickback and watch the ski action. And of course Thredbo is an all-season resort, so if you can't afford it in winter, summer has got a lot to offer too. Thredbo is generally cool in summer with average…
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Conway National Park
When you've had your fill of Airlie's maritime diversions, turn inland and explore the forested gullies of the Conway Peninsula.
Spread out over 22,500ha (55,598 acres) of the Conway Peninsula, this stunning swatch of lowland rainforest is traditionally home to the Gia and Ngaro tribes. The landscape of hoop pines, rocky escarpments and lush gullies is identical to that found on the Whitsundays themselves; they were cut off from the peninsula by rising sea levels around 10,000 years ago. While there are a few local inhabitants to be wary of (including scrub mites, red-bellied blacksnakes and (honestly!) stinging trees), and jellyfish make swimming unsafe from October to…
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Springbrook National Park
Springbrook national park is perched atop a 900m (2952ft) high plateau, which, like the rest of the McPherson Range, is a remnant of the huge volcano that once centred on Mt Warning in NSW. The park's vegetation is cool-temperate rainforest and eucalypt forest, with gorges, cliffs, forests and waterfalls, numerous walking tracks and several picnic areas.
The village of Springbrook is balanced right on the edge of the plateau, with several waterfalls (when there's enough rain) that tumble more than 100m (328ft) to the coastal plain below. There are several places where you can get the giddy thrill of leaning right out over the edge, including Purling Brook Falls, at the…
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Twelve Apostles Display Centre
The lonely Twelve Apostles are rocky stacks that have been abandoned to the ocean by retreating headland. Today, only seven apostles can be seen from the viewing platforms. The understated roadside display centre at the Twelve Apostles, 6km past Princetown, has public toilets and informative displays. There’s pedestrian access to the viewing platforms from the car park via a tunnel beneath the Great Ocean Rd. Timber boardwalks run around the clifftops. Amid howls of protest from locals, Parks Victoria, which manages this facility, intends to ‘commercialise’ this site constructing a café and takeaway food outlet. Golden arches? Nobody knows… It seems a shame, but why…
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Bungle Bungles
The Bungle Bungles are a truly otherworldly sight. Scored with improbably bold russet and charcoal bands, they feel like the spine of the earth. The 'discovery' of the Bungle Bungles is a testament to the sheer size and inaccessibility of Western Australia.
This vast ochre range of wind-worn sandstone nubs, a latterday icon of the state that covers 450 sq km (173 sq mi) of a 2000 sq km (772 sq mi) national park, was unknown to European Australians prior to the 1980s. Known as Purnululu (meaning 'sandstone' in the Kidja language), the bizarre, banded bulges were formed by deposits of sand and other sediment laid down up to 375 million years ago. The park is also noted for…
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University of Melbourne
The esteemed University of Melbourne was established in 1853 and remains one of Australia’s most prestigious universities. Its blend of Victorian Gothic stone buildings, midcentury international-style towers and postmodern showpieces provide a snapshot of changing architectural aspirations. The campus sprawls from Carlton through to the neighbouring suburb of Parkville, and its extensive grounds house the university colleges. Most notable of these is the Walter Burley Griffin designed Newman College. The Ian Potter Museum of Art manages the university’s extensive art collection, which ranges from antiquities to contemporary Australian work. It’s a thoughtfully designed…
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Jim Jim Falls & Twin Falls
Remote and spectacular, these two falls epitomise the rugged Top End. Jim Jim Falls, a sheer 215m drop, is awesome after rain (when it can only be seen from the air), but its waters shrink to a trickle by about June. Twin Falls flows year-round (no swimming), but half the fun is getting there, involving a little boat trip (adult/child $2.50/free, running 7.30am to 5pm) and an over-the-water boardwalk.
These two iconic waterfalls are reached along a 4WD track that turns south off the Kakadu Hwy between the Nourlangie and Cooinda turn-offs. Jim Jim Falls is about 56km from the turn-off (the last 1km on foot), and it's a further five corrugated kilometres to Twin Falls. The…
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Peleliu
Peleliu imparts a peaceful, easy feeling. There's not much to do and that's entirely the charm, for you can really hear the silence; often it will seem like you've got the entire island all to yourself (you might not spot another tourist during your entire stay, and maybe not even a local if you walk far enough). It's a really lovely little place and that's why it's so hard to imagine it torn apart by war.
The Peleliu Wall, southwest of Peleliu, is one of the world's finest dives, an abrupt 300m drop that starts in about 3m of water. It's a veritable treasure-trove of sharks, hawksbill sea turtles, black coral trees, mammoth gorgonian fans and an amazing variety of fish.…
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Mount Sorrow
The Mount Sorrow ridge trail provides opportunities for fit and experienced bushwalkers to take in spectacular views from an elevation of 680m. The trail starts in a lowland rainforest valley, full of trees with large buttress roots and a canopy woven with large woody vines. As the ridge ascends, feather-leafed palms become more common.
On the ridge, the vegetation is dominated by acacias (wattles). The wind-sheared forest canopy becomes lower and more open towards the mountain summit. From the lookout, you can watch spangled drongos and small flocks of topknot pigeons in the air, while a variety of butterflies drift around on the wind. On a clear day, the beautiful…
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Whroo Visitors Centre
South of Rushworth is Whroo Historic Reserve (pronounced ‘Roo’), an old gold-mining ghost town with relics aplenty: old mine shafts, cyanide vats (used for separating the gold from quartz), puddling machines, and the Balaclava open-cut mine – walk through the tunnel. Whroo visitors centre has a café and a newly produced DVD and history book for sale; see the area as it was and trace the local history. The town once had over 130 buildings, but the ironbarks have reclaimed much of it. There are walking tracks and signed nature trails twisting through the scrub, and the evocative cemetery nearby on Spring Hill. Headstone inscriptions indicate that life was hard for…
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Oxers Lookout
Perched above the confluence of the Hancock, Weano, Joffre and Red gorges, Oxers Lookout is genuinely stunning. It may not be the easiest place to get to, but the sense of splendid isolation only adds to the effect.
In a place as vast and (usually) dry as WA, the magnetism of fresh water is enhanced. When that water takes the form of four separate creeks, slicing deeply into the ancient red rock, then tumbling many storeys down dark, jagged gorges, that magnetism is irresistible. To get to Oxers, you'll need a 4WD to negotiate the sometimes-rugged Banyjima Drive, the unsealed road that leads into the heart of Karijini. Access becomes more difficult during summer deluges,…
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Nananu-i-Ra
This pocket-sized paradise is a must on any northern Viti Levu itinerary. Beautifully hilly, the 3.5-sq-km island is surrounded by scalloped bays, white-sand beaches and mangroves. A history of cattle grazing has cleared much of the dense vegetation and today rolling hills of grass dominate the interior.
It's only 3km north of Ellington Wharf, but the atypical landscape and small enclave of upmarket holiday homes exaggerates the distance. Nananu-i-Ra is an excellent option for those who want an offshore-island experience but minimal boating and associated cost. It's also renowned for windsurfing and diving. The island has no roads and no village - most of the residents…
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Bicentennial Park
Bicentennial Park (The Esplanade) runs the length of Darwin's waterfront and Lameroo Beach - a sheltered cove popular in the '20s when it housed the saltwater baths, and traditionally a Larrakia camp area. Shaded by tropical trees, the park is an excellent place to stroll.
At the Herbert St end there's a cenotaph commemorating Australians' service to the country's war efforts: from those who lost their lives in WWI to Aboriginal men and women whose bush skills assisted the Army during WWII to protect the remote northern coastline. Also honoured are 200 Remarkable Territorians: hand-painted tiles in panels dispersed intermittently along the Esplanade commemorate some of…
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