16 January 2024: It’s the time for setting goals and planning out your annual leave for the year ahead, and a holiday to Australia is a great opportunity to live out unforgettable experiences while reconnecting with nature. Whether you’re ticking big things off your bucket list like swimming with dolphins and discovering Indigenous stories in the stars, or nourishing your body with farm-to-fork dining and the great outdoors, read on to see more exciting experiences to spice up your itinerary Down Under!
Have a whale of a time in Western Australia, Queensland, and South Australia
Photo credit: Nic Duncan
Most people have heard of whale watching from a ferry, but have you ever heard of soaring above a whale? Now, you can marvel at these magnificent beasts from the air as you parasail over a whale with Cicerello’s Jet Adventures off the coast of Perth / Boorloo, Western Australia. Departing from Fremantle during humpback season between September and November, whale-lovers can board the purpose-built parasailing boat Okiedokie to glide over the top of a whale for a once-in-a-lifetime view.
To get even closer to the ocean’s greatest, hop on board Naturaliste Charters’ flagship
whale-watching vessel the Alison Maree, which departs on charters from Perth / Boorloo, Bremer Bay and the Margaret River region. It now features a new viewing platform that brings aqua enthusiasts close to sea level, for a chance to see eye-to-eye with these graceful giants. The best months to see orcas in Bremer Bay up close are December to April, so make sure to plan wisely on when to visit!
Good Vibes Boating Adventures is a new charter company making its way around the waterways of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, based at Maroochydore. Their bright blue vessel, Goodvibes, can be hired for a variety of marine adventures from fishing to whale watching to relaxed river tours. Its wide rear ramp has been custom designed to be completely wheelchair accessible.
For those who want full-scale whale immersion, premium tour group Untamed Escapes customises private, five-day whale watching adventures around the wild and untouched waters of the Great Australian Bight from July to September. Beginning and ending in Adelaide / Tarntanya, the star of the show is the graceful Southern Right Whale, who lives here in greater numbers than anywhere else.
The tour takes in plenty beyond the whales as well: such as oyster tasting at Smoky Bay, traversing the iconic Nullarbor and the opportunity to spot other marine wildlife including dolphins, sea lions and little penguins.
Be mesmerised under the milky way
Not all of Australia’s beauty is terrestrial. Turn your eyes to the sky as it illuminates with starry views that come alive only when the sun sets.
At Uluru in the Northern Territory, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia has introduced a new element to its Wintjiru Wiru celestial cultural storytelling experience, Wintjiri Wiru Twilight. Featuring the same evocative and deeply moving drone light show that tells a chapter of the Mala story, the
90-minute Twilight experience takes place an hour earlier making it the best choice for visiting children (aged five and above) and families. Also in the Northern Territory’s Red Centre, the Light-Towers experience at Discovery Resorts: Kings Canyon is artist Bruce Munro’s latest Australian installation and features 69 multicoloured light towers that glow hypnotically against the ancient geology of the canyon.
The 4WD Sleepout Tour at Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in the South Australian outback gives guests a chance to spend the night under the twinkling canopy of the vast universe on a two- or three-night adventure, complete with chef-cooked camp meals and local wine. While in the Shoalhaven region south of Sydney / Warrane, astrophysicist Dr Dimitri Douchin and his partner Caroline have launched regular 90-minute astronomy tours from the shores of Vincentia with their latest venture, Jervis Bay Stargazing.
For those who fancy the idea of viewing the sky from the sea, Eco Abrolhos has launched a new five-day stargazing boat tour around the Albrohos Islands off Western Australia’s southwest coast. Hosted by local astronomer Donna Vanzetti, days are spent fishing, hauling up craypots for dinner, snorkelling or spotting sea lions and marine birds. When the sun goes down, guests search the skies for gaseous nebulae, distant galaxies, and other unfathomable wonders of the universe.
Nourish your body and soul with nature’s offerings
Between October and April, Top End visitors can get a glimpse of what life is like working on a remote cattle station in Katherine, Northern Territory as part of Katherine Outback Experience’s new behind-the-scenes, hands-on offering. Over 90 minutes, learn how wild horses are tamed, how Aussie working dogs round up their herds and take part in farm animal feeding.
Blue Derby Pods’ unique mountain bike experiences in Derby, Tasmania, are less about the physical adventure as they are about finding an intangible state of ‘flow’, where the thrill of the ride, the beauty of the landscape and the depth of local hospitality come together as one. Its new Two Day Adventure begins in Launceston and is for those who yearn for a short getaway to search for the ‘flow’. It is also the only Blue Derby Pods’ adventure / also one of the only rare programmes available (fact check) that takes riders into the secret depths of Mount Paris Dam.
Chef Kane Pollard from Adelaide / Tarntanya restaurant Topiary, and the food curator for South Australia’s premier culinary festival, Tasting Australia, has launched a new venture in South Australia that takes diners right into the heart of the state’s produce and landscapes. PLACE is a literal movable feast; a communal and roving outdoor eating experience that takes place directly on the land – or perhaps in a forest, or maybe beside the ocean – using ingredients sourced from within footsteps!
No matter what your new year’s resolutions may be, there’s something for you Down Under. Start mapping out your 2024 Australia holiday now to catch these exciting experiences happening over the year!
