Stepping ashore at Sandy Bay, a windswept beach on this remote subantarctic island, we are the alien invaders, inspected and quizzed by fearless creatures which waddle up to greet us when not preoccupied with their own courtship and nesting rituals. Amidst these thousands of webbed feet lie dozens of corpulent elephant seals, strewn about like sacks of wadding, stretching and yawning as they moult.

At 54 degrees south latitude, a mere speck in the Southern Ocean, Macquarie lies halfway from Australia to the Antarctic continent, the only island on earth formed by rocks forced up from the ocean’s floor, and near-new in geological terms.

This is not the dry, icy expanse of the Antarctic continent – officially, it is Tasmanian territory – but it is a challenging and inhospitable outpost whose only human habitation is an Australian Antarctic research base.Visitors usually join an expedition cruise, often en route to Antarctic waters.

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This article explores the traditional craft of wooden boat building in Tasmania and leads into a destination piece on the Huon Trail region in southern Tasmania.

Contact Fiona Harper if you'd like to commission this article. Images are available

http://www.pbase.com/fionaharper

Contact Fiona Harper if you'd like to commission this article. Images are available at http://www.pbase.com/fionaharper

Here we preview 10 Australian and New Zealand getaways to keep the flame alive - or reignite it.

This story runs to around 1200 wds but can be tailored to suit individual editorial requirements. Images available.

Today’s Apple Isle has evolved into the Isle of Plenty, a green and golden triangle of all things good to eat. Those few early food crops were just the beginning for this island now so rich in its produce that it is hard to know where to start.

Do you begin in the north where the Tamar river vineyards near Launceston produce some of the finest cool-climate wines in the country? Or head south to the Huon area once known best for its apple orchards, but now also crammed with other goodies? Or should you perhaps flip across to King Island, to sample its beef and dairy foods?

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This article continues with details of the various crops and produce of this fertile island and includes contact information for vineyards, cheese-makers, restaurants, bakers, and oyster growers among other things.

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©Sally Hammond 2006

Picture Credits: ©Gordon Hammond 2006

(Sally and Gordon Hammond travelled as guests of Tasmania Tourism)

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Please contact Sally Hammond for a pricing schedule or to discuss purchase of this article.

• Currently the article runs to approximately 1200 words plus Factfile (fact-checked and updated free with the sale of this article).

• The length of the article may be changed according to editorial needs, and the Factfile may be expanded, however if additional work is requested it will affect the final cost of the article.

• Pictures are available.

• This article has previously been published in Australia and first Australian print rights have been sold. Other rights are available.

The last remnants of an ancient land bridge between Victoria and Tasmania, this craggy island is just one of the Furneaux group, today reduced to awkward stepping stones in Bass Strait, with not a lot in the way of land between them and Antarctica.

Flinders Island itself is not really on the way to anywhere. You must decide to go there. Make an effort. Nor is this 90 by 30-something kilometre island teeming with locals. Jim, our tour guide was quick to point out there are only 800 residents, but 17,000 geese. That's Cape Barren geese, of course, named for the largish island across Franklin Sound to the south.

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This article continues with information on accommodation provided, local food and cuisine, things to do and see.

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(finishes…)

There's a mystery about Flinders. How the island has survived, why people stay. I'm going back, of course. I need to try to crack the code, and discover what the lure is. So, if you go, and find out first, please don't tell me.

I need to experience the thrill of finding out for myself.

©Sally Hammond 2006

Picture Credits: ©Gordon Hammond 2006

(Sally and Gordon Hammond travelled as guests of Dakota National Air)

………………..

Please contact Sally Hammond for a pricing schedule or to discuss purchase of this article.

• Currently the article runs to approximately 600 words plus Factfile (fact-checked and updated free with the sale of this article).

• The length of the article may be changed according to editorial needs, and the Factfile may be expanded, however if additional work is requested it will affect the final cost of the article.

• Pictures are available (see gallery for prices, selection and ordering).

• This article has previously been published in Australia and first Australian print rights have been sold. Other rights are available.

See image gallery:http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/Galleries/GolfTasmania/

Such is the price  the cyclist must pay for daring to tackle the rugged hills of western Tasmania, in Australia’s super-scenic island State. While the west coast is not the easiest part of Tasmania to cycle, it’s certainly the most spectacular. Regular bicycle tours of Tasmania are organised by Bicycle Victoria: see http://www.bv.com.au/great-rides
 

Led by an unknown, parochial, but intensely vocal rural GP, Dr Bob Brown, the campaign to preserve the pristine and ancient wilderness of the Gordon and Franklin Rivers is in full swing. The bitter taste of defeat is still in the mouths of the activists after the loss of beautiful Lake Pedder to the greedy ‘Hydro’. They are determined not to lose the Franklin.

The waves of this campaign spread out, more a tsunami than a ripple, to the mainland and beyond. Australia’s State and Federal Governments, Unions, conservationists, private contractors, loggers and the families of tiny Strahan are drawn into this unseemly melee. Tens of thousands of protesters across the nation march to the beat of “No Dams”. Thousands more, including professors, celebrities and socialites chain themselves to fences and trees, lie in the mud in front of bulldozers and are carted off by the hundred to Hobart’s notorious Risden Prison.

Fast forward to 2005 and Strahan is once again the quaint picturesque hamlet. Delicate little sailboats sit motionless on mirror-still Macquarie Harbour as if in a Streeton or Roberts landscape. Gone are the pickets, placards, noisy hecklers and riot police – replaced by landscaped foreshore parkland, tour buses, stores, cafés and a beautifully preserved hotel. Instead of manacled blockaders, the brand-new MV Discovery is moored blissfully alongside, purring almost imperceptibly below the waterline in anticipation of our arrival.

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