 | Debbie
Ward has spent more than 15 years
as a journalist, several as Features
Editor of Travel Trade Gazette.
She now works freelance.
|
|
| |
Farmstays
in Australia and New Zealand
Travel Trade Gazette
Australia and New Zealand offer spectacular options for customers
looking to go back to nature and get their hands dirty, says
Debbie Ward.
If the film Australia has inspired your clients to turn Nicola
Kidman and Hugh Jackman on one of the vast livestock stations
Down Under then the good news is there are several working ranches
and farms bookable through UK operators which offer tourists
the chance to get involved.
Whether their fantasy is mustering cattle in Australia or feeding
lambs in New Zealand they can be sure of doing so in some spectacular
natural backdrops.
Australia
Home Valley Station in the east Kimberley region of Western
Australia was one of the actual film locations for Australia.
Spectacularly located at the base of the Cockburn Range its
landscapes can be experienced through a host of activities including
walks through gorges, barramundi fishing in the river and horse
rides over savannah plains and rocky ridges. Would-be drovers
will be in their element at a Mini-Muster during which confident
riders are allowed to help round-up some of the station's
2,000 head of cattle with guidance from the experts.
Your clients may also like to know the station is owned by the
Indigenous Land Corporation and supports employment training
for aboriginal people.
Sample package: Audley Travel offers a two week trip to Australia
taking in Darwin, Broome and Perth which includes three nights
full board in Home Valley Station's luxurious new Grass
Castle accommodation, a cattle mustering experience and a scenic
flight to the Bungle Bungle range. The price from £3,245
per person includes all flights and transfers.
www.audleytravel.com
01993 838 810
www.homevalley.com.au
No fewer than 9,000 head of cattle roam Bullo River cattle station
in the Northwest of Australia's Northern Territory where
the landscape is dotted with distinctive chunky boab trees and
aboriginal rock painting sites.
The all-inclusive tariff at Bullo River includes plenty of activities.
Guests can take a gorge cruise to fish or spot crocodiles and
between May and October (with prior booking) can watch or even
help with mustering, when cattle are rounded up, or bull catching
- during which the males are nudged off their feet by
4x4 vehicles.
Sample package: Kuoni offers a fourteen night holiday to Australia
staying three nights each at the Medina in Darwin, Bullo River
in Kununurra, Cable Beach Club Resort in Broome, and the Crowne
Plaza, Perth plus a two night stopover at the Pan Pacific, Singapore.
The price, from £3,218 per person, is for room-only except
Bullo which is all-inclusive. International and domestic flights
and transfers are included.
www.kuoni.co.uk
01306 747008
www.bulloriver.com
The Great Australian Outback Cattle Drive is back for 2010.
For five days stints between July 30 and August 29 next year
tourists can help 500 head of cattle on their epic journey along
South Australia's Oodnadatta Track. Participants will
be guided by some of Australia's most experienced drovers...
who may or may not look like the drover played by Hugh Jackman's
in Australia.
www.cattledrive.com.au
New Zealand
New Zealand's famous sheep farms are huge by UK standards,
they are also set in some particularly gorgeous landscapes.
In the Southland region of New Zealand farms that taking in
guests and allow them to learn something of farm life include
Chartlea Park in Lumsden and Hillcrest at Balfour.
670 acre Chartlea breeds not only sheep but cattle and goats.
Guests stay in the antique -filled 1896 homestead and can take
tours to see the stock and witness farm work in action. There
are also sheep, deer and a cow kept as pets that visitors can
feed.
Hillcrest which, as its name suggests, boasts mountain views,
also allows tours of its 650 acre sheep and deer farm and there
are opportunities to fish in a nearby river.
Sample package: Austravel offers several farmstays in the Southland/Invercargill
region including Chartlea Park and Hillcrest. A five night half-board
stay at either of the properties costs £1,099 including
Christchurch flights from Heathrow, when booked by March 2 for
travel April 12 to June 15.
www.austravel.com
0871 2266 200
www.chartleaparkfarmstay.co.nz
www.bnb.co.nz/hillcrestbalfour.html
Staying on an authentic New Zealand farm needn't mean
roughing it. Grasmere Lodge in New Zealand's scenic
Southern Alps is an authentic working sheep station, it's
also a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World and boasts
sumptuous lodge, chalet and cottage accommodation.
Guests may choose to experience no mud beyond that in their
face pack in the Lodge's own spa, or they can get down
and dirty out on the farm. Tours of the estate can be made by
four-wheel-drive or on horse back and, by prior arrangement,
guests can see sheep dog and sheep-shearing demonstrations.
There's plenty more action in store at Grasmere for those
who love the great outdoors with canoeing, trout fishing and
scenic flights all available on site.
Sample package: Emirates Tours offers two nights at Grasmere
Lodge from £530 per person covering a lake view deluxe
room, 4x4 farm tour, 90 minute horse ride, cooked breakfasts,
nightly complimentary cocktail hours and one four course gourmet
dinner. Flights to Christchurch cost from £1128 per person.
Valid for two adults travelling May 1 to June 30 2009.
www.emiratestours.co.uk
0844 800 1400
www.grasmere.co.nz
Return
to top
|
Click here
to read the article on the TTG
Website |
|  | | |
|