The Pinnacles lookout at the Grampians National Park in Victoria, Australia. Photo / Getty Images
The Pinnacles lookout at the Grampians National Park in Victoria, Australia. Photo / Getty Images
Planning to explore the Victorian national park? Peter de Graaf has tips to improve your peak performance.
1 Take a hike
If you have time or energy for just one walk, take the track to the Pinnacle (715m). Don't take the direct route but start in the botanical gardens, follow Stony Creek past Venus Pools, up a rocky gully dubbed the Elephant Hide and through a series of narrow canyons — the skinniest, Silent Street, is little more than a metre wide — up to the Pinnacle overlooking Halls Gap, the Grampians' main tourist centre. After soaking up the fabulous views take the direct route down the ridge back to town.
2 Climb Mt Rosea
If any hike can tear kids from their phones, this is it. The trail climbs to the 991m summit through a Tolkienesque maze of rock stacks, passages and tunnels and crosses a bridge over a plunging chasm.
If for some strange reason there are no kangaroos on your front lawn there are always dozens munching the grass at the holiday camp or the racecourse.
There are also birds everywhere, especially the raucous, cockatoo-like corellas.
If you want to see emus or echidnas you'll have to head into the bush, but don't bother looking for koalas.
These randy marsupials were wiped out by a combination of bush fires and the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia. I'm not kidding.
Koalas have been wiped out. Photo / Getty Images
4 Visit Brambuk Cultural Centre
Nestled among gum trees behind the national park information centre, Brambuk is designed to give visitors an experience of Aboriginal culture through the design and construction of the building itself as much as the displays within. The curved roof represents the wings of a cockatoo in flight; inside you can watch a movie telling the Aboriginal creation story, make art, eat traditional bush foods, learn about the Grampians' six seasons, and read a tragic account of what happened to original inhabitants of Gariwerd — the original name for the Grampians — when Europeans arrived. brambuk.com.au
5 Sample the wine
You're in Australia so you're never far from a good drop. The Royal Mail Hotel, in Dunkeld, at the southern end of the Grampians, has a 26,000-bottle wine cellar and a 100-page wine list. In case you're wondering the cheapest bottle is $31; the most expensive, a magnum of French pinot noir, is $9,447. The Royal Mail also offers daily tours of the kitchen garden where most of the restaurant's ingredients are grown. royalmail.com.au
Checklist
GETTING THERE Qantas flies from Auckland to Melbourne, with Economy return from $576. DETAILS visitvictoria.com
