Why you will always cherish a trip to Australia

Victoria's secrets

There's something wildly romantic about road trips; a sort of nostalgia licensed by the daring of hope, the wantonness of freedom with the open skies as guide and the crunching asphalt as background score. Our weekend travel wrap winds its way along the scenic 240km-long Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.

This is the kind of drive that gives aesthetes wet dreams, and we don't blame them. But there's more as we veer off course to some other must-dos in the state of Victoria - a meal at one of the most famed, award-winning restaurants at Lakehouse in Daylesford and some spa-time at one of the oldest natural mineral springs at Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa.

The ride of a lifetime

Widely touted as one of the best coastal drives in the world, the Great Ocean Road is undoubtedly one of Australia's most popular and scenic driving routes. The Great Ocean Road is recognised at the world's longest war memorial and has been named on Australia's National Heritage list for its extraordinary historical and cultural significance. While day trips from Melbourne are possible, we recommend at least three days for a complete immersive experience at a leisurely pace.

The road ribbons through some of the most inspiring scenery, hugging ochre cliffs stubbled with green on one side and the waterfront on the other criss-crossing lush rainforests, charming seaside villages and a rich rural hinterland. Not just that, June to September is also great for whale spotting since each year, during this period, Southern Right Whales migrate to the southern coast of Australia from the sub-Antarctic to give birth and raise their young. They can be spotted right along the Great Ocean Road. Keep your eyes peeled on the water, but with the stunning visual distractions, it's no mean task. Starting at Torquay, the surf capital, winding its way across the beautiful town of Lorne and onwards to Apollo Bay and beyond. While journeying across the entire length is a joy, the most scenic vignettes dot the stretch between Lorne and Apollo Bay.

Here are some of our favourite halts.

Twelve Apostles

One of the most stunning silhouettes that brazenly defy the surge of the waves, these world famous limestone rock formations rise up lofty from the Southern Ocean and are located in the Twelve Apostles Marine National Park. For a fresher, close-up, descend the Gibson steps to the beach or take to the skies, like we did, in a chopper and enjoy an aerial view.

Admittedly, in the rain, with a threatening Winchester grey sky, it can be more thrilling than you bargained for, but it's a sight to carry to the grave.

Experience: Great Ocean Ecolodge

There's a reason the National Geographic Traveller calls it one of the best eco lodges in the world. What it includes is cosy, homestead living in a five-bedroom all-wood accommodation smack in the middle of 165 acres of grasslands visited by kangaroos at dawn and dusk and woodlands where koalas doze. The ecolodge is perfectly located, adjoining the Great Otway National Park and within the grounds of a conservation research and wildlife rehabilitation centre. Uniquely personal, each room peers over the Otway ranges, kitchen gardens or kangaroo meadows. The kookaburra chorus may be a little much for the nocturnal inclined but all is forgotten while enjoying gourmet delights (all of which comes from their kitchen gardens) and watching curious kangaroos across the other side of the floor-to-ceiling glass around.

Apart from picnics in beautifully secluded spots, the guided dusk walk accompanied by the resident ecologists is highly recommended. Observe wildlife as closely as deemed almost impossible in the wild, and enjoy sustainable living with true-blue immersive nature experience. This includes the opportunity to accompany the ecologists not just to observe the exquisite wildlife ranging freely through the property but to assist with the rehabilitation of injured and orphaned wildlife, participate in ecological monitoring and habitat restoration projects. 

They also have an ongoing conservation projects for toger quolls and koalas. The highlight: a postprandial feeding of the sugar gliders. They scurry right up your arm, neck, whatever body part available to lick honey off your fingers. It's an indescribable experience to have the wild exposed on a shelf for your own personalised perusal.

Stay: Bushland Magic (DULC)

DULC or Down Under Log Cabins are funky, log cabins designed to blend into the adjoining bush. Located in Halls Gap at the base of the Grampians National Park, the single and two-storey cabins offer the perfect Robison Crusoe experience. The rough-sawn timbers, polished concrete, wooden floors and floor to ceiling windows offer the perfect solitude of detachment.

Each cabin comes with its own share of the forest and is far apart from the other to get a real "sense of place". However, just because you are in the middle of the jungle, there's no need to scrimp on the luxuries; expect spa baths with glass-top ceilings, king-sized beds, TV/DVD/CD facilities, stainless steel kitchen appliances and bench tops, an espresso machine, gas log fire (yes, you need it; it's freezing in the winters and it adds to the "sense of place" and rhythm of life in the wild), luxurious leather sofas, exposed minimalist timber walls, soft shag rugs. Indulgent comforts apart, it's the soft touches like a collection of DVDs with old classics, romcom favourites as well as children's cartoons and a stash of old and new magazines to complete a look that says more cosy home than value-for-money hired living.

You can cook; the kitchen is well stocked. Or you can go into Halls Gap, a hop, skip and jump away. We recommend the Kookaburra Hotel and restaurant; pub-style dining with local favourites and authentic Australian cooking. Find kangaroo, wallaby, crocodile accompanied by a satisfyingly efficient wine list. The roaring log fires were utterly charming.

Experience - Goldfields, Sovereign Hill

Living history is the best way to describe the recreated drama that is Ballarat. A historic city about midway between Halls Gap and Melbourne, Ballarat's burst into life and fame coincided with the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s. Its mining heritage is still celebrated today at Sovereign Hill, an open-air museum that takes you back in time to the mid 19th century with shops and structures built to recreate life in that era. It's a riot with costumed characters that are prepared to answer any questions you might have or in case you want them to partake in your camera phone moment.

A photography studio is the most popular attraction where you can take a souvenir picture decked out in Victorian regalia. If you feel lucky, you can try panning for real gold at the Digging Creek. They do drop some real gold in the creek everyday for people to find and live to tell the excitement of the gold rush.

By day, Sovereign Hill is where Australia's history comes to life, where you can see a spectacular one-lakh-dollars gold pour, venture underground on a fully-guided gold mine tour or catch a horse-drawn coach and tour the town. Go shopping 1850s-style and visit hotels, schools and a theatre with goldfields entertainers. See steam-driven machinery in action and chat with candlemakers and confectioners (we churned our own butter, made scones and then enjoyed the fruits of our labour).

By night, Sovereign Hill presents a spectacular, multimillion dollar sound-and-light show, "Blood on the Southern Cross", the dramatic story of the 1854 Eureka Uprising.

Phone: +61 3 5337 1199

Gourmet - Lake House

Spectacular in setting and fantastical as in a fairy tale, the Lake House, which includes one of Australia's best regional restaurants with a ten-thousand-bottle cellar, 33 rooms and suites sprawled across six acres of waterfront gardens and a state of the art Salus Day Spa is one of the most visually arresting gourmet destinations in operation since 1984.

It is one of the most iconic landmarks of the Daylesford Spa Country in Victoria. Each room, whether it's the restaurant, the library or the suites are exquisitely furnished with the most thought out details and luxuries that elevate hospitality to a spectator sport. Kitted out with the finest in local art, first edition books, furnishings, flowers and natural beauty, it's impossible to overstate its charm. It's elegantly simple, yet overwhelmingly beautiful; a tightrope balance that few achieve so effortlessly.

Our unique shared table lunch was a sumptuous feast of regional specialties with local salumi, olives, house pickles, white bean puree, local olive oil, grilled sourdough and a beet harvest (they own up to 30 different varieties of beets alone), mustard crème fraiche, cured trout, fennel and potato salads. For the main course, we had confit duck, apple and currant choucroute that was reminiscent of a German Christmas confection with the right mix of sweet and savoury, and the shoulder of Flinders island saltbush lamb slow roasted for 12 hours served with Moroccan flavours, chickpeas, Mount Franklin organic Musquee de Provence pumpkin, yoghurt/tahini dressing, accompanied by a pine nut and coriander salad. For dessert, a white chocolate-covered coconut panacotta with apricots and walnuts, served on a bed of mint granita.

The Lake House hosts a variety of food and wine experiences as well as weekend cooking classes for those who are keen to get in touch with their inner ninja chef.

Wine tastings and bottle selection with Australia's best sommelier.

Choose from a private tasting of local gems or grand crus. The wine lists features roughly one thousand labels and the cellar houses almost ten thousand bottles.

Forage and feast - On demand

An activity and indulgence packed two-night retreat for groups of ten or more food and wine lovers. It includes a regional scavenger hunt around selected producers, farms and cellar doors.

The hunt: Mushrooms, truffles and morels (Autumn months)

Depending on the season, there's a hunt in the forests surrounding Lake House to discover edible delicacies along the way.

Indulge - Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa

After the exhausting indulgence of a depraved multi-course meal, Hepburn Springs is a godsend. The only historic Bathhouse since 1895, located in the heart of Australia's Spa Country near Daylesford, it is a sleepy 45-minute ride from Lake House. Another icon of the region, the Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa is nestled within the Hepburn Mineral Springs Reserve near the picturesque Hepburn Springs and Daylesford, and draws mineral waters directly from the source to offer a unique spa and bathhouse experience.

Truly indulgent, warm aromas of natural salts come wafting through invitingly as soon as you step in. Traditional communal bathing in warmed mineral water pools is available in the Bathhouse and the sanctuary, with a range of hydrotherapies including spa and relaxation pools, spa couches, aroma steam room and salt therapy pool.

The Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa also offers a magnificent day spa with an experienced staff and a host of relaxing and reviving treatments including private mineral baths, massages, body wraps, body exfoliation, massage therapies, facials, facial therapies, hand and foot therapies, body scrubs and wraps. It's the perfect way to round off a decadently indulgent experience.

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