Featherdale Wildlife Park in Doonside, which claims to be home to the world’s largest collection of native Australian animals, and water-theme park, Wet ’n’ Wild Sydney, in Prospect, have combined to deliver a ‘Best of the West’ pass priced at $129 for adults.
Passes to the western Sydney venues are valid for 12 months at Featherdale and until the end of April at Wet ’n’ Wild Sydney.
Visitors to the wildlife park will be able to get up close with favourite Australian native animals such as koalas, tiger quolls, yellow-footed rock wallabies, tasmanian devils and the plains wanderer.
Wet ’n’ Wild Sydney offers an array of world-class slides and attractions along with crowd-favourite summer events such as Dive ’n’ Movies, Showtime FMX Summer Slam and Summer DJ Sessions.
Canberra will showcase its flourishing food and craft beer scene with the 11th Canberra Craft Beer & Cider Festival being held on March 24.
The festival will be staged in the gardens of the heritage Mercure Canberra in Braddon and will feature breweries from across Australia, along with live bands, food, entertainment and a wide range of kids’ activities.
More than 200 beers and ciders will be available for tasting and visitors will be able to take part in beer/cider-food-matching sessions, hear guest speakers, and meet the brewers.
Tickets are available for $15 pre-purchase (www.moshtix.com.au) or $22 at the door.
The Mercure Canberra is offering a ‘Beer Fest 2018’ package, which includes two nights accommodation, a four-pack of Sydney Brewery beer or cider, entry to the Festival, five festival tasting tickets, breakfast each morning and a 4pm check out on the Sunday. The package is available from $199 per room per night.
For information about the festival, visit www.canberrabeerfest.com.au
Sumptuous architecture, sassy costumes, music and dancing, food, characters and the most extravagant show-off of them all — Mark Foy’s splendiferous party palace — will high-kick-off the Roaring 20s Festival in the Blue Mountains on February 2-25.
The Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath will host several stylish retro events to pay homage to the decade when the Blue Mountains cut loose in an endless round of hedonism led by the department-store doyenne who held legendary and often outrageous parties at his ‘Palace in the Wilderness’.
The Charleston Challenge for Charity will be celebrated in front of the Hydro Majestic Pavilion at 11am on February 24.
No experience is necessary to take part, with pre-event performances by the Sydney Swing Katz dance troupe and registration from 10am.
After dancing up an appetite, guests are encouraged to stay on for a sumptuous regional food and wine repast at the Majestic Long Lunch and the Gangster Casino Charity Night.
One-hour sightseeing tours of art deco landmarks with Katoomba and Leura in 1929 Cadillac LaSalle cars will be conducted by Blue Mountains Vintage Cadillacs throughout the weekend. The cost is $59 per person.
The Hydro Express steam train will leave Central Station at 9am on February 25, arriving at Medlow Bath at approximately 11am, when passengers can alight and indulge in high tea at the hotel.
Visit www.roaring20s.com.au
The stunning landscapes of the Kakadu, the Larapinta Trail and the Flinders Ranges were the catalysts for World Expeditions’ new photography tour and art expeditions in Australia.
Kakadu’s tumbling waterfalls, red escarpments, shady pools and tranquil wetlands are an ideal classroom to learn the ‘artistry of photography’ from Peter Walton, one of Australia’s finest landscape photographers, and the spectacular outback scenery and intense colours on the NT’s Larapinta Trail and SA’s Flinders Ranges provide wonderful opportunities to learn about painting natural landscapes.
World Expeditions’ new six-day ‘Kakadu Photography with Peter Walton’, for instance, combines an active exploration of this beautiful part of the world with the opportunity to learn about composition, lighting, focus and interest points and lens choice from Peter Walton, whose iconic images have been widely used for more than 40 years by advertising agencies, the travel industry, in Australian landscape calendars and coffee table books.
This active, walking-based itinerary gives people with an interest in photography, no matter at what level, the opportunity to develop technical and artistic skills through in-the-field experience, informal tuition, discussion and feedback, while capturing Kakadu’s most photogenic locations.
The itinerary departs Darwin on May 27 and costs $3800 per person, including hotel accommodation, transfers and all meals.
Phone 1300 720 000 or visit www.worldexpeditions.com
Celebrate the International Year of the Coral Reef by discovering just what is so great about Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
The Great Barrier Reef is the only place in the world where you can swim with dwarf minke whales, float over colourful giant clams and look for six of the world’s seven species of turtle.
Discover, for instance, one of the best shark experiences in the world while diving with Mike Ball Dive Expeditions.
A live-aboard expedition takes you to spectacular, remote Coral Sea drop-offs that attract charismatic mega fauna and plunge thousands of metres into the ocean.
Visit www.mikeball.com
