Our base for that trip was the gorgeous Pink Flamingo Resort in Port Douglas. Its a lusciously refurbished motel with outside showers and courtyards and gardens.  It was a joy to stay in.

The Pink Flamingo is owned by women, and have long had women managers, the latest being Gigi Legenhausen and Adrea Groemminger We loved staying there, and I am sure you would.

The Pink Flamingo is funky and luscious – what more can a girl say?

I knew something big was heading my way when Wendy Raditz from the Winding Road Riders contacted me and requested a ride through Australia in two years time. Together with Patt from Melbourne/Australia and Leslie from Fremont/California we form Towanda Women who run women motorcycle tours. The tour for Wendy’s group was tailor made to suit their time frame of 14 days, relatively small budget and preferred weather – “not too hot”!

156 Emails later, six excited “girlz” from Pennsylvania arrived in Sydney for their big Downunder Adventure: The Winding Road Riders ride the Great Ocean Road. Our route would lead from  Sydney (New South Wales) along the stunning coastal route to Melbourne (provincial capitol city of Victoria) and further onto the famous Great Ocean Road. From here we would take all the inland backroads and would ride via the Blue Mountains Nationalpark
back to Sydney.  Read more of the story

Motorcycle Tours for Women NZ, Australia and Alaska

The house overlooks the vineyards and town, and feels like it was born of the earth. Which it was – owner Sandra Broman built it herself of earth brick, and mud rendered walls. It is a work of art and magic – that looks like it could just as easily be in France or Italy, with its rustic furniture and fittings.

Sandra shows us to our home for the stay – a fully canopied bed, a huge range of DVDs and music, freshly made bread, free range eggs, bacon, fruit and chocolate, a bottle of wine and more little surprises during the stay – like the freshly baked carrot cake.

The house has been hand crafted and this shows in a dozen ways – from Sandra’s art on the walls, the pressed tin shutters or the pottager garden out the window.

Sandra’s book “Built like a Woman” is on the shelves and we are soon absorbed into the story of the building of this beautiful space – from the practical of how to hammer a nail, to the relational of how to build a house with another person, to the visionary of ….. A builder myself, I marvel at the attention to detail in the house and the hospitality.

We have had our gorgeous two nights stay and we are getting to leave (a very civilized midday check out) when Sandra drops over and offers us another night’s stay. We cannot resist – who could, this is a magnificent place to stay and explore the Barossa. It’s a wintry day, but we have the best time exploring, and come home to find Sandra has kept the fire stoked in our room – what a treat.

I cannot recommend Almond Hill B&B enough – if you are in South Australia come here. The guest book attests to the stories of excellent stays and we add our own words of thanks to the story before we leave.

Such a warm out of the way welcome meant that I was not surprised to see that they had just won the Excellence in Customer Service Award, as well as becoming the overall winner of the 2009 Fleurieu Peninsula Tourism Awards.

Jim Lenzi and wife Sue had a holiday house in Yankalilla, so when Jim was made redundant from Mitsubishi Motors after 35 years, they were seduced by a new life based at their holiday house full time instead of just driving down every Friday night.

Right near their house a small café was on the market – they liked the idea of working together, used their redundancy to buy the business, and have worked 7 days a week to recharge the business and put their own stamp on it. Jim comes from Italian stock, so when he saw the disused pizza ovens out the back, he took this on as a project, and with the help of his 80 year old father Fiorello the ovens were soon fully restored and opened Saturday and Sunday nights for fabulous Wood Fired Pizza.

You can see this is a community hub – tonight the Rotary have their weekly meeting here, during the days the locals are in for coffee, and the space outside means it feels like a great place for the whole family. Definitely worth stopping….

117 Main Rd Yankalilla SA 5203 08 85582525  Lillas Café

We need to move on as I am keen to get to Maggie Beer’s Farm shop  in time for the 2pm Cooking Demonstration. Situated on Pheasant Farm Road Nuriootpa, we walk through cages of beautiful pheasants to the farm shop stocked with Maggie’s products – all available for testing – yummy.

The food on offer is basically what is on the shelves – in a picnic basket with bread and olives. We settle for Duck, Vino Cotto and Star Anise Paté, and a bulgar wheat salad while we wait for the cooking demonstration.

The first time I heard of Maggie Beer’s was in relation to her Verjuice, she has basically taken an age old ingredient (back to Roman times) and commercialized it, and what a welcome addition to the cooks kitchen it is. The cooking demonstration uses it with Maggie’s Olive Oil and mushrooms. Simplicity itself – and divine. Despite the hassle of packing it for the journey home to NZ, I can not resist buying a bottle to take home. Maggie Beer’s byline on her logo is “A Barossa Food Tradition”. We head home replete and happy to have tasted so fully of it.

All we need is a bottle of wine to take home, so much to choose from we drive past the huge vineyards of the famous ones – Jacobs Creek, Penfolds and turn into the Stanley Lambert Wines for a tasting. We stick to reds – try their drink now Black Sheep (which we take home), taste a delectable $70 bottle and finish with a taste of their heavenly chocolate flavoured Port – just a hint of chocolate to lie alongside the rich Port flavours

We head for Handorf – the premier tourist town in the Adelaide Hills. There are strong signs of its German heritage and beautiful old buildings abound. It is Sunday afternoon and the town is teaming with visitors – it’s just a 20 minute drive from Adelaide. We enjoy a walk through the town and a coffee watching the passers by, and cannot resist going it Just Chocolate in the main street, and emerge with two hand made truffles each.

Next stop is Angaston on the edge of the renowned Barossa Valley and the Barossa Cheese Company shop  where we sample the hand made artisan cheeses before purchasing some goats cheese and two mini soft cheeses – St Kitts and Babyberts.

Barossa Cheese Company is the vision of Victoria McClurg who, when traveling in Bordeaux, was captivated by the local cheese when and in particular the tradition of cheese making. After working three successive vintages in France, she returned to Australia to open this gourmet cheesery in the Barossa Valley.

We discover that this weekend is the Barossa Gourmet Weekend, and walking past the Wanera Wine Bar we are seduced in by the blackboard special which offers a “Barossa platter of flavourful, fresh local produce selected by our chef, with two glasses of Barossa Wine”

A good choice – Richard welcomes us with a generous smile into this beautifully renovated open space. Richard turns out to be a chocolatier, as well as a wine taster and coffee consultant, selling mostly through the local farmers market. Unfortunately he does not have any today – but look out for his brand – RiChocolate – he is definately passionate about it.

We head back to our Lodgings – Almond Hill B&B, to sample our local produce and relax before day two of exploration.

I am in  Adelaide for a couple of weeks – it’s winter but the weather is mild.  We are in the city for a day.  Adelaide has a fabulous Central Market open Tuesday – Saturday until 1pm. It is undercover, with great parking next door – fresh fruit and vegetables, olives, cheeses, fish, cakes and breads.  It has everything you might need for  a week of delicious meals – and soon that is exactly what we have. Last stop is coffee at Luigias – a must to catch your breath and watch the world go by.

Exclusive Shopping in King William Rd, Hyde Park

Just five minutes away by car, or a 10 minutes by bike through the south parklands is Hyde Park.  We drive under the arches of the London Plane trees that line Victoria Ave to the small but exclusive shopping village of King William Rd. The rich and famous are clearly here – I can see their expensive convertibles parked in no parking zones.  But I am here too with my girlfriend in an old Mazda ute and while we park carefully (and legally) we feel quite at home.  While Liz heads off for an acupuncture session, I am left to cruise the shops.

I need nothing, but the winter sales in the shops lured me in and I soon had a gorgeous red Penny Mitchell Design shirt at a third of the list price and a pashmina to replace my favourite one left with my sister in Florida.  Looking Penny Mitchells up on the internet, I discover she is one of Australia’s top shirt designers – I am chuffed.

I buy a great coffee and a yummy something at Cibo and settle down to read the paper in the sun.  It might be winter still, but it is unseasonably warm today in Adelaide – 23 degrees.

Rundle St East End

It is afternoon, and the sun has made us sleepy, we head for trendy Rundle St East End. On one side Rymill Park on the other the spectacular buildings of the old covered fruit and vegetable markets. We head for the shade of a beautiful pepper tree in the park and lie down for a delicious nap in the warm late winter sun.

Rundle St is a great place to go for a meal – the beautiful people are clearly all around us – door to door restaurants all offering great food. It is also the home of arthouse movie theatres – The Palace and The Nova, and we are on the hunt for supplies for movie watching.

We head into Chocolat – this place is not for the faint hearted or the weight conscious – it is locally made and totally seductive. Movies and icecream go together and we chose one from Cold Rock– but there are also endless choices of Italian Gelato. For the movie we decide on My Sister’s Keeper – tissues, and lots of them are recommended.  A surprisingly deep and reflective movie about love and family and cancer – it is a quiet drive home, but I feel I have touched Adelaide and it has touched me.

Here is just one example of what is on offer:

Great South West Adventure in Western Australia
Thursday 17 December 2009 to Monday 21 December 2009

Join Christine Kershaw on this trip which includes bushwalking along the best sections of the famous Bibbulmun track through ancient Karri forests and spectacular coastline. This track is easy to walk with spectacular coastal views and amazing biodiversity. The other major highlights of the tour are: A Dolphin boat tour, a visit to the giant cave, Aboriginal history and bush tucker canoe trip, a visit to a woman’s pottery, wineries, art galleries, chocolate and cheese actory, climb the Diamond tree and the fabulous beaches of Margaret River.

Christine’s approach to touring is holistic – the needs of the body, mind, and spirit are addressed. Health and fitness are both woven into this information-packed tour, with fantastic healthy food, daily moderate exercise and the option of guided meditation or yoga each morning.

This tour is a fantastic experience that will leave you feeling refreshed and revitalized.
With Bushwise Women – Great location, great company and great value!

What is Bitchboards?

In honor of the outrageous fanfare during the first few months of snowboarding season in the land down under, August 10-28 will be the first annual BitchBoards® Sand To Snow Getaway!

We will travel from the world-famous Great Barrier Reef to the beautiful mountains of Australia and New Zealand in one trip! Exploring the sites, enjoying the tropical beaches, snowboarding on great mountains are all on the agenda but the trip will be focused around a fundraising effort Go Red For Women by hosting an event at Australia’s impressive Thredbo Snow Resort August 22.

We will even be making an appearance at the New Zealand Winter Games

They have gone another step and provided a website and pamphlet on their smart traveller website -
read their travel advisory here