Traveller Magazine

test drive – winnebago . likeable linz . retreat to coast peace . gallipoli 2015

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56 Issue 546. December-January 2012-13

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Rotarians with Conviction A conference not to be missed on Norfolk Island

19 - 26 April 2013 from Sydney20 - 27 April 2013 from Brisbane21 - 28 April 2013 from Auckland

Contact: [email protected] The Travel Centre, PO Box 172, Norfolk Island 2899Ph: Intl +6723 22502 Fax: Intl +6723 23205

Toll free from: Australia 1800 1400 66 New Zealand 0800 0088 10www.travelcentre.nf

for more details including full conference program visit www.rotaryconference.co.nz

Take advantage of our local knowledge and having your travel agent at your destination

We live on Norfolk and know Norfolk Best!

Book now for a conference with a difference - that you don’t want to miss ...

• Return ‘seat and bag’ airfare to Norfolk Island• All pre-paid airline taxes • Meet & Greet at the Airport• 7 nights accommodation• 7 days car hire (hire car surcharge AU$18 per day plus petrol is extra and payable direct whilst on the island)• Discount Norfolk Island Shopping Card • Complimentary Miniature Golf – golf your way through Norfolk’s history• Complimentary “A Walk in the Wild” – a unique rainforest walk

Holiday Package includes:

Conditions apply. Prices are current at time of printing, subject to availability & change without notice.

From

AU$969per person/twin share

ex Brisbane

From

AU$999per person/twin share

ex Sydney

From

NZ$1219per person/twin share

ex Auckland

Lindsay Ford Rotary District Governor 9910 and the Rotary Club of Norfolk Island invite you & fellow Rotarians to join us on Norfolk Island for what will be an extraordinary Rotary Conference in April 2013. All Rotarians from New Zealand and Australia are very welcome to

attend.

Inspirational guest speakers Puru (PDG Purushothaman)

Father Chris Riley AM Jenny Horton

PRID Stuart HealTrish Magri

Conference highlights include: High tea at Government House, Welcome dinner, Car rally, Rotary goes Main Street, Conference gala dinner and Anzac Service with sunrise breakfast. (Rotary conference registration fee of AU$220/NZ$286 per person is additional to holiday package prices)

Contact The Travel Centre for holiday packages specially discounted for Rotarians attending the Conference.

Rotary Club of Norfolk Island - Dist

rict 9

910

www.rotarydownunder.org 57

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By Mark Wallace Rotary Club of Crows Nest, NSW Editor, Rotary Down UnderWhat’s 7.6m long, has a double bed, fridge, stove, microwave, kitchen sink, shower and separate toilet as well as a three-litre turbo diesel engine and looks good on pole position at Mount Panorama?

We didn’t exactly burn up the track, but you can’t go through Bathurst, NSW, without at least lining up for a cruise across the Skyline, through the Esses, the Big Dipper and Forest Elbow and an ambling descent down Conrod Straight – within the 60km/h speed limit, of course.

Four of us were in a Winnebago Eyre, having driven through and gathered a great deal of the red dust that is properly the domain of the far western outback of NSW.

We’d been to a cattle station 42km west of Wilcannia – about 1100km tackled in two-hour driving shifts from Penrith, where Max Mayo and his team at Winnebago Industries had handed over the keys five days previously.

Up hill and down dale, the Eyre produced the goods. Bang on 110km/h even up the slow-vehicle lanes of the Great Western Highway into Katoomba. At the end of a long day on the road, there were none of the cramps that accompany distance travel in a sedan. Plenty of room (even a table to rest your book/newspaper on in the passenger seats).

The Eyre is designed to sleep two comfortably, three at a pinch, and we were four dudes, so a cabin at a Nyngan caravan park with twin beds did for half the party while the rest slept en-wheel on an adjacent powered site. Muggins here made up the single, using boards and a mattress that slotted into where the passenger seat table had been. Not exactly uncomfortable, but I’d had better nights. Not a peep, on the other hand, from the guy in the double bed that sensible people touring in one of these things would limit the sleeping arrangements to.

Manoeuvring in caravan park conditions meant we had to

direct the driver when reversing, but this was more attributable to the lack of experience we had had behind the wheel of a vehicle this size. An ordinary car driver’s licence is all you need and the automatic transmission removed most of the complications once we’d figured out the sequence to get the thing moving. Okay, so that took a little longer than it should’ve, but the motto of most all-male road trips is “when all else fails reads the instructions”. Underneath all the homey features of the Winnebago lies a Fiat Ducato, so we simply wrote off the starting sequence as a Italian eccentricity.

As a touring conveyance, the four of us enjoyed it immensely. I slept in the double bed for three of the five nights and through subtle use of fly-screened windows and sunroofs had none of the problems of excessive heat that sun on a caravan can bring in the morning. The under-bed storage is a huge advantage (you can walk upright straight into it), so all our (grossly over-packed) luggage, sleeping bags, and other gear was easily accommodated.

These things aren’t cheap at around $140,000, but if you’re sleeping and cooking in it, a three-week holiday would save you around $2000 in accommodation expenses, given that even in Nyngan, a caravan park cabin cost $90. Spend six weeks on the road each year for, say, five years, you’re saving $20,000. Over 2200km we spent about $350 on diesel, or about $6.28/km. If you’re a grey nomad the savings justify the initial expense.

Pole Position

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F irst impressions can be lasting – especially travel destinations. So, I like Linz … straightaway.

I am with my daughter Katherine, a Rotary exchange student, on our six-day, 350km cycling trip down the

Danube River to Vienna. Not even the drenching rain crossing the Nibelungen Bridge dampens my emerging enthusiasm on my first visit to Linz, Austria’s third-largest city.

The spring afternoon struggles with the grip of late winter. Rain clouds depart momentarily allowing shafts of waning sunlight on to Linz’s 13th century Hauptplatz, one of the largest town squares in Europe. It’s a magical arrival.

This long divided square, open to the river, is lined with the stolid, uniform buildings of centuries past, punctuated with the Alter Dom (old cathedral, known as the Jesuit Church), the Altes Rathaus or old town hall, and centre stage, the bizarre Dreifaltigkeitssäule – a 20-metre baroque twist of white marble (holy trinity column) erected by grateful survivors of the plague. Beneath this striking statue are restful islands to sit and watch.

Flowers dazzle in spring colours. A modern tram flashes over glistening cobblestones.

Linz has a great feel to it; it’s orderly and clean (no litter or graffiti), yet has vitality and style. Given the limits of time and space I ponder on my upbeat impressions. Two points come to mind: Linz’s mood seems open, inviting and “liveable”, and its built-form seamlessly weaves together the renaissance with the ultra modern.

Our hotel fits the latter description. The cycle-tour operator offers rustic Gasthof-type accommodation, not four-spangled-stars, so our check-in is not usual. It’s hard to look suave and sophisticated arriving sodden, bent over, lugging soggy maps and panniers – and wearing padded cycle pants.

The city motto is rather ambiguous: “Linz changes”. It has and it does – for the better – transforming itself from the grey industrial capital of Upper Austria to a city of light, innovation and design … and culture; Linz is the 2009 European Capital of Culture.

SHUNNING ITS UNENVIABLE TITLE AS THE CHILDHOOD HOME OF ADOLF HITLER, Tim Dawe FINDS LINz TO BE A CITy HE LIKES A WHOLE LOT.

L keable Linz


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It is time to cycle forth and discover why. I head for the river.Infringing traffic rules that pedestrians and trams tolerate

graciously, I watch pavement buskers from around the globe: a Peruvian group belting out Andean rhythms, a Romanian puppeteer and a blues singer from anywhere. They attract prosperous-looking shoppers emerging from boutiques in the smart arcades of Landstrasse, the main street and commercial centre. I discover bicycle wheels are no match for cobblestones and tram tracks.

Over the river again, I visit Ars Electronic Centre (AEC). At 6500sq m it’s huge and like nothing else. It is partly a museum and mainly a workspace for cutting-edge electronic researchers and designers. They call it a platform for digital arts to explore the future. Whatever. The aim is to present electronic and emerging technologies such as robotics, neuroscience and biotechnology in artistic and productive forms. Visitors can travel in virtual worlds and “experience the future”. At night expansive glass walls, imbedded with LED lights, blaze out colours reflected

on the Danube. In contrast to AEC, and with colour of a different sort, a circus and permanent fun fair abuts the building; old and new entertainment for all tastes, cheek by jowl.

Directly opposite on the Danube’s south bank is Lentos Museum of Art. The building itself is sculpture. Its black glass façade is covered with the repetitive word: lentos. Like other Linz landmarks it lights up each night casting vivid purple into swirling waters. Lentos offers modern art from the 19th and 20th centuries, including works from Warhol and Austria’s favourite sons, Klimt and Schiele.

With so much choice and so little time I ride off to the Old Town Hall to visit Linz Genesis, a museum dedicated to “the story of Linz”. So many European cities leave their medieval town halls as curiosities or museums. Not Linz. Here, modernity operates behind the Hauptplatz façade incorporating the mayor’s office and modern arcades of shops and offices. I am fascinated by a gigantic aerial photo of Linz as floorcovering in an exhibition hall, giving new meaning to a walk around town.

Spring in Linz Hauptplatz: House of Stories, Akustikon and Altes Dom

16th century Landhaus: provincial parliament

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Darting around Linz by bike is fun, and faster than walking when time presses. It’s easy to correct directional mistakes traversing twisting, turning streets tracing medieval goat tracks. One turn leads me to an airy, spacious square containing the Stadtpfarrkircke or parish church. It’s a lovely baroque church where Emperor Friedrich III is interred – well, actually not all of him, only his bowels. At that time deceased royalty had a habit of leaving bits of themselves all over the country. Not unlike an animal marking (scenting) its territory.

Wheeling along another former goat track I chance upon the marvellous sight of K.u.K. Hofbakerei, a bakery of renown with its shopfront clad in carved woodwork. It is clearly a sign: dismount for a coffee and sample the famous Linzer Torte. Its cosy café interior is a welcome contrast to old and new monumentalism. Walls are covered with ageing posters and newspapers, while military regalia gleam in corners. The place pays homage to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and especially Archduke Peter Ferdinand, a royal – and loyal – customer. Current proprietor Fritz Rath, whose great-grandfather received royal patronage in 1903, proudly tells me this site has been used as a bakery since 1371.

Linz has thrown up an eclectic bunch of noteworthy sons: Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) and … Adolf Hitler. There is the Kepler University and the Brucknerhaus. For Hitler, well, there’s no mention of the adoring crowds of Austrians cheering on the Anschluss and of Hitler’s plans for Linz as his “European Capital of Culture”. No mention either of nearby Mauthausen concentration camp or the killing fields of Schloss Hartheim.

However, things have changed since Hauptplatz was Adolf-Hitler-Platz, especially in the past few decades. Nazism is now a tourism feature. I am invited by a sign at the Altes Rathaus to do a walking tour of the buildings occupied by the Gestapo. I accept, but find the experience unfulfilling. Not only have we moved on, so have some of the buildings.

My assumption that a European capital of culture (Linz shared with Vilnius) is all musty museums and opera houses is dashed. After all, culture should be seen to be broad and diverse; Linz’s

institutions are. They include the wonderful Brucknerhaus concert hall on the riverbank next to Lentos, its sweeping modern lines contrasting with the baroque architecture of nearby Landesgalerie housing classical and contemporary painting and sculpture, Linz Castle, first built in 799, now its largest museum, a puppet museum, the splendid Akustikon, blending the art and science of sound, the House of (children’s) Stories, and even a museum of dental history.

Linz’s cultural program goes all year: the zany Pflasterspektakel, rock and sound festivals, Easter passion play, summer rose garden cabarets, marathons and triathlons, and even oddball events such as Der Kranke Hasse (the sick hare). There are also film festivals, theatre, haute couture and flea market shopping and casino gambling. But I go on.

In fading light I head back to my hotel like a bee back to the hive. The hotel cannot accommodate us for dinner – is it the bike pants I wonder – and provides a voucher for The Black Anchor restaurant. Halfway through trying traditional schweinebraten mit sauerkraut I reflect that Austria’s cuisine is, er, more famous for its pastries! After a day in the saddle and just four hours exploring Linz, a well-earnt early sleep is punctuated with exploding shells of fireworks … well, I hope it’s fireworks.

It’s now early next morning, but still time before departing for quick visits to the magnificent Landhaus (provincial parliament)

and Mozarthaus, home to the Linz Symphony. But first, courtesy of our bike company, we have an appointment with a chocolatier on gentlemanly Herrn Strasse, the poshest of addresses during the 17th century, restored today to its full splendour.

Katherine and I pick up our bike path at the funfair then spend the next hour cycling through a great greenbelt of remnant forest, parkland, boating lakes, sporting fields and nature trails. It’s known as the kulturemeile, but it goes on for many miles, and follows a broad arc of the river; the perfect antidote for the urban dweller – minutes from the city.

Over on the city-side riverbank, screened by tall trees, is a broad sweep of industrial land; an economic powerhouse of chemical, oil and steel industries, port facilities and Linz Airport (Linz boasts more jobs than residents). Before cultural awards, this was what Linz was known for. The now high-tech steelworks at Woest, formerly Hermann Göring Works, once supplied the Nazi war machine. By contrast, Linz today is home to Pez, the peppermint candy. It is good to know there is an economic base for industrial output as well as Linz’s other powerhouse: cultural services.

Linz is behind me now. I was there for such a short time, but I liked what I saw. One day I will return for a longer stay to really savour likeable Linz.

“Things have changed since Hauptplatz was Adolf-Hitler-Platz, especially in the past few decades.”

Lentos art gallery


Traveller

Peace through Service

• HONOLULU, HAWAII, USA - The Green Path to Peace – January 25-27, 2013. Will focus on the importance of conserving and protecting our shared environmental resources and mitigating the effects of natural disasters as a prerequisite of peace. Special emphasis will be on New Generations and how to empower their visions of peace. This tour will be led by RDU Chairman DES LAWSON and will include visits to Rotary clubs. LAND AND AIR PACKAGE (Hawaiian Airlines ex Sydney): Five nights at Outrigger Waikiki on the beach. Twin share: from $2,705 per person including breakfast – single from $3,871. Depart Wednesday, January 23; return Tuesday, January 29, 2013.

• HIROSHIMA, JAPAN – Peace Begins with You – May 17-18,2013. Explores ways in which each of us has the power to promote peace in our daily lives and in our own communities. This future- focused meeting will ask participants to consider what impact they will make in the days and years to come. This tour will be led by RI Immediate Past Director STUART HEAL and his wife ADRIENNE and will include visits to Rotary clubs. LAND ONLY. AIRLINE TBA: One night Hotel Nikko Narita, Tokyo, and six nights Mitsui Garden Hotel, Hiroshima, Twin share from: $802.00 per person including breakfast - single from $1,498.00. Depart Tuesday, May 14; return Monday, May 20, 2013. A full 13 day tour program starting in Tokyo and ending in Osaka is also available. Includes the Hiroshima Forum plus other Japanese highlights. Twin share from: $4,599.00pp incl breakfast / Single: $5,199.00. Depart Thursday, May 9; return Tuesday, May 21, 2013. February 22, 2013 is the deadline for expressions of interest for the Hiroshima Forum. Bookings close March 22, 2013.

RI President Sakuji Tanaka has planned an impressive program of Rotary GlobalPeace Forums for 2012/13 and a general invitation is issued to all Rotarians, partners and friends to participate. Rotary Down Under and our Travel partner Venture Holidays are pleased to announce the following preliminary details -

ROTARY DOWN UNDER INC has developed an extremely proficient and cost effective tour organisation in recent yearsand is now calling for expressions of interest from Rotarians, partners and friends interested in attending any

or all of the above Peace Forums.RDU is especially keen to hear from Rotaractors, scholars and other young people interested in attending the

Peace Forum in Hawaii where the emphasis will be on New Generations.

Your invitation to join aROTARY GLOBAL PEACE FORUM TOUR in 2012/13 …

Optional ‘add ons’ for ALL tours will be available nearer the date.

Organisers will strive to organise at least one local Rotary Club visit in each Forum city

For further information –

• Adele Nugent – Venture Holidays, Adelaide: [email protected] • Bob Aitken – RDU Executive Director: [email protected]


Traveller

Escape the city and retreat to some of NSW’s hidden gems along the coast this summer for true peace and quiet. Be it discovering a Buddhist Stupa, learning to fish for prawns or relaxing in a rainforest retreat, NSW has something for everyone.

For true inner peace, drive 20 minutes inland from Byron Bay to Mullumbimby and visit the recently unveiled Peace Stupa built by Tibetan monks at Crystal Castle with the blessing of the Dalai Lama. While in Mullumbimby, immerse yourself in the alternate lifestyle with a stay at Koonyum Retreat. Visit the weekly farmers markets for fresh produce held every Friday morning, munch on pizza at Milk and Honey, melt away tension with a spa treatment at Kiva Spa and enjoy a meal at one of the State’s top 10 most sustainable restaurants, La Table.

Woolgoolga, or ‘Woopi’, as it is known to locals, is a small coastal retreat 25km north of Coffs Harbour. The local Punjabi Sikh community make the town a melting pot of cultures. Tour the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara (Sikh Temple) on weekends and indulge in Indian cuisine in the town centre. An overnight stay at the GlassHouse Luxury Rainforest Retreat is a good way to relax

and get back to nature with a 4WD drive through the Wedding Bells Forest Drive.

The main appeal of Culburra Beach is all in the name – the beach. Located a short 10km drive from Nowra, this popular surf retreat is favoured for its variety of conditions, which are suitable for hardcore surfers through to young families. you can’t get much closer to the soothing sounds of waves breaking on the shore than at Pavilions House on the Beach (pictured). Consistently voted one of the best beach houses in Australia, this architecturally designed coastal retreat has an inside/outside approach to living, bringing you closer to nature.

For more NSW costal retreat ideas visit: www.destinationnsw.com.au

Retreat to Coastal Peace

GROUP 8 DAY DISCOVERY TOUR INCLUDES:

FREECALL (AUS) 1800 724 400 (NZ) 0800 403 959

PRICED FROM $2390PER PERSON TWIN SHARE

NORFOLK ISLAND2013 GROUP TOURING PACKAGES

• Return flights from Sydney or Brisbane with Air New Zealand (connecting flights available from other ports)• All taxes ex Australia & Norfolk Island• 7 nights accommodation• Breakfast each day and dinner each night• Daily touring and themed dinners with Pinetree Tours showcasing all the highlights Norfolk has to offer• Exclusive inclusions only through Norfolk Select• Choose the dates to best suit when you travel• Travel arrangements by one of the best wholesalers to Norfolk Island, Norfolk Select - Norfolk is our business!

CALL NOW FOR ALL YOUR NORFOLK TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS, AND FOR THE BEST PRICED PACKAGES AVAILABLE FOR

GROUP & INDIVIDUAL TRAVEL FOR 2013

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We invite you to cross the threshold and believe it when we say that a holiday to Norfolk Island will do you “the world of good”! Throughout 365 days of the year you are welcome to experience 360 degrees of wonder.

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Beautifully interwoven into our perfectly natural space of eight by five kilometres is pristine vistas, exploration, discovery and a ‘Norfolk’ wave, all with the grace and charm of a bygone era where you can effortlessly recapture yourself.

There’s more to Norfolk Island! Call Norfolk Select on 1800 724 400 for all your Norfolk Island travel requirements, or visit their website www.norfolkislandescapes.com.au and check out their hot deals. David from Norfolk Select has visited the island in excess of 70 times. Norfolk Select specialise in individual and group travel to Norfolk Island and have a long business relationship with Norfolk Island partners from Air New zealand to accommodation and touring and everything in between.

Cross the thresholdAdvertorial


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