On day 6, join a Local Specialist at Tae Rak (Lake Condah) to explore the UNESCO-listed Budj Bim Cultural Landscape. Walk among ancient stone channels and weirs where the Gunditjmara engineered aquaculture to trap and harvest kooyang (eel) thousands of years before modern canals—a remarkable feat of sustainable design.

As you traverse lava-flow country, your guide unpacks stories of Country, seasonal movement and technology that underpinned a thriving community. Seeing this network in situ—basalt walls, wetlands, smoking sites—connects you to a profound continuity of culture and stewardship, and to how knowledge endures in place.

Later on day 8, wind down at Kangaroo Island Brewery for a relaxed tasting of small-batch beers. Sample a crisp Golden Ale or malty amber as your host explains the island water, barley and hops that shape each pour.

With farm views and easygoing tunes in the background, this stop is as much about mood as malt. Raise a glass to a day of coastal walking and wildlife, and to the community makers who give Kangaroo Island its flavour and friendly face.

On day 4, join a local guide for an optional history and donuts walking tour, threading through hidden laneways and arcades where street art, century-old shopfronts and café chatter set the scene. Hear how the gold rush, migration and modern design shaped Melbourne’s layered identity.

Along the way, sample warm, hand-crafted donuts as sweet punctuation to tales of local characters and colourful corners. Expect an easy pace with tasty stops and time for photos. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, a playful way to pair stories with treats.

Time permitting on day 7, choose an optional ride on the Victor Harbor horse-drawn tram across the causeway to Granite Island. Clip-clop behind Clydesdales with sea spray in the air and gulls riding the breeze, a heritage experience that has charmed visitors for generations.

On the island, follow easy paths to viewpoints where surf thunders against rounded boulders and pause for photos and reflection over Encounter Bay. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, adding a nostalgic, coastal note to your day’s journey south.

Arriving on day 3, orient yourself with a city sightseeing tour of Melbourne, gliding by the CBD’s arcades and laneways, the Yarra River at Southbank and the greenery of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Your guide highlights the city’s Victorian grandeur, café culture and creative pulse that have earned it a reputation for liveability.

Continue to Koorie Heritage Trust at Federation Square for a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER experience. Join a guided galleries tour exploring the living cultures of Koorie peoples of south-eastern Australia, from weaving and storytelling to contemporary art. This thoughtful encounter deepens your sense of place, framing Melbourne within far older traditions and custodianship.

On day 5, follow the Great Ocean Road, a clifftop highway built by returned servicemen between 1919–1932 as a living memorial. Stop in Apollo Bay to watch fishing boats nose into harbour, then continue to wind-carved viewpoints where the Twelve Apostles rise from the Southern Ocean, sea spray drifting across the limestone stacks.

Walkways lead you to Loch Ard Gorge, named for the 1878 shipwreck, and to the dramatic span of London Bridge, partly collapsed in 1990. The coastline’s raw power—thundering surf, wind-gnarled heath and misted horizons—offers time to pause for photos and reflection as your Travel Director shares stories of geology, shipwrecks and surf culture.

Later on day 6, crest the limestone coast to Mount Gambier for a look over the striking Blue Lake, set within a volcanic maar crater. In summer the water turns an intense cobalt, while in cooler months it deepens to steel blue—seasonal chemistry you can appreciate from the lookout above the rim.

Your Travel Director explains how volcanic forces shaped this landscape and fed the caves and sinkholes that pocket the region. The fresh air is scented with coastal scrub, and the vista—farmland rolling to the horizon—offers a serene interlude between cultural encounters and cellar-door pleasures still to come.

On day 6, sample South Australia’s famed cool-climate reds during a Coonawarra cellar-door tasting. Beneath big skies and regimented vine rows, learn how the district’s terra rossa soil over limestone produces perfumed cabernet sauvignon and elegant shiraz with fine natural acidity.

Your host guides you through a flight—notes of cassis, mint, plum and cedar—while sharing viticultural lore from pruning to harvest. This unhurried tasting deepens your appreciation of the Limestone Coast’s geology and climate, and the craft behind wines that cellar beautifully yet charm in their youth.

Round out day 6 underground in Alexandra Cave, part of the Naracoorte Caves system. Follow your guide through chambers hung with stalactites, stalagmites and delicate shawls, their cream and amber tones lit to reveal centuries of slow mineral artistry.

As you weave along boardwalks, learn how groundwater carved these limestone caverns and how the wider park preserves world-significant fossils. The hush, cool air and echoing drip invite you to pause for photos and reflection before you emerge to twilight on the Limestone Coast.

On day 7, break the journey at Victor Harbor, a classic South Australian beach town. Stroll the foreshore with fish and chips on the sand and watch waves thump granite outcrops. If schedules align later, you might return to ride the historic horse tram—but for now, the sea breeze sets the coastal mood.

Continue to Cape Jervis to board the ferry to Kangaroo Island. As you cross Backstairs Passage, scan for dolphins and seabirds skimming the swells. The island’s low cliffs appear, and with them the promise of wildlife sanctuaries and quiet country roads—an atmosphere shift you’ll feel as you roll into Kingscote.

On day 8, nature takes centre stage in Flinders Chase National Park. Walk the granite dome to Remarkable Rocks, lichen-splashed sculptures carved by wind and salt into arches and bowls that frame a restless ocean. The cliff-top air is briny and clean, the horizon stretched taut and blue.

Follow the boardwalk to Admirals Arch, where surf bursts through a cathedral-like vault. On the rocks below, fur seals bask and bicker, their dark coats gleaming after a fishing run. Your guide explains how fire and renewal have shaped this resilient landscape and its wildlife.

Still on day 8, join a Local Specialist at Seal Bay Conservation Park for a guided walk among Australian sea lions. Step softly down to the dune-backed beach, where up to 800 animals in this colony rest after long ocean foraging trips, mothers calling to pups through the surf.

Your guide shares how this endangered species breeds, feeds and navigates the turbulent Southern Ocean, and why careful viewing distances protect their rhythms. The intimacy of sand underfoot, wind in the ears and the colony’s low chatter makes this one of Australia’s most evocative wildlife encounters.

Midday on day 8, pause at Vivonne Bay Bistro for a relaxed lunch with a glass of South Australian wine, the turquoise bay just beyond the dunes. Then continue to Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Oil Distillery, South Australia’s only commercial operation of its kind.

On a guided tour, learn how narrow-leaf mallee is steam-distilled to produce pure eucalyptus oil, once a household staple across the country. Bottles, boilers and the crisp scent of gum leaves tell a story of ingenuity and island enterprise—small-scale, hands-on and proudly local.

On day 9, uncover the island’s pastoral heart at one of Australia’s only vertical woollen mills. Step inside an immersive 360-degree shearing-shed dome to see the journey from fleece to yarn, and hear how growers are rebuilding and innovating in a proud wool tradition.

Continue to Cape Willoughby Lighthouse, South Australia’s first (1852). From the headland, pause for photos and reflection as the Southern Ocean heaves against dark cliffs below. Guides share keeper tales and shipwreck lore—threads that tie navigation, trade and island life together across the centuries.

On day 10, get acquainted with Adelaide on an orientation drive along North Terrace past the Art Gallery of South Australia, South Australian Museum and the Adelaide Oval, with glimpses of the River Torrens. Your Travel Director sketches the city’s grid, gardens and festivals that earn it the moniker “Festival City.”

Climb into the Adelaide Hills to stroll Hahndorf, a German-settled village since 1839. Timbered facades, bakeries redolent of pretzels and streusel, and artisan shops create a gentle, old-world atmosphere. Return with time to enjoy a free afternoon—perhaps seeking tastes at the celebrated Central Market.

On the evening of day 10, gather high above the city lights for a farewell dinner at Koomo. Inspired by Japanese and pan-Asian flavours, dishes arrive crisp and artful, matched with South Australian wines as you toast your adventures.

Floor-to-ceiling windows reveal Adelaide’s skyline—the perfect backdrop to share favourite moments, from misted ocean stacks to sea-lion colonies and cool-climate cabernets. It’s a polished, relaxed finale that lets the journey’s tastes and textures linger.

Make day 4 your own with an optional visit to Melbourne Skydeck in Southbank. Ride high to the Southern Hemisphere’s loftiest viewing platform and take in a 360-degree sweep from Port Phillip Bay to the Dandenong Ranges, with the city’s gridded streets and parks spread below like a map.

Step to the windows as sunset warms the skyline, or try the glass-cube experience for an added thrill. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, perfect for photographers and skyline seekers who love pause-for-photos moments with context-rich views.

Spend your day 4 evening on an optional journey to Phillip Island</strong) for the PENGUIN PARADE at sunset. As dusk deepens over Summerland Beach, watch little penguins—no taller than your shin—shuffle ashore in tight, determined lines, shaking off seawater and calling to partners.