Australia & NZ Travel update

Greetings to all our Walkabout walkers and friends,

We do hope you are all well and keeping safe in this ever-changing world we now seem to be living in.

Since we last spoke life for us here in Victoria hasn’t changed that much. We had a small taste of “freedom” in June but we are back in “lockdown” again and negotiating our way through the second wave of Covid-19. We have another 3 weeks to go, however, the hard work by the majority of Victorians does seem to be bringing the infection rate down. Lets hope it continues!

I’m still at the farm keeping busy with everyday office work and preparing trip notes for our new AUS/NZ tours and enjoying being a part of the cycle of life on the farm again - lots of new baby calves being born including twins!

Gabriela and Nastassja, who are in France, have been surprisingly busy looking after guests in our Provence apartments. This has been an unexpected bonus as we had lost all our overseas reservations but the French and other Europeans are back travelling within Europe which we are grateful for.

Trish is fit and healthy and keeping busy in our office in Sydney and Serjosha has taken on the task to revamp all our pre departure notes - you will see an example of his hard work when you request the notes for our new AUS/NZ tours - we hope you like the new style!

Our overseas guides are well and eagerly awaiting the day when they can lead you through their favourite little corners of the world again. We are staying positive and remaining optimistic that our planned Spring tours in Australia will be able to operate.

Exciting new AUS & NZ tours!

We now have detailed pre-departure notes for all our exciting new tours we have planned in NSW, WA and New Zealand:

	Sydney Coastal Gems (NSW) 9-day Walking tour Palm Beach, Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park, Brisbane Water National Park, Bouddi National Park
	05-11 November \| Bondi NSW, Australia
	10-18 March \| Bondi NSW, Australia

	New Zealand Gateway 16-day Walking tour through Abel Tasman NP, Franz Joseph Glacier, Queenstown, Routeburn Track, Mt Cook NP
	16-31 January \| Christchurch, NZ
	7-22 May \| Christchurch, NZ

	Best of the West (WA) 13-day Walking tour in South West WA, Albany, Bibbulmun Track, Cape to Cape, Margaret River.
	18-30 April \| Perth WA, Australia

Putty Beach, Bouddi National Park

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park

Routeburn Track, NZ

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, WA

New departures on Victorian tours

We still have some availability for some of our Victorian walking holidays in Spring this year and Autumn 2021:

	Grampians & Great Ocean Trail 8-day Walking tour in the Grampians National Park, Otway National Park, Great Ocean Road and 12 Apostles
	03-10 October \| Melbourne VIC, Australia
	21-28 November \| Melbourne VIC, Australia
	20-27 March \| Melbourne VIC, Australia
	20-27 November \| Melbourne VIC, Australia

	Discover Victoria's High Country 5-day Walking tour in Dinner Plain, Tambo Valley, Omeo, Bright, Paw Paw and Bogong High Plains...
	12-16 December \| Dinner Plain VIC, Australia
	06-10 February \| Dinner Plain VIC, Australia
	11-15 December \| Dinner Plain VIC, Australia

	Explore Wilson's Promontory 5-day Gourmet Walking tour in Wilson Promontory and Cape Liptrap Coastal National Parks in Victoria, Australia
	11-15 October \| Melbourne VIC, Australia
	05-09 December \| Melbourne VIC, Australia
	28 March - 01 April \| Melbourne VIC, Australia
	28 Nov - 02 Dec \| Melbourne VIC, Australia

Silent Street, Grampians NP

Koalas on the Great Ocean Road

Mt Feathertop, Alpine NP (VIC)

Healthy breakfasts

Kangaroos near Cotters Lake

Overseas tours from 2021

Asia

With regards to our overseas tours, we are hoping that our Spirit of Japan tour scheduled for May 2021 will be able to operate but we shall just have to wait and see how overseas travel is looking once we are into the New Year.

	The Spritit of Japan 16-day Walking Tour of discovery from Tokyo to Hiroshima
	10-25 May \| Tokyo, Japan
	26 Oct - 10 Nov. \| Tokyo, Japan

Europe

There is still a big question mark regarding the Australian border – it doesn’t look like opening up anytime soon. Hopefully by Christmas we shall have some more concrete dates as to when Australians might expect to be able to travel to Europe and beyond again.

We are getting some positive news at least regarding vaccines for Covid-19 so hopefully something concrete will come out of that. In the meantime, let's remain positive that we can get our Aussie tours up and running again when Spring arrives. We are really looking forward to seeing our loyal guests again and getting you out into the great outdoors.

Take care, chat again soon and we hope that an Australian Walking Holiday might be an option for you later this year and in 2021. We would be thrilled if you could join us!

Graeme, Gabriela and the Walkabout Team

Autumn colours, Japan

Delicious Japanese cuisine

Matsumoto Castle, Nagano, Japan