Australia Wine and Golf

capital of South Australia–Adelaide, which the New Yorker magazine once dubbed “possibly the last well-planned and contented metropolis on earth.” No doubt about it, the living is good, with more restaurants per capita than any other Australian city, and wide boulevards lined with tidy homes and mansions. Seventy percent of the nation’s wine exports originate here, but the Aussies keep a great deal of the best wines for themselves, judging by our experiences in the local eateries.
The Royal Adelaide Golf Club is a century-old Alister MacKenzie gem that has hosted nine Australian Opens and is ranked fifth in the country. The architect said it best: “No seaside courses I have seen possesses such magnificent sand craters as those at Adelaide.”

Royal Adelaide is private, but we had tee times, thanks to the late golf pro Cass Colbourne, who set up our itinerary and traveled with us. A walking-only course, Royal Adelaide proved to be a long gauntlet of grassy mounds and sprawling bunkers—those sand craters MacKenzie mentioned. There were lots of blind shots—rather confounding without a local to give us a clue–and sculpted greens that ran true and fast.

Cass also arranged a post-round “shrimp on the barbie” meal prepared by Andrew Fielke, an award-winning chef who left London’s famous Savoy Hotel to return to his homeland in the 1980s. He has since introduced the world to Australian native cuisine, using “wild foods” in creative dishes. Andrew grilled fresh shrimp on the clubhouse barbie, along with oysters, clams, scallops, prawns, kangaroo, emu, kingfish and lamb. It was an exceptional meal, accompanied by equally exceptional local wines.

We stayed in the Bishop’s Garden, a lovely 1940s mansion that’s one of the unique B&Bs in the North Adelaide Heritage Group. Another of the properties is a converted firehouse complete with an antique fire truck and a fireman’s pole.

North of Adelaide lies the famous Barossa Valley, Australia’s best-known winemaking region. Settled by German-speaking immigrants in the 1830s, the region is the source of fine ethnic foods and beer as well as wines. At the Jacob’s Creek Vineyard, we lunched on fork-tender steaks and other local produce, then spent a pleasant afternoon tasting wines at “cellar doors” in vineyards such as Peter Lehmann, Rockford, and Grant Burge.

Indian Pacific to Sydney

Travel+Leisure), and spent the day exploring the Taronga Zoo (an impressive collection of animals in natural settings), the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and The Rocks, a lively shopping and dining area on the water.

Melbourne

We caught a flight from Sydney to Melbourne, a city with a vibrant arts, dining, shopping, entertainment and sports scene. Our hotel was the historic high-rise Langham, overlooking the city skyline and the Yarra River. One evening we dined aboard the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant, enjoying a three-course silver service meal in Pullman splendor as the 1927 tram trundled through the city.

The Royal Melbourne Golf Club is located in the “Sand Belt” near several other famous clubs. MacKenzie designed the West Course and influenced the Alex Russell-designed East Course. Tournaments are usually played on a composite of the two, which is ranked sixth in the world. The wind was light during our round—a stroke of luck, because the par fours are long, and the hard, fast, couch grass fairways shed balls into massive bunkers. Sticking a ball on the slick, undulating greens demanded a soft touch.

vintner placed two chardonnays in front of me and pointed to two facing hillsides that were the origin of the grapes. Even to my rather plebian palate it was obvious that the vines on the sunnier slope produced a fuller-bodied wine. But both chards were delicious, lacking the heavy oak taste found in so many American chards.

At dusk, we reached Phillip Island Nature Park, where the Penguin Parade is the country’s third most popular attraction, drawing a half-million visitors annually. We followed a long boardwalk down to Summerland Beach for the evening ritual. Soon, waves of adorable, foot-tall fairy penguins began surfing into shore and waddling up to their burrows, calling loudly to their waiting young.

The next morning, as we settled into our comfortable business class seats (love the 60-degree recline, large foot rests, and great service) aboard Air New Zealand, I wore a penguin pin one lapel and a kiwi on the other. I’ll never speak of the two countries again as if they are synonymous—nor will I choose a favorite.