World's most disappointing tourist attractions: #3

Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but sometimes it's just plain wrong. So my third pick for the world's most disappointing attractions is The World's Biggest Pineapple. Located in the small town of Bathurst, this giant fibreglass pineapple is famed as being the largest pineapple in the world. While it certainly looms large on South Africa's tourist landscape, it is in fact a rip-off of The Big Pineapple on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. The Queensland idea was copied by a couple of South Africans who couldn't resist the chance to finally top the Aussies! At 16.7m high it's only a mere 70cm higher than its more famous counterpart. And, perhaps it's just my Queensland colours shinning through, but without the macadamia nut mobile it just isn't the same!

Life is a highway

This last week I've been planning my itinerary for my upcoming trip to Africa which got me reminiscing about the greatest travel tradition of all – the humble road trip. Road trips of course aren't merely about the destination. Their appeal, as is often noted, lies in the journey itself. For me it's the people you meet, the dinky little one-horse towns you stay in and the experiences you have along the way which makes them so memorable. So as I prepare to hit the road again I thought I'd share a few of my all time favourite journeys (all tried and tested of course!):

Route 66, USA
Distance: 4000km
Route 66 is arguably the most famous highway in the world. No other stretch of asphalt has been eulogised so frequently and fervently by movies, songs, books and television shows. In fact, Route 66 has been mentioned in so many songs it’s earned the nicknamed the 'Rock 'n Roll Highway'. Starting in Chicago in Illinois, America’s 'Mother Road' crosses the country through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona before ending at the beaches of Santa Monica in Los Angeles, California.

Trans-Fagarasan Highway, Romania
Distance: 90km
Said to be one of the highest roads in Europe, the Trans-Fagarasan Highway charges up and over the crest of Romania's Fagaras Mountains. Climbing up to 2000m, the dizzying road twists and turns its way between the jagged peaks of the country's highest mountains - the Moldoveanu (2,543m) and Negoiu (2,535m) - and passes through its longest tunnel (887m). If that’s not enough, you also can stop at the castle of Vlad the Impaler, the revered prince from the Middle Ages who inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Great Ocean Road, Australia
Distance: 243km
Recognised as one of the world’s most scenic drives, the Great Ocean Road hugs the rugged south-eastern coast of Victoria. Starting in Torquay, it stretches westward past the windswept limestone pillars of the Twelve Apostles, to the historic seafaring village of Warrnambool. Built as a memorial to the 'Diggers' of World War I, the rough-hewn road winds along cliff tops, up breathtaking headlands, down to the edge of beaches, across river estuaries and through lush rainforests offering panoramic views at every turn.

Route 62, South Africa
Distance: 450km
I have to admit I have a real soft spot for this road trip. Often overlooked by motorists who tear up South Africa's N2, Route 62 is a stunning inland alternative to the much-hyped coastal Garden Route. Showcasing some of the country's most magnificent scenery, the road, starting just outside Cape Town and running to Port Elizabeth, meanders through scenic spa towns, past vineyards and fruit farms and over breathtaking mountain passes. It's also reputedly the longest wine route in the world with 69 wine farms dotting its path...I'll drink to that!

Hanging ten with Layne Beachley

Perhaps it is the summer sunshine or the fact that I can smell the ocean from my hideaway here in the Byron Hinterland of Far North Coast NSW, but I've been feeling a little beachy lately. Then again, maybe it's because I recently snagged an interview with seven times world surfing champion, Layne Beachley.

2008 was a very busy year for Layne. She released her autobiography, was nominated for Australian of the Year, announced her retirement from surfing, and became engaged to her long-time partner INXS musician, Kirk Pengilly. During my interview with her for Ninemsn she chatted to me about her favourite beach breaks, her new book, Beneath the Waves, and what the future holds.

So where is Layne's favourite beach break, I hear you ask? Well, while she admitted that there were too many to just name one, she did say that one of her favourite spots to surf in Australia is Angourie which is near Yamba on Far North Coast NSW. If you want to know where she likes to go to relax or where her ideal romantic escape is, you can read the full interview here.

Though, if you want a laugh, at my expense of course, you can read about my feeble attempts to learn to hang ten like Layne a couple of years back in an article I wrote for Ninemsn: Let's go surfin' now, everybody's learning how.

Far North Coast NSW insider goes live

In my mad rush to finish all my work before the Christmas holidays, I forgot to mention that I had been working on an Insider's Guide to Far North Coast NSW for Ninemsn. In a bold new move the company has changed the format of their travel site to feature a wide range of insider's guides to well-known destinations, both in Australia and around the world, that have been written by in-the-know locals.

In my humble opinion, my region, Far North Coast NSW, is the closest place to heaven-on-earth that you'll find in Australia. While officially the North Coast of NSW tumbles from Newcastle, just north of Sydney, all the way to Tweed Heads on the border of Queensland, the region I specifically cover is the Far North Coast which stretches from Yamba to the Tweed encompassing a heady mix of sun, sea, sand and sumptuous national parks (not forgetting the country's most celebrated utopian paradise - Byron Bay). But instead of giving you a list of time honoured tourist sights and attractions, I give you the lowdown on where NOT to go and let you in on a few tips on what you can discover near the beaten track.

As part of my work for the guide I will be doing a live one hour chat on Tuesday, April 14 from 5:00pm Eastern Standard Time. For those of you on Facebook you can register here to take part.

Home for the holidays

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year! I had a lovely time celebrating the holidays at home with my family.

One of the most frequent questions I was asked by my family and friends over the holidays was when was I off on my next trip? When I replied that, for the time being, I was planning on staying put (well, at least for the next few months) they all seemed rather disappointed. Well, I suppose that is what I get for spending most of my time off gallivanting around the world, but you'd think that they'd be happy that I'd be staying close to home for a little while (??).

For my part, I have to admit that after the world-wind year that was 2008 - which saw me go underground in Cape Town, help Philip Briggs update the Bradt travel guide to Tanzania, discover the wild side of Nairobi, hang out in Havana, crisscross Southwest USA and lay about on Fiji's Coral Coast, not to mention land in hospital in Jamaica - it has been nice to finally unpack my bags. That said, the traveller in me will never be quelled, so I'm sure I'll be packing them up again sometime very soon.

In the meantime, I've resolved that for 2009 when I'm not on the road working, I'll regularly pull out a map and set about rediscovering the region where I live. Considering I live in one of the most beautiful places in Australia – on the north coast of New South Wales – it certainly won't be a hardship! What's more, I've recently been named Ninemsn’s Insider for Far North Coast NSW, so I have even more reason to do so now (more on that in my next post).

Crikey! An audience with Bindi

As if my schedule wasn't already hectic enough with trying to organise my trip away and finishing off a number of articles before I leave (not to mention completing the paper I am co-authoring for the conference in Jamaica!), I've just managed to score an interview with Bindi Irwin which I am trying to squeeze in next week before I leave.

I have to admit I'm pretty excited about snagging an interview with the pint-sized star of Australia Zoo. Not only is she the daughter of Australia's infamous crocodile hunter, Steve (CRIKEY) Irwin, but at nine years of age she has her own TV show, clothing line, fitness video and doll and has even appeared on Letterman. That's more than I can say I've done in my 39 years! What's more, this will probably be the closest I'll ever get to doing a celebrity interview. (That is, unless you count Troy Cassar-Daley whom I interviewed for the Toowoomba Chronicle back in 1999 while I was still in university. Mind you, he has won 14 Golden Guitar's – that's six more than Keith Urban!)

Anyway, I will be interviewing Bindi early next week by telephone (Shame! I am sure my nieces and nephews would have loved a personalised photograph) and the article will be going up later in the year on Ninemsn's Travel Australia website.

If you were able to have a one on one with Bindi, what would you ask her?

Being a tourist at home

As a travel writer when I'm not on the road, I'm either planning my next big overseas adventure (as I am now) or writing up my last trip. But with so much of my time spent researching and writing about exotic foreign locales, I often tend to forget that you don't have to go traipsing off to the other side of the world to see some pretty interesting sights.

While hiking the Inca trail in Peru, island-hopping around the Mediterranean or sipping mai tais on a beach in Phuket are certainly great holiday aspirations – there are plenty of adventurous experiences to be had right in our own backyards. What's more, with loads of tourists as anxious to explore our backyard as we are to escape it, you can always write about it for them.

After all my years working as a travel writer, this only dawned on me when I moved back home to Australia a couple of years ago and began working as an editor on Ninemsn's domestic travel website for Tourism Australia. Having spent so many years living, working and travelling abroad, I quickly realised that I knew very little about my own country and that I had in fact explored many of the world's far-flung destinations more thoroughly than I had my own backyard – to this day, I still haven't seen Uluru! Like many Australians, I guess I thought that the world around me was far more intriguing and that I could always see Australia later. So this position provided me with the perfect excuse to rediscover my Australian roots.

Since I was living in Sydney I decided this was the best place to start. While I had been living there for more than a year, I'd barely scratched the city's surface. Sure I'd seen the Habour Bridge and the Opera House – they're hard to miss! – but, my everyday life involved working from my flat in Newtown, the odd trip to the grocery store, walking around the local park and catching up with my friends for dinner or a movie; not taking in the sights.

One of the best ways to experience your city or hometown in a new light is to join a tour and see it through the eyes of a tourist. So I signed up for a cruise of the Sydney Harbour aboard The Deerubbun, a former navy torpedo recovery vessel now owned by the Tribal Warrior Association. While numerous boat cruises ply Sydney's busy waterways every day, what was unusual about this cruise was that it offered an Aboriginal perspective of the city's famous harbour. Growing up in Australia during the 70s and 80s at school we were only taught about the colonial history of the country which only made passing reference to the country's indigenous people, so it was a real eye-opening experience.

Since relocating back to my old stomping ground of south-east Queensland at the beginning of the year, I've now had the opportunity to rediscover parts of the country I (mistakenly) thought I knew well such as the Noosa Everglades on the Sunshine Coast - I never knew there were everglades in Australia, let alone in my own backyard! - and, most recently, I joined Goanna Adventures for a safari-style day tour of Brisbane's best kept secret; Moreton Island. Even though I was born in Brisbane and spent more than a decade living in the city after finishing high school, I had shamefully never stepped foot on the island which is only an hour's ferry ride away - I suppose that is why it's advertised as the city's best kept secret! ... Perhaps I need to reconsider writing my article?!

So my challenge for you is to get out and experience your hometown, city, region or country as a tourist. You’ll not only gain a greater appreciation for the place where you live, but also have some fun along the way.

Have you played tourist in your hometown? If so, what did you discover? And what are your best tips for being a tourist at home?