Air Vanuatu’s Melbourne plan

Air Vanuatu is poised to launch a second direct service from Melbourne as it expands in the face of competition from Virgin Blue.

To read full article in TravelToday click here.

Give agents a sporting chance

Originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia 22 August 2008
By Justin Wastnage

Sport now accounts for one quarter of some cities' tourism receipts. Justin Wastnage recently travelled to Hong Kong to find out what motivates cities to host large scale sporting events

Watching thoroughbred horses doing ballet was never likely to be thrilling. One spectator at the recent Olympic dressage events in Hong Kong's Sha-Tin racecourse remarked that after warming up, he had expected the horses and riders to get into it, but they never did.
Yet as Lucinda and Clayton Fredericks' scores started to mean something and it was obvious that Australia was leading the competition, the event got a whole lot more interesting. The arguably more-compelling show jumping and cross country that complete the Olympic sport of eventing got underway with Australia in pole position with scores of green and gold supporters cheering them on.
The Olympics are the biggest sporting event in the world in terms of television viewers and physical spectators. Only the FIFA World Cup comes close (and is arguably larger, depending on who does the measuring). The five ring circus is a golden chance for a country to reset its image. The Vancouver suburb of Richmond, for example, "went all out" to attract part of the 2010 Winter Olympics to its ice rink, says Ange Chew, Tourism Richmond marketing director.
For China, the Olympics were meant to massively boost its tourism industry. Yet visitor numbers to China are down on expectations, due in part to tighter visa restrictions, but mainly due to sky-high hotel rates and poorly distributed tickets.
For travel agents, sporting events have long been an irrelevancy, with package holidays sewn up in exclusive deals. The current Beijing games being no exception: the Australian Olympic Committee signed an agreement with New Jersey-based sports tours company Co Sport for Australian distribution rights. Co Sport established a sales office in Sydney, but offered no commission to travel agents.
Separately, many Australians were duped into an internet scam in efforts to obtain tickets.
Co Sport was unable to reply to questions, but is understood to have underperformed against its targets for Australian ticket sales. In an earlier statement, Co Sport said that the high demand sporting events included swimming, athletics and artistic gymnastics, which had a combined 6000 ticket requests made.
"We are proud to be able to provide this rarified access to the Olympic Games to the Australian public," Kevin Steele, president of Co Sport said.
An typical hotel in Co Sport's inventory is the four-star China People Palace, where a double room during the games is yours (in combination with tickets) for US$585 (A$670) per night. High hotel rates are one reason why cities around the world are gearing up to host sporting events. Ultimately though, tourism is the prize.
The average television audience of a Formula 1 race is around 80 million - each of these is a potential tourist. But direct tourism around the event is also major motivator, which is why national tourism boards are often integral in putting bids together to attract sporting contests to cities.
The economies of cities, regions and even countries around the world are increasingly reliant on the visiting golfer or the travelling football, rugby or cricket supporter, says Sport Business International, a trade magazine. For some countries, sport can account for 25 per cent of all tourism receipts, it says.
The beauty of sports tourists is their demographic. Predominantly male and high-spending, their passion for the game means they are inflexible in travel times.
But travel agents have missed out, admits Glenn Hedley, managing director of one of Australia's largest sports tour operators, Events Worldwide Travel. His company pays commission to those agents who purchase tickets on behalf of clients, but most agents inadvertently push clients to direct sales channels. "Too many agents say when asked about a specific sporting contest 'we don't know anything about that, check on their website' and that drives the sales to us. Not that we mind either way," he says.
But there is a shift towards working with agents, either as licensed resellers or as sub-agents, Hedley believes. This is how many of the world's big events work, with the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics the major exceptions. Most tickets have a mark-up on the value, which the sub-agent builds into their prices. In return, organising bodies restrict internet sales.
The last Rugby World Cup in France, for example, had four sports wholesaler sub-agents in Australia reselling on behalf of the International Rugby Board (IRB). Royalties on tickets ranged from 100 per cent mark-up on individual final tickets, to 30 per cent on earlier stage games when bought in a brace of tickets. These wholesalers could then pass tickets onto individual travel agents. The FIFA World Cup, however, drives all sales through national football associations, partly due to European police requirements to track potential hooligans. As a result, these sales are lost to travel agents except when these fans require add-ons. FIFA, the international football governing body is understood to be reconsidering its direct-channel-only distribution for South Africa 2010 after European wholesalers mounted a challenge. "Rugby has the right approach," says Hedley. The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) is active in growing the sport and works with distributors to get the tickets out and grow the fan base. At a recent Sydney lunch to celebrate the opening of the Bledisloe Cup - the annual games between Australia and New Zealand - ARU spokesman Peter Jenkins said 40,000 room nights had been generated in the past decade through its partnership with the Intercontinental Hotel Group.
Cricket and golf tours are also big business for the four major sporting wholesalers; Australian Sports Tours, Total Sports Travel, Fanatics and Events Worldwide. Former market leader Keith Prowse Sport and Entertainment appointed a new managing director in February and one of his objectives is to reclaim some lost ground in the sports sector. Rugby specialists We Love Rugby (formerly Wallaby Travel), Fox Sports Tours and the Fairfax newspapers' Sporting Edge are also important players in the market.
Hong Kong, which held the Olympic equestrian events thanks to a long horseracing tradition combined with mainland China's non equine flu free status, is at the forefront of destinations trying to attract major international sports events. The Gulf States are also hard at work, aiming mainly at high-profile motor sports and golf tournaments.
Australian tourists are a key part of this masterplan, as witnessed by the forthcoming Bledisloe Cup tie between Australia and New Zealand that the Chinese territory will host in November - the first time it has been played outside the Antipodes.
The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union was keen to attract the fixture, says its commercial manager Warrick Dent. "We'd run the [IRB] Sevens [World Series] for a long time and we were looking for a second event. It could have been a Super 14s game or one from the [European club tournament] Heineken Cup because we knew that to make it worthwhile it had to be something big," he says.
He says Asian cities soon tired of meaningless exhibition matches played by B-strength teams. The trip to Sydney by David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy soccer club last November was an example. "Fans see through this if you do it too often. Our long-term plan is to get international matches here that have ranking for the World Cup qualifiers," he says.
If the Bledisloe in Hong Kong is a success, you can expect to see more offshore international fixtures in rugby and other sports, Dent predicts. As long as they are for re-sale, this is good news for agents.

A happy Réunion

Originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia 22 August 2008
by Justin Wastnage


Many Australians dream of experiencing a little French culture. As Justin Wastnage writes, you needn't trek to Europe to get a taste of it


The idea of tucking into a pain au chocolat fresh from the oven, washed down with a steaming cup of café au lait appeals to many an Aussie in these cold winter months. But the idea of travelling 17,000km for the pleasure is enough to put many off.

But France is actually closer than you think. Our French neighbours include:

New Caledonia
Only a three hour flight from Sydney and even closer from Brisbane, New Caledonia is right on our doorstep. The capital Nouméa may not be the prettiest city, but the shopping and restaurants are excellent.

New Caledonia's beauty is revealed, however, once outside the capital and onto one of its coral-fringed islands, into its lagoon or into its mountainous interior.

The Isle of Pines produces some of the best edible snails in the world for those wanting to try an authentic French dish with a Pacific twist, or there's always the ever-present deer to provide you with venison for the less adventurous.

French Polynesia
French Polynesia goes by the name of Tahiti and her Islands, but its French flavour is unmistakable. Like Nouméa, its capital Papeete is singularly unremarkable with redeeming features once again in the form of its fantastic restaurants.

Since Tahiti is home to almost 70 per cent of the 35-island territory, you can easily find a quiet spot away from the main island.

The other islands in Tahiti's Society Islands chain are accessible for tourism, with Bora Bora and Moorea very popular.

The signature dish for the islands is poisson cru, a Polynesian version of cerviche, in which raw fish is cured with lemon juice and then served ice cold with coconut milk on top.

Réunion
For those living in Western Australia, there is another French-owned island in the Indian Ocean, closer than the Pacific isles.

Réunion Island lies off the coast of Madagascar and is accessible with Air Mauritius. Tourism on the island is geared around adventure, says Réunion promotions manager Evelyne Coustillat. Mountain biking, hang gliding and bungy jumping with a backdrop of the lush, volcanic hills are what draws people from all over the world, she says.

Since the majority of the population were drawn originally from the Indian sub-continent, the French flavours are enhanced with an exotic twist. Samosas combine Indian tastes with French pastry skills, while cari is a local version of ratatouille with ginger and spices to give it a kick.

But in many ways, Réunion is the most French of all of Australia's French neighbours as it is a full part of France and even uses the euro as its currency

Nothing to wine about

originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia 22 August 2008
by Justin Wastnage

For fine food and wine it is hard to look beyond some of the prominent areas of France. Resident wine enthusiast Justin Wastnage took a recent trip to the Beaujolais region and experienced a bit of the good life for himself


For my wedding my brother had bought me a case of Château Yveline. This reasonable Claret was recommended to him by his girlfriend's father, Fabrice, a likeable wine importer from Aix-en-Provence, the lavender scented town pitched in the mouth of the Rhône river. "The last gasp of civilisation before you reach Marseilles", is how he describes Aix.

Fabrice is a talker, as am I. Over seven courses of barbequed seafood, foie gras and rustic pork sausisson one balmy August night we discussed the relative qualities of France's wine regions.

Bordeaux, he asserted that night, was overrated with many of the better wines' prices artificially inflated by the US export market. The Chinese like to drink their $100 bottles of Château Lafite-Rothschild mixed with 7-Up, he claimed. Burgundy, meanwhile, was a far more noble wine region, with its softer pinot noirs and cool climate chardonnays providing a much better advert for France's wine industry than the hearty cabernet sauvignons that dominate Bordeaux.

But my interest was piqued that night mainly by Beaujolais. As I swam around the icy pool clearing my head after the fourth bottle of the local Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence young red wine, I wondered how this region lying between Burgundy and Côtes du Rhône could be so maligned.

Winding my way into Villefranche-sur-Saône, the main town in Beaujolais, the region's agricultural credentials were on full display. It was grey and overcast the day I took the bus from Lyons. Winding up past yellow stoned houses shuttered up against the frigid air, tractors ploughed the fields and workers toiled on vines. The labour-intensive goblet pruning style used in Beaujolais was late this year, explained Guillemette Laferrère, my guide.

French winemaking is bound by rules. Australians experiment with grape varieties, experiment with blending techniques and experiment with fermentation. French wines, on the other hand, are guided by centuries of tradition. Soil types, grapes and growing area are all controlled minutely by Appellation côntrolée laws. For the ten best wine growing areas, as well as Beaujolais, long pruning of the vines - common across the rest of the world - is forbidden. This, explained Laferrère, was why the pruning was stretching out of March into early April.

The pale town hall building in Villefranche stood as a proud reminder of these age-old traditions. Twelfth century inhabitants of the Mairie had defended Villefranche's free town status, rejecting bribes, taxes or other imposts across the province it controlled. Today the massive toll plaza of the A6 motorway is visible from the town's summit and the low rumbling of trans-European traffic bypassing the region a constant reminder of how Beaujolais has slipped in importance.

The name Beaujolais conjures up the new, young wine available to us every Christmas. Beaujolais produces the first wine of the year, a primeur. The Gamay grapes are a mere six to eight weeks off the vine before the first bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau hit the shelves in November. The light, fruity wine is best drunk chilled, making it more popular around the time of an Australian summer than the beginnings of the European chill.

Beaujolais Nouveau gets a drubbing, however, from wine critics who mistake its lightness for a lack of depth. So says Pascal DuFaitre, manager at the Château de Pizay, the oldest winemaker in Morgon, one of the Beaujolais crus. Wines have been produced at the site since the 10th century when it served the monks of the Cluny Abbey. The château itself resembles a Roman villa and there is a Roman road passing alongside.

We descend into the tasting cellar. The dank air of a thousand years of wine maturation fills my lungs. Lit by dim bulbs, DuFaitre takes several bottles of various vintages and places them on a trestle table. Underneath, the creak and groan of pebbles is an unwelcome distraction.
The winery produces some chardonnay, just because it always has done, since the days the priests requested it for morning drinking, says DuFaitre. A good rosé is also produced. "One night of maceration is enough to give birth to the rosé Beaujolais," he says.

But DuFaitre comes into his stride extolling the virtues of the reds. Not only of Beaujolais itself (of which Château de Pizay only releases half of its 750,000 hectolitres as Nouveau), but of the Morgon, Brouilly and the very rare Régnié the winemakers also produce. The latter, he explains, demonstrates the complexity of the Beaujolais region. The nose is of red fruits - blackberry, redcurrant and raspberry - while the palate has a subtle and fresh attack and is well-rounded in mouth with a crescendo final, DuFaitre says.

Walking around the gardens is a pleasure in itself. In 1070 a surrounding wall was erected by the lords of Pizay, which was strengthened in 14th century. These, together with the formal garden with manicured bushes, keeps an charm to the place impossible to replicate in a new world winery.

The Château de Pizay has a 62-room four-star spa and resort in its medieval buildings. Antique furniture brings those looking for a romantic getaway close to the gourmet heaven of Lyons.

A drive around the cellar doors is possible if you understand the codes. A red sign hangs off nonedescript gates. Down the country lane you may find a small producer with several hundred bottles to sell or Georges DuBœuf, the largest exporter of the region's wines says Laferrère. "It's the luck of the draw," she explains.

To break up the 30 minute journey to Lyons, the Rendezvous de Bobosse invites us into sample the local fare. Nothing from outside 100km is allowed through its doors and into either restaurant or providore. "People ask for Coquilles-St-Jacques on our dégustation menu, but where can you find scallops in the middle of the countryside?" Bernard "Bobosse" Juban asks. Instead, the jambon persilé (ham in a parsley jelly) tête de porc (pork brawn), andouillette (offal sausage), sabodet (black pudding) and cervelas (saveloy) are all from locally-raised pigs.

Cold cuts like this, enjoyed with a glass of Beaujolais, are reason enough to come back to France. That and the case of wine waiting somewhere for me

Jet-set for wholesale changes

Originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia 22 August 2008
by Justin Wastnage

The recent Jetset Travelworld annual conference started under a cloud, but concrete changes were announced for the Qantas-owned group. Justin Wastnage reports on the outcomes of the meeting held recently in Fiji


Fijian villages often have a bati, or chief's bodyguard to ward off bad omens. Omens that include any kind of flying bird are the worst kind.
So it is no surprise that the cancellation of an Air Pacific Boeing 747-400 scheduled to take delegates to the Jetset Travelworld (JTG) annual conference in Fiji was a major talking point. In the end, 150 delegates arrived several hours late, some in the early morning.
Attendees, on the whole, understood the reason behind the delay (a hydraulic leak had delayed the aircraft's flight from Los Angeles). "Better a delay than flying in an unsafe aircraft," said Jean Kouriel, managing director of Honeymoon Worldwide Holidays.
Hotel group Accor, which was playing host at its Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa on Denarau Island, even hastily arranged lunch for its captive audience at the Novotel in Brighton-le-Sands, near Sydney airport.
By the time John Campbell, Air Pacific chief executive, got to the stage the following morning and announced that he was "the guy who screwed up the flights" delegates were almost ready to forgive and forget and get on with the business at hand.
The business of integration, that is. This was the first conference since the merger of Qantas Holidays (Q Hols) with JTG, a point stressed by many of the speakers. Roch van Delft, Qantas general manager of travel industry sales in Australia said: "This is a strategic alignment that will bring together some of the strongest brands in travel."
Qantas has started a charm offensive with the trade and Q Hols is a big part of this. Its general manager Chris Rankin told delegates that his team's focus is to push the wholesaler as a trade wholesaler. "There has been some recent behaviour to reinforce this," he said.
Q Hols will resume a call to action for consumers to book via agents in its new advertising. The previous lack of this was a sore point for the trade and will be welcomed. Flight Centre is the only major chain not to be represented in the new national ads, Rankin told the cheering partisan crowd.
Long the most pro-Qantas and now firmly in the fold, JTG will be specially fêted by the wholesaler that is edging away from Qantas Airways through deals with airlines like Cathay Pacific and Etihad. Jetset and Travelworld agents, for example, have a dedicated reservations line for Q Hols, an initiative which may be replicated for other chains.
But branding is to go a step further too. The new head of JTG, Peter Collins, unveiled the new-look stores that will be rolled out in the coming months. The aim is to create a more unified branding, Collins said. Luckily for JTG, branding is an area where Qantas excels.
Collins was keen to stress the benefits of integration with the airline giant in his keynote speech, saying: "The merger will be used to leverage existing relationships and contractual agreements and to forge new relationships that will deliver new products and services."
For those who believe in omens, following the gala dinner and crowning event after days of integration celebration there were reports of a mysterious illness felling several delegates. Probably just bad luck or bad grog - unless you ask the batis, that is.

It's not all the Seine

Originally appeared in TravelWeekly Australia 22 August 2008

The accepted wisdom is that walking around Paris is the best way to see the city. However, Justin Wastnage wasn't so sure and decided to try three alternate methods of transport


Venice has its gondolas, New York its yellow taxi cabs, but what is the best way to get around Paris? Many will tell you wandering aimlessly around le Marais is a joy in itself or that the Métropolitain is the only way to go.

But there are some new and innovative ways to see Paris, especially if it is not your clients' first time to the city of lights. Even the venerable métro has a new, sleek rival in the brand new tram system.

Many Australian wholesalers are now either including the option of unusual tours in their itineraries or training sales staff to pass on the information. Here's a selection of some of the best ways to get around.

Citroën 2CV
Not a Sydney talk radio station, but that quintessentially French people's car - the 2CV. Originally called deux chevaux vapeur (or two horsepower) after its puny engine, the car was France's answer to Germany's Volkswagen Beetle, Italy's Fiat 500 and the British Morris Mini.

Today, slightly more powerful versions of the cars still hold a special place in French hearts. The semi-circular chassis seems somehow ill-at-ease with the wheel body and the fold-down windows a relic from a bygone age.

Yet they are a thrill to ride, says Amélie de Roux, marketing manager at 4 Roues sous 1 Parapluie, a tour operator that uses Citroën 2CVs for its Paris product and whose name worrying translates as "four wheels under one umbrella". The often inclement Parisian weather is an added bonus for the tours, she explains. Couples love getting rugged up underneath a blanket in the back seat but still leave the top down rather than miss out on the experience, she adds.

There are several companies now offering 2CV tours, mostly lasting around two hours and taking in all the major sites as well as quieter back streets in prettier parts of town. A uniformed chauffeur in 1950s driving gear who acts as a guide is also usual.

Bicycle
Frequent visitors to Paris will notice that there has been an Amsterdam-isation of its streets. Bicycles are now, literally everywhere you look.

The reason is a Vélib' - an innovative free bicycle rental scheme. There are 20,000 identical grey sturdy bicycles based in 1450 rental stations around the city centre located at about 300 metre intervals from each other.

A credit card is all that is required to access one of the bikes (you will need to ensure yours has a Euro-style embedded micro chip).

The first half-hour is free (Vélib' means "free ride") and rates after that are cheap. For two hours (which is probably all you need before suffering pins and needles) €7 per bike is reasonable. With a basket on the front of each, cycling off to one of Paris's inner city parks or squares with a baguette poking out and a picnic box of cheese and pâté should satisfy most Parisian clichés your clients may have.

River cruise
As the sun sets over the river Seine, sipping a Kir Royale Champagne cocktail on a boat gliding under Paris's series of bridges is one of life's little pleasures. And it is a pleasure enjoyed by thousands of tourists every year, who cruise on the famous bateaux mouches.

These open excursion boats are specially designed to be low in the water to fit underneath the bridges, but not so low that they scrape along the river bed.

Today there is competition for the original Compagnie des Bateaux Mouches that first brought the boats to the Seine after the Second World War, although its trademarked name has fallen into common parlance. Most ply a route covering the major attractions such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame cathedral, the Pont Neuf, the Orsay Museum and the Louvre Museum with running commentary. Many are open-topped, as well, and sail along the left bank first, then the right on the return upstream.

For a budget option, take the new Seine river ferry, the Batobus, for the same ride without the commentary or Kir Royale.

Let It Be

Article originally appeared in The Sun-Herald World section, August 20, 2008

In a nation where more than half the population wants to sever ties with the British monarchy, Justin Wastnage reports that Canadians are questioning whether they should ...

Let It Be

Canada, like Australia, knows how to party, especially when it involves a momentous anniversary, but our distant cousin differs when it comes to the guest list.

In 1988, when Australia celebrated its bicentenary marking 200 years of white settlement, Queen Elizabeth II was in Canberra to cut the ribbon on the new Parliament House.

When our Commonwealth relative celebrated the 400th anniversary of European settlement last month, the absence of the Queen was telling.

Despite the Québec provincial Government wanting the Queen to attend the celebrations of the founding of Quebec City, she was advised by Canada's Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper not to attend due to fears the monarch would become the target of separatist demonstrations. French-speaking Québec has been agitating for independence from Canada for decades.

But while the Queen decided not to visit Québec, the only province where the population might be seen as strongly supporting a republic, a British rock star received a rapturous welcome from 200,000 fans. Paul McCartney's concert to help celebrate the city's 400th birthday was provocative, given that it took place on the Plains of Abraham, the site of a battle almost 250 years ago that sealed British dominance over the French in North America.

Click here to read the full article on SMH.com.au

The Royal Mail - something to toque about

The Royal Mail in Dunkeld just received two well-deserved chefs hats in The Age Good Food Guide awards 2008.
Here's how I reviewed it in the August / September issue of Australian Traveller:

You can find the original here

Australian Traveller Magazine

August / September 2008

When it comes to imaginative, inventive, award-winning cuisine, Justin Wastnage discovers that the Royal Mail delivers - as long as you're prepared to travel.

Driving through London's low-hanging clouds of permadrizzle never felt as appealing as when I headed to the Fat Duck for dinner. Even if the tiny Berkshire village of Bray does mean an hour's drive through Heathrow and Slough, it's worth it. Driving along the soaring coastline of Spain's Costa Brava towards the French border is, on the other hand, a far more thrilling experience - made even more so if your ultimate destination is El Bulli restaurant, 150km up the coast.

The journey to The Royal Mail Hotel is somewhere in between the two; driving into Dunkeld via the mundane highway west out of Melbourne, you get the full sense of the volcanic Southern Grampians, all rich purple points punching their way out of lush green vegetation.

In the rest of the world, the best restaurants are often well out of the cities. In Australia, while plenty have stunning settings, polished service and extensive wine lists, most lack the truly imaginative cuisine that sets the best apart. The Royal Mail Hotel is an exception to this, and could well be Australia's first destination restaurant.

Head chef Dan Hunter has recently ditched the à la carte menu in favour of three dégustation options. Diners unfortunate enough to time their arrival for lunch, as I have, must make do with the bistro-style cafe or bar menu. Not that making do with jamón ibérico is much hardship. In fact, it's just one nod to Hunter's training in Spain, first at Barcelona's iconic Cælis, then at Mugaritz, the Basque Country eatery considered the world's best by Michelin-starred chefs in the recent San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants. A Victorian by birth, Hunter was head chef at Mugaritz in 2006 when it garnered its second Michelin star. "At that time you were a nobody if you were an Australian chef in Europe," he remembers.

Spain's elite chefs have honed the quasi-laboratorial style dubbed "molecular cuisine" into inventive nueva cocina - a movement that prizes freshness and quality of ingredients above all. Starting with an entree of zucchini flowers with feta and basil, I'm transported back to the childhood pleasure of tasting vegetables recently plucked from the ground. Most of the Royal Mail's newly restocked cadre of chefs, like me, grew up in the country and - according to Hunter - have a different sense of freshness than city folk. For this reason the property includes three kitchen gardens, ensuring all herbs, salad leaves and most vegetables are grown on-site.

The feta, meanwhile, hasn't a trace of saltiness and has curds so soft and creamy you could swear it was goat's cheese. It's produced by nearby Grampians Pure Sheep Milk Dairy and is set off by the merest drizzle of virgin olive oil. Followed by grilled chorizo on a bed of braised lentils, my meal is about as perfect an execution of simple food as I can imagine. Relaxing afterwards with the papers, a February sun shines over the Australian landscape, while in the courtyard children play. A perfect Sunday.

Evening diners are denied the sublime feta, for theirs is an altogether more adult experience, governed by rules and techniques. No dairy is allowed before dessert and butter is eschewed in favour of complex purées. The tasting menu must be a balance of vegetables, fish and meat. Sommelier Lok Thornton provides a wine flight to match the ten courses with equal rigour.

Spain currently dominates the world's best list and Hunter and his peers were all devotees of the Heston Blumenthal school of revisionist cuisine that combines an understanding of science with knowledge of flavours. For Hunter, this is most obvious in his slow cooking techniques. For example, the current first dish on the full dégustation is rock lobster with liquid almond and orange blossom. "The lobster is cooked at exactly 62 degrees for 27 minutes," he explains. "It's more of a setting of the protein than cooking. The meat is not rock hard on the outside and raw in the middle like boiled lobster, but has an even distribution of texture throughout."

Most patrons seeking out the experimental cuisine have driven the 260km from Melbourne, but increasingly the Royal Mail has become popular with Sydneysiders, South Australians and even visitors from Perth. Most stay at the on-site rooms, which have views over a nearby creek to Mount Sturgeon, or at the nearby Mount Sturgeon Estate - a working Merino wool farm with original crofters' cottages at its heart, built by Dunkeld's Scottish settlers.

Dunkeld is a long way from anywhere, so if you're joining the growing bands of culinary pilgrims paying homage to Hunter's flavour laboratory, bookings are a must. But if the thought of a drive to Dunkeld puts you off, the hotel can arrange helicopter transfers to dull the pain.

DETAILS // The Royal Mail Hotel
Where // 98 Parker St, Dunkeld, Vic, www.royalmail.com.au, (03) 5577 2241
Cost // 10-course tasting menu $145 ($280 with wine flight), 5-course $100 ($180 with wine), 8-course vegetarian $100 ($235 with wine).
Hotel Rooms // From $130 per night, two bedroom apartment from $240.
Mount Sturgeon Cottages // Eight one and two-bedroom wool shearer's cottages from $200 per person.