Judy Bailey’s Australia

Judy Bailey’s Australia

TV ONE Saturday 16 June, 8.30pm

Auckland, 13 June, 2012. Iconic broadcaster and much loved New Zealander Judy Bailey reveals herself and our closest neighbour as you have never seen before in a new, prime time television series starting this Saturday.

The five-part series charts Judy’s epic journey of Australia as she takes the road less travelled to go the ‘long way around’ from Western Australia to the Northern Territory.

Starting in Perth, Judy travels south to one of the premier food, wine and surf regions, Margaret River. With a tip of her cap along the way to Fremantle, Judy’s western sojourn finishes at the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse where she looks 16,000km east to her next destination, South Australia.

South Australia is shown in two parts with the first showcasing Adelaide and the surrounding wine regions including a quirky side trip to the German village of Hahndorf. Judy hand feeds giraffes and gets very close to a cheetah as she experiences a slice of Africa on the plains of South Australia. Unique flora and fauna, and extraordinary landscapes continue as a theme of this region with a visit to the spectacular Eyre Peninsula, which is renowned for its natural wonders and amazing wildlife of the marine kind.

From South Australia, Judy travels eastward to the goldfields of regional Victoria and tries her hand at first panning and then drilling for gold as she retraces the steps of the greatest gold rush in the world. From the historic sister cities of Ballarat and Bendigo to the primeval forests of Tasmania, Judy goes in search of the legendary Tasmanian Tiger.

In Tasmania Judy is charmed and captivated by some great tales and majestic scenery. Tasmania is also where Judy summons her inner sense of adventure and in true ‘give it a go’ Kiwi style, Judy indulges in some adrenalin charged activities saying she is a “great believer in trying something new when you are away on holiday”.

With this appetite for adventure and giving it all a go, Judy travels up to the State of New South Wales and marvels at the majesty of the Blue Mountains, ventures deep into the incredible Jenolan Caves and then heads north to Byron Bay. In Byron, Judy recharges the soul and takes to the surf!

Just a few ‘clicks’ north lies the Queensland border and Judy’s first stop is Surfers Paradise. Knowing how well visited this top holiday spot is for Kiwis, Judy looks to the mountains beyond and continues her journey into the Gold Coast Hinterland. Here she discovers eco retreats and sub tropical rainforests, and all just an hour from the glitz and glamour of Surfers Paradise.

Judy’s Queensland journey of discovery continues to another lesser-known region, the southern Great Barrier Reef where she calls in on the only town in the world to boast a numerical name, 1770. A visit to the pristine Lady Elliot Island offers up a chance encounter with newly hatched turtles making their journey to the sea and some ‘once in a lifetime’ encounters with marine animals.

From the blue waters of the southern Great Barrier Reef to the Yellow Waters of the World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, Judy’s epic adventure comes to a close in this most ancient land. From billion year old sandstone escarpments to flood plains teeming with exotic wildlife, Judy marvels at this land of incredible contrasts and sees for herself, why there is ‘nothing like Australia’.

Tourism Australia’s General Manager New Zealand, Jenny Aitken describes the series as “awe inspiring and will encourage Kiwis to rethink their favourite holiday destination”.
Ms Aitken says “over a million Kiwis a year travel to Australia for their holiday and our research shows that there is a genuine and very healthy appetite for new and exciting travel experiences that venture beyond the cities we all love and know so well.”

The series is sponsored by Tourism Australia along with Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia, and produced by one of New Zealand’s leading production houses, Imagination Television.

ENDS

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