WALKABOUT
Kat Stewart’s travel tales
As a child, our family holidays were
always to… Phillip Island, Victoria (1). I’ve been coming to Phillip Island with family since I was two. Now if I have time for a short break,
I head straight to… Phillip Island! Now my brothers and I bring our kids and partners and spend time together with my dad at his place there. It is such a beautiful part of the world and a great chance for all of us to spend time together. My local’s tip for my hometown of
Melbourne is… research. Restaurants, bars and cafes are often changing and evolving. Ask for tips from locals. I say you can never go past stalwarts like Cicciolina in St Kilda for a fun dinner with friends, or Chez Olivier in South Yarra or Bistro Thierry (2) in Toorak for a great French meal. When I’m on the road, I’m usually
listening to… music that keeps my fouryear-old happy! She doesn’t last very long on an iPad so I know every lyric of Frozen 2 (including some outtakes) and Trolls, and I’ve listened to
The Greatest Showman soundtrack about 3 billion times (and counting). She’s also got a weakness for Led Zeppelin and Hall & Oates, which is an interesting development. I loved Judith Lucy’s podcast Overwhelmed + Dying, and never miss Emsolation or SmartLess (also podcasts).
My last holiday read was… I can’t recommend Your Own Kind of Girl (3) by my friend [singer, actor and author] Clare Bowditch highly enough. My travel wardrobe always consists of…
It’s been happening less lately for obvious reasons – but depending on the climate, there’s a good chance I’ll be flying in my favourite AG comfy jeans (4), with a leather jacket I can throw over
anything under during and a the good flight pashmina or wear shawl with anything. I can snuggle
My carry-on is… usually filled with distractions for the kids like sticker books and pencils, wipes, essential toiletries, headphones and a book I probably won’t get to!
My souvenir of choice is… a small piece of local jewellery (5). Something I can wear that will take me back.
My greatest travel memory is… travelling around Europe with my family in a campervan as an eight-year-old (6). Coming from a small country town, it blew my mind to see how big and colourful the world actually was. The type of traveller I aspire to be is
one that… doesn’t attempt too much. I don’t want to just tick things off a list and not enjoy them. I’d rather do less, savour more.
I’ll never forget the time… I was backpacking in France in my 20s with food poisoning. The most adventurous thing I’ve ever
done on holiday is… parachute out of a plane (amazing but once will do it). My favourite place to dine in Australia
is… the Bamboo House in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne (7). It is the restaurant my family have been celebrating special occasions in since I was a child. We even refer to it as ‘headquarters’. I’ve had some of the happiest nights of my life there, the food is always incredible, and Ann and her team treat us like family. If I could live anywhere in Australia…
I would live in Tasmania (8). I am obsessed with its beauty, its history, its climate, food, wine...
Season two of Five Bedrooms airs later this year on 10 and 10 play.