Editor’s Letter.

CALL me selfish. This issue of Qantas magazine focuses on all the places I’d love to go to if life was one endless holiday.

Some of it is bucket-list stuff, from seeing the cherry blossoms in Kyoto to trekking through the forests of Rwanda in search of the majestic gorilla. They’re vastly different experiences but similarly rewarding – you’re catching a glimpse of something fleeting and elusive.

I’ve also thrown in a couple of surprises. Who dreamed up the idea to convert a disused railway in the heart of the Clare Valley into a cycling trail that traverses some of South Australia’s best riesling producers? And who magicked a luxury hotel on Tasmania’s glorious Lake St Clair from a decommissioned 1940 hydro-electric pumping station? The cliché stands: great minds really do think alike.

Unfortunately, editors of travel magazines don’t get out of the office a lot. I tend to send everyone else off to have fabulous adventures all over the world (and must be content with living vicariously through our team of expert writers and photographers). But I did spend a couple of days in Perth recently on a business trip and was amazed by how a building can have a transformative effect on a city.

The State Buildings – actually a collection of three 140-year-old properties that have variously been government offices, the GPO and the state Treasury – are temples of cool featuring small luxury hotel Como The Treasury, a host of restaurants (from the spicy flavours of David Thompson’s Long Chim to rooftop fine dining at Wildflower), plus hip bars, cafés and boutiques (see One Perfect Day on page 92).

Add in the Elizabeth Quay development and it seems Perth is enjoying something of a resurgence. Which is why, next time, I’ll do a little less business and have a little more fun.

Kirsten Galliott Editor-in-Chief