A VIEW WITH A ROOM
窗外風光如畫
MARK JONES explores three luxury lodges in three very different Australian landscapes
From chic beachside villas through the Aboriginal heartland and into the Outback, MARK JONES explores the Australian landscape, one luxury lodge at a time
It must have hurt. In New Zealand, they’ve created a network of luxury lodges that stretch from the tip of the North Island to the bottom of the South. As we wrote about in Discovery (see discovery.cathaypacific.com) they are doing great business, and are a fine advertisement for the country.
But until recently, Aussie offerings of really beautiful, high-end resorts and hotels were scattered pretty thinly across the country.
That’s changing. Luxury Lodges of Australia is striving to emulate the success of its neighbours across the Tasman Sea. Together with our sister magazine, Silkroad, we’ve been visiting several of them to see how Australian designers and owners are interpreting the needs of a highly mobile and super-demanding audience.
Here are three very different lodges in three very different – but quintessentially Australian – landscapes. They’re more than places to stay: they all have a story to tell about the land, its people and its history.
澳洲旅遊業向來緊貼業內潮流，絕對不肯落後於新西蘭及其他地區。新西蘭建立的豪華住宿網絡，南由 至北覆蓋全國，十分完。們在善 我 曾 《Discovery》（瀏請覽discovery.cathaypacific.com）作專題介紹，這些豪華住宿廣受歡迎，更成為該國的最佳廣告宣傳。
反觀澳洲，全國各地的高級度假村及酒店寥寥可數，直至近年情況才有改善。
由業內人士組成的Luxury Lodges of Australia（澳洲豪華住宿）奮起直追，以塔斯曼海對岸新西蘭的成功為榜樣。我們與姊妹雜誌《絲路》結伴出，發 訪問其中幾家別具特色的豪華住宿，解了 澳洲設計師及業主如何迎合見多識廣的旅客的嚴格。要求
以為詳下 你 細介紹三個地點與設施截然不同的豪華住宿，雖然如此，但同樣具備濃厚的澳洲地道風情，而且不僅是供旅客度宿之處，更能令對地人 當 的風土人情和歷史故事有更多認識。
PRETTY BEACH NEW SOUTH WALES
Looking out from a steep, sandstone cliff in the Bouddi National Park, I can see the outer suburbs of Woy Woy, a town that had a racy reputation back in the 1920s and ’30s but has now become a thoroughly respectable, unflashy place popular with retirees.
Below are sparkling blue waters playing host to weekenders’ yachts and some very pretty beaches. Early European explorers were of a literal cast of mind: we are, in fact, above the settlement of Pretty Beach.
This is where John Singleton, a wellknown adman and entrepreneur, built a retreat high in the hills. Built and then rebuilt: devastating bushfires are a recurring theme in these parts. There was another recently and the national park authorities won’t allow us to go hiking in the woods for fear of falling branches. But Pretty Beach House was spared.
This is a place infused with the spirit of affluent Australia as it began to emerge in the 1970s. There are polished sandstone floors, old telegraph poles for beams and pillars, and the instantly recognisable work of Australia’s most Australian 20th century artist, Sidney Nolan, on the bare stone and brick walls.
I’m staying in The Retreat: ‘zero- gravity’ (adjustable) bed, linen sheets, sheepskin rugs and a decked terrace with a plunge pool gazing down to the bay and a flotilla of cumulus clouds in a perfect blue sky.
Once you’re in, you don’t need to worry about outgoings – that’s the way with all three lodges I stayed in. And when ‘all-inclusive’ includes, say, a meal of kingfish followed by lamb, then apricot cheesecake with passion fruit, paired with Yarra Valley chardonnays and a Mudgee shiraz – then count me in.
That was just for lunch. There was an epic tasting dinner with chef Duncan Kemmis still to come. Exercise was required. I walked between the bays, trying to keep property investment thoughts from intruding as I passed covetably laidback hill villas. A row of white cockatoos messed around on a picket fence. Feathery trees looked over the milky beige and baby blue waters.
Of course, a few hundred thousand years before country mansions or, indeed, Sydney arrived, there were others roaming these lands. Tim, from the Guringai people, emerged from the bushes that night while we were sipping our champagne. He performed a traditional smoking ceremony and promised to show us rock carvings in the hills the next day.
We walked through shaded, sandy paths and winced as we saw mountain bike tracks intersecting with ancient carvings of whales and sharks.
We tasted mouth-numbing gum resin from Grandmother Trees and pumped Tim for information. There were things he’s allowed to pass on, and things he can’t. Sharing remains a precious gift in a dry land scarce of resources. For Tim’s forebears, information was power – and survival. prettybeachhouse.com
新南威爾士，美麗海灘
從波蒂國家公園沙的 岩峭壁遠，望眺可 見沃沃伊 伊市郊的風光，這個小鎮於1920至30年是代曾 紙醉金迷、活色生香的狂歡之地，但如今已返樸歸真，成為一個純樸而體面的退堂休天 。
峭壁下面是湛藍的海水，在陽光下閃閃生輝；度周末的人駕著遊艇駛過海面，沿岸是多處漂亮的沙灘。早年開發此地的歐洲探險家見到如此風光，於是截直 了當地稱之為美麗海灘。
著名廣告商兼企業家John Singleton在山丘高處興建了一座度假別墅，然而當地經常發生山火，令這幢建築物經歷 多次重建。，最近 當地再又 遭祝融之災，國家公園當局為怕場災 有樹木倒塌，不准我進們 入叢林遠。足 幸而麗美 海灘小屋館旅 未受大火波及。
1970年代這個地開方 始變得富裕，因此散發著澳洲富裕階層的氣息：打磨得十分光滑的砂岩地板，由舊電線杆改造而成的樑柱，石頭磚和 塊外露的牆壁上掛著的 藝品術 ，讓人一眼就認是出 20世紀澳洲最具代表藝性的 術家Sidney Nolan的名作。
我住的小屋名為The Retreat，裡面有可以調校的軟綿綿大床、亞麻布床羊單、 皮地毯和鋪上木條地板的露台，還有可俯瞰海灣景色的泳池，以及在蔚藍晴空中的片片浮雲。
入這住 間舒適大宅後，就無須擔心食宿方面的開我銷。 這趟旅程住的三間豪華住宿，都這屬 類「全的」式 度假屋。如果可以享用括鰤魚、羊肉及伴以熱情果的杏桃芝士蛋糕，再配上亞拉河谷多款chardonnay及Mudgee shiraz葡萄酒的話，我非常樂意接受。
以上說的只是午餐至， 於晚，餐 還由有大廚Duncan Kemmis主理的嚐味套餐。豐富的午餐下肚，需之後然當 要運動一下，於是我沿著海灣漫步，沿途見到不少令人動心的漂亮山小間 別墅，須我必 努力遏制想在此地投資置業的衝動。一群白鳳頭鵡成鸚 站 一排在柵欄上歇息，綠樹在岸邊隨風擺輕，與米色夾雜淡藍色的海水相映成趣。
當然，在鄉間別墅甚至悉尼出現之前數十萬年有，已 其他人踏足這片土地。那天晚，上 當我在酌們 小 香檳之際，庫靈蓋族人Tim從樹叢中走來，為我們進行傳統的煙熏祈儀福 式後，還答應翌日帶我們上山觀賞石雕。
我們穿過樹蔭覆蓋的碎石小路，看當到越野單車徑與古代的鯨魚和鯊魚雕塑互相交錯我時， 們都不由自主的退後。
我們嚐了一點會令嘴巴發麻的膠狀古樹樹脂後，向Tim查問究。竟 原來根據部族傳統，有些事情他可以與人分享，有些卻不能在。 這片資源匱乏的大地與上， 人分享資訊是一件珍貴的禮物。對Tim的祖先而言知， 識是量就 力 ，攸也 關存生 。prettybeachhouse.com Sitting pretty Pretty Beach House is all about idyllic and cultural experiences (opposite) 養尊處優 入住美麗海灘小屋旅館，體驗田園風光與文化（對頁）
WE TASTED MOUTH- NUMBING GUM RESIN FROM GRANDMOTHER TREES我們嚐了一點會令嘴巴發麻的膠狀古樹樹脂
LONGITUDE 131 ULURU
We drive along the bitumen from Ayers Rock Airport, then on a rutted, red-baked track into Longitude 131. ‘ The gate keeps the snakes out,’ says the guide.
In the dry heart of this dry continent, the jokes tend to be pretty dry, too.
But they also draw the sting from this harsh, arid place of wild dogs, pythons and tough hill kangaroos who survive, somehow, on the spiky spinifex grass.
Longitude is a place that keeps you in an uplifted frame of mind, as if you’ve just drunk a glass of ice- cold champagne. That’s because you usually have.
The lodge opened in 2002, but was acquired and rethought 11 years later by the Australian Baillie Lodges Group (who also opened the sublime Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island). Its armada of white-sailed tents in a sea of red earth have been imitated from Namibia to Cambodia.
But what no other tented lodge has is a nearby giant inselberg. No other hotel gets literally as close to what Wikipedia romantically calls a ‘prominent isolated residual knob or hill’.
To get even closer to Uluru, we go on sunset walks, surrounded by the babble of nations, always likely to be mugged with champagne by the ever-present and obliging Longitude staff.
I wished I’d brought a warm jacket for those desert nights. Luckily, Longitude 131 had a selection of RM Williams gilets.
This is an interesting year for Uluru. From October 2019, the unofficial prohibition on climbing a place sacred to the Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara people becomes law. So the lodges and tour companies are seeking other ways of entertaining guests. There’s hiking in the bulbous loaf-hills of Kata Tjuta and a night walk around an extraordinary installation by Bruce Munro called Field of Light, where 50,000 solar-powered lights spread across the hills like Monet’s poppies reimagined in space.
There are more encounters with the stars during the astronomy nights offered by Longitude.
But the rock remains the real star. At dusk, I sat on my deck and wrote down all the shades it went through: dun, dusky pink, rose, russet, brick, cherry, oxblood, light rust, medium rust, dark rust, amber, orange, mauve, bruised and finally – sorry for the bathos – a kind of potato-skin brown.
Looking is enough, but touching is extraordinary if you get the chance.
On our last walk we circuited the base. Laying a hand on the thin, friable scales of its great exterior is something you’ll remember forever. I’m not going to fake some culturally appropriated spiritual experience. Still, I touched Uluru with a sense of deep reverence. But it’s not a cathedral. It’s warm, like a living thing. I looked up at the huge, elephant-backed spine and almost expected to feel a distant heartbeat, a slow respiration from deep within. Your own heart skips a beat, and you pull away as if you’ve had a shock. longitude131.com. au
烏魯魯，經度131度假村
我們從艾爾斯山機場出發，沿瀝青路駕車，駛過軚痕處處的炙熱道路，抵達經度度131假村。導遊說「： 裝上閘門是為了防止蛇從外面爬進」來。
在這片乾燥的內陸土地上，講的笑話似乎也比別地枯的 方 燥平淡，但語也一 道破了這片不毛之地的特色有：只 野狗、蟒蛇和兇猛的岩大袋鼠，能夠在長滿尖刺的野草叢之間存生 。
經度131度假村是個令人自然感到興奮的方地 ，猶如剛喝下一杯冰凍香檳。那是因為你的確喝了，而且不只一杯。
這個地方於2002年開幕，11年後被擁有袋鼠島高級度假勝大地南 洋飯店的澳洲Baillie Lodges集團收購及重建在。 萬里紅土上矗立著多個船帆形白色帳篷，非常壯觀，難怪由納米比亞以至柬埔的寨 豪華住宿亦爭相。效法
不過這裡可以眺望附近氣勢宏偉的島山，是其他帳篷式豪華住宿所沒。有的能與這個獲維基百科美讚 為「遠離俗世的壯麗山頭」咫尺相對的酒店，在世上只此一家。
為了更加接近烏魯魯巨石，我在們 太陽下山時到外面散步，身邊隱約聽到其他遊客講的不同語言。途中不時遇到殷勤周到的度假村，員工 為我們奉上一杯又一杯的香檳，令我們更沉醉於眼前的美。景
我希望有帶在沙漠的寒夜可以保暖的外套。，幸好 經度131度假村系有一 列的RM Williams背心可供挑選。
烏魯魯這一年將出現有趣的變。化 以往禁止攀登楊固尼加拉拉族和皮詹塔佳若族聖地的不成文規定，將會於2019年10月正式立法。，村因此 度假 和旅行社正為遊客尋找新的消遣。方式客前旅 可以 往加他茱國達 家公園圓的 形山丘上遠，足 也可在間夜 欣賞藝術家Bruce Munro的燈光裝置術藝 作品《Field of Light》；這件作品將50,000個球狀太陽燈安能 泡 裝於大片山野之間，有如將莫奈筆下的罌粟花田搬到太空裡去。
經度131度假村亦會舉辦天文觀星之夜，讓客人欣賞繁星滿天的夜空。
然而，巨石才是真正的主角。黃昏時分，我坐在房間的陽台上，記下巨石在陽夕斜照下所呈現的繽紛色彩：灰褐、暗粉紅、玫瑰紅、赤褐、磚櫻紅、 桃紅、深紅、淺鐵銹紅、中鐵銹紅、深鐵銹紅、琥珀色、橙色、淡紫紫、 紅，最後，恕我詞窮，還有薯皮褐色。
能夠遠觀已於願足矣，但若有機會伸手觸然妙碰當 就更。了
我在們 那裡最後次一 的散步，就是環繞烏魯魯的底部而行，把手放在這塊雄偉巨石表面那層薄薄的沙，土上 絕對是畢生難忘的體驗。我並非為迎合土著文化而強裝出靈性體驗，但我的確是無崇以 比 敬之心觸摸這塊。巨石 它不是冷冰冰的大教，堂而是溫暖的，像生物一般。我抬仰頭 望有如大象背部般的岩方，彷佛會到感 從遠傳處來隱約的心跳聲，那是自來 岩石深處的緩慢呼吸我。 的心不禁跳了一下，像觸電般把手縮回來。longitude131.com.au
YOUR HEART SKIPS A BEAT, AND YOU PULL AWAY AS IF YOU’VE HAD A SHOCK我的心不禁跳了一下，像觸電般把手縮回來
BAMURRU PLAINS, NORTHERN TERRITORY
We are flying east from Darwin. The millennia of ebbing and teeming waters have created a kind of leftover dinner plate where the sauces all run together: spinaches and coppers, taupes and cobalts.
We land at a rural Aussie airstrip and climb into a Land Cruiser, tough and sun-burnished as a rhino. The driver’s seat is a work of art: shredded leather, dustencrusted steering wheel, peeling fabric and battered side panels. You’ve seen better looking interiors on the scrap heaps. But it’s a Land Cruiser: it’ll go on forever.
This is not fancy resort time. We arrive at a converted woolshed, and this honest aesthetic goes throughout. The rooms stand on stilts with wooden verandas. They have tin roofs and fly screens.
We’ve been in chic, urbanised Australian country and wandered the ancient Aboriginal heartland. Now we are in pioneer land.
True, there’s a nice swimming pool with elegant chairs, big cushions and shade. It overlooks a floodplain: tufty, rough grass is littered with wallaby poo, termite mounds and desiccated palm fronds. A herd of buffalo fossick in patches of grass. This is the nursery. Dads and mums are resting knee- deep in the cool distant water, trying not to worry about crocodiles. They wander in at dusk. And if you want to see a happy water buffalo, watch them having a good bum scratch on a termite mound. They also love ploughing through a clump of turkey bushes: the flowers are natural antihistamines. They work on mosquito bites.
The next day, we are out on the airboat across the floodplains and into the ‘ponds’ – quiet, spooky places of reflections and ghostly paperbark trees.
The only croc of the visit is a tiddler, no more than a year old, out hunting for frogs and dragonflies. If you want the big saltwater fellows, join Outback Floatplane Adventures on an expedition from Darwin.
Poisonous South American cane toads have wreaked havoc here, especially with the snake population. That may be welcome news for nervous tourists (though you’re very unlikely to encounter the two deadliest species, the Taipans and the Brown) but it’s bad news for native species.
The wallabies are thriving, though. They’re everywhere, inquisitive, then skittish. The lodge guide, Cam, reckons there is a dingo family about, too: but they’re super-shy.
I love Bamurru. It’s not some luxe lodge built from a kit designed in the Kruger. The interior has buffalo horn handles on the doors, a long, vintage table and a helpyourself bar with a little tin roof. Old fans and older photographs are set on green corrugated iron walls. You collapse into huge wicker chairs surrounded by animal skulls, antique grog bottles, hurricane lamps, pioneer cooking utensils, sculpted bark. You wouldn’t be surprised to see John McDouall Stuart, the explorer who travelled the length of the country from south to north in 1861, wander in for a cold one.
We share dinner at the long table with a relaxed group of travellers from – everywhere, really. The conversation flows easily, unimpeded by Wi- Fi and phone signals.
Next morning, it’s the dusty ride back to the landing strip, Darwin and on to a couple of nights in Sydney.
Over obscure wines at the very cool Paramount Hotel, hipster Surry Hills is out in force. Inner City Sydney competes pretty fiercely with Brooklyn for bragging rights on the length of its beards, and the intensity of its devotion to all things craftlike. Which is great. But while the hipster bars are all beginning to look pretty much alike, there is nowhere, nowhere, nowhere, like the three places we’ve just been to.
luxurylodgesofaustralia.com.au
The writer rented a car from Hertz for the Pretty Beach leg of the trip. hertzmultibrand.com/cathaypacific
北領地，巴姆魯平原
我從爾們 達 文飛往東部。海水經過上千年的潮潮漲 退，現在猶如用餐後各種醬汁混作一團的碟子泛， 起菠菜色、紅銅色灰、褐色和鈷藍色。
我們在澳洲郊小區的 型機場陸著 ，然後坐上久經日曬、有如犀牛般強勁的Land Cruiser越野車。司機位的皮革已裂開，軚盤鋪滿塵埃，布料剝落，兩側的車門滿佈刮花的痕跡，有如一件「藝術品」。即使廢車場內的車，車廂狀況亦有沒 這糟麼，但是它一輛Land Cruiser，無論也如何 能開得動。
這裡沒豪有 華度假村的設施。我們來到一間改建的剪羊毛工場，整個度假村始終貫徹樸素的風格：客由房 木樁支撐，走廊及屋頂用木和鐵皮搭建，還配備了紗窗。
我們到過澳洲最時尚新潮的市郊，拜訪過古老的原住民居住地，現在終於來到這片屬於拓荒者的土地。
沒，錯 這裡確實有漂亮泳池、優雅座椅、寬大舒適的坐墊和遮陰篷。不過外面的風景是一片泛濫：平原 雜草堆中遍佈沙袋大鼠 便、白蟻丘及乾枯的棕櫚葉。一群水牛用腳將草地翻起。這是水牛的育嬰室，牛爸爸和牛媽媽浸在及膝的河水中休息，暫時忘卻不時出沒的鱷魚。水牛通常在黃昏出現，如想看到水牛開的心 場面，要就 觀察牠們如何在蟻丘上擦屁股。牠們愛亦在土其木中耳 灌 堆 穿，插 這種植物的花朵具有天然的抗組織胺藥效，可以對蚊付 叮。
翌日，我坐們乘 汽，船 沿河道穿濫過泛平原，來到「池塘，」 這裡幽深，寧靜 長滿白千層樹，帶點神秘氣氛。
旅程中碰到的唯一一條鱷魚是未足一歲、出來捕獵青蛙和蜓小蜻 的 娃娃。如果你想一睹成年鹹水鱷的雄姿，要就報名參加達爾文Outback Floatplane Adventures旅行社的旅行團。
有毒的南美海蟾蜍是這裡的壞破 王， 特別對當蛇地 類構成重大威脅。對於憂心的客說遊 來 ，這也許是好消息（但你不太可能碰到當地種兩致命毒蛇：太攀蛇和棕蛇）。但壞消息是，海蟾蜍在灌木林中大量繁殖，殺死本地的原物生 種。
不過，沙袋鼠卻在此開枝散葉繁，衍眾多。他們四處蹦跳、好奇心重，而且古靈精導怪遊。 Cam估計附近還住了澳洲野犬一家幾口，牠不過 們非常容易受驚。
我喜歡巴姆魯，因為這裡的設計並非常見豪的 華酒店風格。走進室內會，你 發現水牛角製成的門柄、古舊的長枱，以及有個小型鐵皮上蓋的自助酒吧。綠色波紋的鐵牆上掛有古舊的風扇和老照片。巨型籐椅的四周放置了動物頭骨、古董酒瓶、防風燈、野外煮食器具及樹皮雕刻。在這裡，即使到見 1861年從南到北橫越澳洲的探險家John McDouall Stuart闖進來喝酒你， 也不會到外感意。
我與們 一群來自世界各地的旅客暢快地共晉晚，餐我們可以暢快交談，不會被Wi-Fi無線和網絡 流動電話訊號打斷。
翌日上午，我們乘坐滿佈塵埃的越野車回機到 場，轉乘飛機至達爾文，再回悉尼逗留數天。
坐在型格的Paramount Hotel酒啜店，飲不知名的美，酒 欣賞時尚Surry Hills區的一眾潮人。位於悉尼內城的Surry Hills區，正與布魯克林爭奪鬍子最長和手工藝發最達座的寶 。老實說，世上所有時尚酒吧已經開始變得式一 一樣，而我們到過的這三個地方，卻絕對、、絕對 絕對與別不同。
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本文作者在遊覽美灘麗海一段行程時向Hertz租用車輛。hertzmultibrand.com/ cathaypacific