Australasia Travel Guides & Information

Tucked away beneath the equator’s bulge and consigned to the bottom corner of most world maps, if you didn’t know any better you might assume the world’s smallest continent to be a place of quiet insignificance. But this is Australasia. Here, the words ‘quiet’ and ‘insignificant’ don’t apply.

This is the canvas on which Mother Nature decided to paint some of her most spectacular creations, from the ancient glaciers that crawl across New Zealand to the parched, impermeable scrublands of Australia. Some, like the bubbling furnaces of Fiji’s volcanoes, are still works in progress, whereas others, like the arid mass of Ayers Rock, are very much finished. Some are alive, like the Great Barrier Reef, the largest living organism on the planet, whereas others seem to be in a deep sleep, like the silent beauty of Milford Sound.

Man has done his best to steal the show. He dreamt up the iconic concertinaed hoods of the Sydney Opera House, erected the sky-piercing spike of Auckland’s Sky Tower, and established the world’s first commercial bungee jump in Queenstown. But ultimately this is a continent that belongs to her.

• The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living thing, 2027km long
• Australasia is the world’s smallest continent.
• New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, is the southernmost capital city in the world.
• Victoria is home to the world’s longest earthworm, measuring up to 4 metres.
• There are an estimated 40 million kangaroos in Australia.