and is only able to accommodate a handful of tourists.
If the idea of spending a night in almost complete isolation
moored to one of the seven wonders sounds appealing,
Doug Patterson from Fantasy Cruises hopes it will catch on.
Who do you think this concept is going to appeal to?
I'll appeal to anyone who loves the outdoors, the scuba divers,
the naturalist people who just love to sit out there solitarily.
Quite romantic too, isn't it?
Fairly romantic out here with the stars shining,
not too many birds whistling but no trees here, but very romantic.
Once everyone's gone, the feeling's a bit like being left alone
in a department store after closing.
The pontoon can cater for up to eight guests
and there's plenty to keep you busy.
Queensland Government approved pellets to feed the fish with.
Oh, he's a big boy.
As for the accommodation, this is one of two bedrooms,
each having four beds,
and just in case you feel the need to get closer to the reef,
the interior designer has supplied you with your very own coral quilt,
a coral cornice and some living, breathing art.
Very beautiful.
And depending on the time of year,
you may be lucky to catch up with some migrating families.
Yeah, she is just there.
That's the one right there, David.
There's a cow and a calf together.
And she's just sitting on the surface.
It looks like she's coming up now,
and the tail's coming up and down she goes.
Fantastic.
So where's she gone now? We won't see her for a while.
I'd say she'll be down for about four or five minutes
and then back up for another look.
We're only 100 metres off the pontoon, too?
Yeah, the reef well's just over there.
Now, the 300 people that visit the pontoon at any one time
usually queue up to use all these toys.
After hours, you have them all to yourself.
This has to be one of the best ways to see the reef.
That's the big picture.
The sub offers a close-up of this tiny world.
Well, the edge of the reef is right here.
It just drops right away.
You cannot see the bottom.
Now, I'm no great diver,
but if you're this close, you've got to take the plunge.
Find your power plate, a unit.
Tony is one of the diving instructors
who's going to ease my nerves.
And then we'll slip round and see George.
George is one of our enormous giant Queensland groepers,
and he's about eight foot in length.
Don't be frightened.
I'll just slip around behind you when we see him.
Don't you worry about that.
All right, we'll go. Let's go.
OK, let's do it.
Sure enough, George was waiting for us,
and luckily I'd given him a feed earlier on.
Now, getting that close to a fish dinner
that's twice as big as you are can give a man an appetite.
At dinnertime, you do have the option of either sitting here
with the pontoon crew,
whilst they tell lies about drinking and playing golf and fishing,
or you can do something more romantic, go upstairs,
and they assure me that they'll put on the tuxedo
and supply silver service, right?
Correct.
So, I'm going to go and get the fish.
I'm going to go and get the fish.
And then I'll get the silver service, right?
Correct.
Yeah, sure.
Here they come, a plane in the sky,
a boatload on the horizon, chock-a-block full of day trippers.
This can mean only one thing, the end of my peace and solitude.
Time for me to go.
The Reef World is operated by Fantasy Cruises at Hardy Reef,
north of the Whitsunday Islands.
An overnight dive snorkel package departing Shute Harbour
costs $350 per person
and includes accommodation, transfers, two dives,
diving instructor, meals and drinks.
Day trips for snorkelling at Reef World cost $119 per person.
The snorkel package is a free-for-all service
that's available to all passengers.
Reef World costs $119 per adult and $60 per child.
Scuba diving is at an additional cost.
Trips operate year-round.
It seems like every second week,
the camping world comes up with a new gizmo.
Now, some can tend to be a little bit gimmicky,
but these are an absolute godsend.
They're called seals, and basically they're a goateck sock
that you wear inside your boots but over your normal socks.
They're designed to let your feet breathe
while at the same time keeping any moisture out.
So your feet stay dry
no matter how much mud and water you stumble into.
When you get home, just wash and tumble dry them
and they're ready to go again.
Now, this pair I used in the Himalaya trekking for 18 months
through every kind of terrain imaginable.
Snow, mud, you name it, the works.
And I reckon they are just fantastic
and I seriously wouldn't go trekking without them.
The Seals waterproof sock inserts cost $56.95 a pair
and are stocked by mountain design stores around the country.
Tomorrow, the weekend starts at 6
with the inside footy story from those who know.
Michael Voss and Tim Horan's exclusive previews
plus Pipsy's on-deck at Stratty for the classic.
The Who's Who, only on National 9 News tomorrow at 6.
Dear BP, I've got an idea.
Wouldn't it be great if you had special trucks
that could turn into petrol stations?
Then we could buy what we need
and get to where we're going without stopping.
What do you think? Signed Tom.
Dear Tom, we like to keep people moving.
That's what our stations do.
As for special trucks, well...
Never say never.
BP, we keep you moving.
On Saturday, August 23, you could be painting the town red
because that's the night of Gold Lotto's incredible $12 million super draw.
And with $12 million, you could brush away all your worries.
So get ready to paint the town red and get your entry in now.
On Saturday, August 23, wouldn't it be nice to win $12 million?
Go around the new Kia Mentor SLX
and you'll see that at $15,990 all up, no more to pay.
It's the best value five-door hatch in Australia,
but only while stocks last.
Incredible? No, it's a...
Hee-yah!
Ah!
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No deposit on medicine bases, no deposit on bedroom furniture,
plus 12 months interest free on our entire range.
At Captain Snooze, we've got more bedroom scenes than Hollywood.
What's the difference between washing in this surf...
and this surf?
Money.
Surf 1.5 kilo now costs less for the same great performance.
Surf, now better value than ever.
This holiday cost me a pack.
Yeah? Yeah.
Me too.
Every packet of CSR white sugar gives you the chance to win the holiday of your dreams.
Plus, you'll find special offers in every pack.
Take off for more rides and attractions at Australia's favourite family theme park.
Only Dream World has the awesome Wipeout,
spectacular Tiger Island, all-day family entertainment
and now the amazing new Tower of Terror.
Plus 38 storeys high at up to 160 kilometres an hour
before free-falling backwards on the fastest, tallest ride in the world.
Only Dream World has more rides and attractions,
plus the mind-blowing Tower of Terror.
Just for fun.
The blue sky you ever seen are in Seattle
And the hills of the greenest green in Seattle
Like a beautiful child growing up free and wild
Full of hopes and full of fears
Full of laughter, full of tears
Full of dreams to last the years in Seattle
In Seattle, in Seattle
Welcome to Seattle, the place that has continually voted North America's most liveable city.
It's perfectly positioned right between the mountains and the sea
and it's the jet, the computer and of course the grunge capital of the world.
Boeing, Microsoft and the teen angst pop songs of Nirvana
have made Seattle a mecca for engineering bothlands and rock and roll zealots.
But perhaps its most famous export is a product of Hollywood.
That's Han House right there, that is the one they used in the film,
the movie Sleepless in Seattle.
The film that put the city's landmarks on the map
is a constant source of one-liners for tour guides.
Yes, Tom Hanks' butt was there.
Go, 10, 49 cents a pound.
The markets are the heart of this seaport
and we were assigned local radio man Rod Long to show us around.
Katrina, you cannot come to Bike Place Market and not experience what happens when you order a salmon.
Let me show you what happens.
We would like, we would like sir, a medium salmon.
You got it.
To go.
One medium salmon to go.
On the inside of the gourd.
I can't imagine what this does for the fish, but no one seems to mind.
These boys not only work the market during the day,
they masquerade as bullpen pitchers for the Seattle Mariners in the baseball season.
Get him out of here.
No!
Are you kidding me?
You don't have to try.
All right.
Seattle is such a sports mad town tonight.
The sport of choice is basketball.
The home team, Seattle Sonics versus Utah Jazz.
You can either pay about $50 and go and watch the game at the stadium, which is great,
or you can do what most of the locals do, go to your favorite bar and see it for free on the telly.
So on the shot clock, intense Seattle defense.
One second.
Oh no!
What Seattle has become famous for is its music.
The Soundcork Grunge, pioneered by Nirvana, the band that started here in the late 80s.
The Crocodile Cafe is a pretty hip live music club, but try not to mention grunge.
It was a phase.
I think even at the time you'd be really hard pressed to find someone in Seattle using the term grunge anyway.
These days you get the feeling Seattle is trying to leave its teenage days behind.
Now everybody is in a very good mood.
There's a big cocktail lounge scene going on.
There's also rockabilly and then your run of the mill alternative bands.
Music fads aside, Seattle is a clean and really sophisticated city.
To stay in its heart at a big four-star hotel like the Western will cost about $210 Australian a night.
If you're looking for something a little more low-key that's also pretty central,
a B&B like the Inn at the Market will cost you about $150 a night.
Music fads away.
No matter where you stay, you're never far from the smell of espresso.
One thing you can get in Seattle is a good coffee.
Ask any Seattleite where the coffee drinking capital of the world is and they'll tell you right here.
They're mad for it.
You can find coffee carts in petrol stations, in hardware stores, even in grocery stores.
And this is probably where the trend began.
Starbucks, my favorite, the best coffee.
This is the original store which opened 26 years ago.
Today there are over a thousand stores right around the world.
The locals have their own theory about why they drink so much of it.
Coffee makes you smarter, especially espresso.
Really? Why do you think that?
Well, you get your brain cells and your synapses going all the time
and your IQ goes up 10 to 20 points immediately.
Chuck Beak opened one of Seattle's first footpath coffee cups 17 years ago,
and some people say he pioneered the lingo.
Our specials today are a burnt cream latte, a white chocolate latte,
a Mexican latte or mocha, coconut mocha or a Milky Way mocha.
Now help me with the lingo. What is a tall nothing?
Well, a tall nothing would describe a decaf coffee and nonfat milk.
So no fat, no caffeine, nothing. Two dollars.
Maybe all the coffee Chuck drinks has made him smarter.
There you go. Thank you very much. You're certainly welcome. Cheers.
You can buy engines from General Electric, Pratt & Whitney or Rolls Royce.
The last thing on my Seattle checklist is an hour from the city,
but it's an absolute must-see, the enormous Boeing factory at Everett Field.
Wow. So big. It is absolutely huge.
You don't have to be into planes to appreciate how big this building is.
It's the biggest building in the world. You could fit 911 basketball courts in here.
Now I'm not a plane lover, and if it wasn't for Get Away,
I probably wouldn't have done this tour, but I'm glad I have. It's fascinating.
Guided tours of the factory are free, and you can't help but be gobsmacked by the size of these planes when you see them up close.
We're looking at about one-sixth of the total building.
This is our major assembly area. This is where the little pieces are made into big ones.
And straight across from us on the floor you see a wing.
The wing is the main fuel tank of a 747, well, of all our airplanes.
The wing will carry 17,000 gallons of fuel on a 747-400,
so it's important that the inside is cleaned and sealed before we attach it to the body of the airplane.
After seeing these 747s in bits, I don't know if I'm reassured or more nervous about flying.
It still amazes me that these things can actually get off the ground.
I wanted to go to Seattle for the music, but once you get here you realize there's so much more.
Maybe because it's developed up here on the northwestern tip of the U.S., it's quite different to the rest of the country.
It's a confident city around a beautiful harbor. I have to say I was really charmed by Seattle.
Canadian Airlines flies daily to Vancouver with connections to Seattle,
return airfare start at $1,859 per person from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
Perth and Adelaide viewers see your travel agent for details.
The world's on the edge of destruction and only one man can save them.
Even you will get grace fee, Christopher Reeve.
Christopher Reeve with a superstar cast in the original Box Office blockbuster.
Get around, don't you?
Keep a man, 8.30 Saturday on 9.
Right now at BP, if you feed a book muncher, you could win an awesome Sega Saturn system with Meg's TT Goat.
Oh, feed me a book now!
Hurry into a BP service station now.
How do you improve a car that has already won two Car of the Year awards?
You make it simply exhilarating.
You make it simply breathtaking.
You make it a joy to drive.
Introducing the all-new, fully imported Mazda 626.
It's simply better.
Frisky's feast.
Perfection.
Everyone feels lost sometimes, especially when it comes to tax.
That's why we've created the Taxpayers' Charter, a book of your rights and obligations so you'll know where you stand.
Call this number or ask for the nearest tax office for your free copy.
Have you felt the taste of snack-size fruit for fun?
Have you got PMT or something?
No! I'm angry!
If I had PMT, I'd do something about it.
I'd take starflower oil.
There's no better way than nature's way.
Your average bank home loan is about 30 years.
But with the new Heritage Mortgage Buster, you can fold your home loan time in half.
Why, in some cases, you can turn 30 years into about, oh, five years.
Remember, this isn't a bank home loan. It's new.
It's the Heritage Building Society Mortgage Buster.
Don't be trapped for 30 years. Heritage will tell you how.
Come on.
Phone the Mortgage Buster hotline now to find out how much you can save.
Sleigh night of the movies.
It's party time!
Kim Carey stars in The Mask.
Broken!
You won't believe your eyes.
The Mask.
8.30 Sunday on Channel 9.
A couple of years ago on Getaway, we showed you a greeter service in New York City.
Well, now we have our own in Melbourne, and it's only the second one in the world.
But with a little bit of Aussie know-how, we're doing it much better.
The greeter service, based in the town hall, aimed to pair you up with a buddy for the day.
Phone ahead and they'll find you someone with similar interests,
so you get to do what you like doing with the experienced eye of a local.
In my case, they chose Heather Jessel.
So here we've got everything that the first time visitor to Melbourne could possibly want.
We've got a whole range of brochures, but what really sets us apart is our multimedia area here.
So you can use this touch screen technology to find out about anything that you're interested in in Melbourne.
Welcome to Melbourne.
Alright, which one? Experience Melbourne?
The system gives you an electronic guide to what's on, what's what and what's where in a choice of six languages.
You can even try before you buy with these 360 degree postcards.
Block arcade and all its beautiful shops and lovely light fittings and superb mosaic floor.
That's great.
And food and wine looks like me.
And start with a coffee.
For the next two to four hours, I'll be seeing the best of Melbourne's city bars and coffee hangouts.
Look, I've brought you to this cafe because it's one of the main thoroughfares down to the station through Melbourne.
And this is a really arty, bohemian sort of cafe.
Heather and the 100 other greeters are volunteers and they're all enthusiastic and knowledgeable about their city.
The service is limited to the CBD, but there are plenty of stops along the way.
Melbourne has a very European feel with its cafe lights as well.
The big Italian and Greek community as you know, so they, I guess, I guess started it.
Fincontro is right in the heart of it all.
So that you can sit here at any time.
It's in fact a 24 hour cafe and we're right in the centre of the city.
So you can see all the passing parade and life going by.
What I like about the service is the personal touch.
You can team up with a few other people, but you're not herded around the city in a tour bus.
And all it need cost you is the wear and tear of your shoes and maybe the price of a tram ticket.
We call ourselves greeters because it's not a formal tour.
The emphasis is very much on showing a visitor our individual sort of view of Melbourne.
So I mean the visit is going to be different from greater to greater.
If you get May you'll have a different kind of visit to the sort of visit you get if you got one of the other greater.
So what part are we in now, Heather?
This is the banking and finance sector.
Right.
And we're off the business end of the city.
Having that local knowledge also means you get to find out some of Melbourne's secrets.
This one's tucked away amongst the suits and ties of the financial part of town.
It's a great way to finish the day with fine wine and cheese.
Cafes and restaurants aren't the only places you can go to.
Basically you can tailor make your day according to what you're interested in.
Everything from the arts to sport, even the best places to go shopping.
But whatever you do, don't call them tour guides.
You'll find the Melbourne Greeter Service and the City Experience Centre in the Melbourne Town Hall.
Both are free and operate seven days a week.
Shh. Be very, very quiet. I'm hunting platypus.
Ah.
Well, OK. It's not really much of a challenge.
The Yungaloo National Park near Mackay even has its own viewing platform
where the usually shy mammals put on a daily performance.
Why do they hang out here?
It's humane because it's the right soil type.
They build their burrows on the riverbank and also the water's permanent.
It never dries up.
Ross Courtney is District Ranger, but you won't usually find him here this early.
He leaves the morning vigil to tourists who don't mind braving the cool mountain dawn.
They're here all year round?
Yes, they are.
The best time to see them is probably in the winter months
and September through to October is their mating season.
And then about February the young platypus will emerge from the burrows
and that's not a good time as well.
These particular platypus have become so used to a human audience,
they go about their life totally unconcerned about prying eyes.
Ross, what's it over there?
I think it looks like two platypus mating.
Is it red?
It's the first time I've seen that in four years.
By the time most sane people are getting out of bed,
the platypus have retreated to their burrows,
leaving behind barely a trace of their morning show.
I've seen platypus in the wild before,
but I don't think I've seen so many as in this small area.
I counted eight individual platypus or one very active one.
Now my tip is to get here early and keep a sharp eye
because they're pretty quick.
To make it as painless as possible to rise to the occasion,
the park has cabins and camping right on the riverbank
and plenty of other attractions which you can see any time of day.
The Ungala National Park is an hour's drive west of Mackay.
Camping permits cost from $3.50 a night.
Rooms at the Broken River Retreat start from $55 a double,
and platypus spotting is free.
Coming up, a purple sea in Tasmania.
David travels deep into Lawrence of Arabia country
for one of the most striking sights in the Middle East.
And if the counter lunch is the most exciting thing at your pub,
you might want to try the Great Western.
All righty, poetry and motion.
Weather update proudly brought to you by Radiant Laundry Detergents.
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Good evening. Another perfect Queensland winter's day today.
Brisbane had 7 to 21.
Now tomorrow it'll be fine again, afternoon sea breezes and 10 to 22 degrees.
Looking ahead, little change,
remaining fine and warmer on Sunday, Monday with 25.
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You're cooled in your daily diet.
Provides enough beneficial bacteria
to help keep your digestive system balanced and working efficiently.
You're cooled. Have you had yours today?
Isn't it great that Queensland's Divine is now the largest Australian-owned house builder
and has paid the deposit for over 1,000 Queenslanders in the last 12 months?
Divine, pay the deposit, legals and stamp duty. Phone 13 11 29 now.
It's our 26th birthday, so come to the party.
You can buy a bulk buy of suede-back fabrics, mask clear for $7.95,
coated prints, $4.95, lace, $3.95.
Ready to hang curtains, save up to 40%.
These $69.
Beds spread under half price at the Curtin Wonderland birthday sale.
Look, have you got PMT or something?
No! I'm angry.
If I had PMT, I'd do something about it.
I'd take starflower oil.
There's no better way than nature's way.
Salon Selectives.
You know your day might get out of control.
But your hair doesn't have to.
Only Salon Selectives lets you mix and match your way to salon-beautiful hair.
Zoe takes charge with extra-moisturising shampoo and replenishing conditioner.
I mean, really, who needs a bad hair day?
Salon Selectives, like you've just stepped out of a salon.
Can three hopefuls make the grade...
Put your gun down now!
...and become police officers?
An ending you just won't believe.
When I woke up, they were pumping me.
And Lynne faces her biggest fear on Moment of Truth tonight online.
Thousands of years ago, this wadi, or valley here,
was part of the Silk and Spice trade route between Arabia and China.
During World War I, Lawrence of Arabia used this area as a base
from which he and the Arab army blew up trains
and were generally a nuisance to the ruling Ottoman regime.
They used the terrain as an effective refuge from the enemy.
These days, it's on the tourist route.
But you'll find no five-star hotels here.
If you want to experience wadi ram,
you'll have to forego some of life's little luxuries.
But don't let that put you off.
Lawrence of Arabia, he of the epic film,
the man who waged a guerrilla campaign with the Arabs against the Turks,
described this place as,
These stupendous hills.
It was here that he fell in love with the people and landscape
of this corner of Jordan,
with only a few places left where the magnificent Bedouin tribes
leave anything approaching their traditional lives.
The only thing that could be loosely described as a tourist facility
in wadi ram is the rest house.
But you don't come here for beautifully preserved ruins,
sound and light shows, or five-star swimming pools.
Wadi ram is about experiencing a landscape
that has seen 3,000 years of humanity fight, trade and swap stories.
These days they still have their camels,
but a Bedouin Toyota is a quicker way into the heart of this valley.
The four-wheel drive will take up to six passengers,
and with a bit of haggling, about $10 per head,
will get you out of the village and bumping over the sand.
As you can see, it's really very beautiful out here.
Very majestic rock formations,
a little bit reminiscent of the Kimberley region,
northwestern Australia, but it is very hot and very dusty.
It's worth investing in some of the local head gear.
The Arabs have been wearing them for thousands of years,
and they do keep the sun and sand off your face.
What's so unusual about this place?
The sand and sand off your face.
What's so unusual about Wadi Ram are the jettles or mountains
that rise from the valley floor up to about 1,800 metres.
Some peaks are capped with outcrops of whitish sandstone.
Others look like a cake that's been left out in the rain.
Over thousands of years, some of the rocks have eroded
to form dunes between the peaks.
If you can convince your driver to stop for a few minutes,
the dunes will help exercise those aching muscles
and stretch a few more.
MUSIC PLAYS
Yousef, local guide and downhill skier.
Yousef knows this valley well, and he and other Bedouins here
have become good tour guides.
Here you have a good example of a caravan sarai
of the Thamudic people who started here around the 3rd century BC.
And here you have a camel man just sitting off for the north
and leaving behind a message telling those who are following him
that he is heading north in his own dialect,
that is the Thamudic language.
It's a weird feeling to be looking at what's basically
2,000-year-old graffiti.
At its head, the sides of the valley become very steep,
and the country begins to look more like the cliffs surrounding Petra
that we brought you a couple of weeks ago.
In fact, Petra was the next stop
for most of the caravans heading east.
It looks isolated now, but the caravans coming through here
left bulletin boards for other traders who would follow,
and are still etched into the rock.
In the last days of the First World War,
T.E. Lawrence and the Arab armies he was with
hid here between launching raids on the Turks who ruled Jordan at the time.
There's no doubt about it, you do bang around on your bum
in the heat and the dust, and it's not very comfortable,
it's not a very crumbed desert experience,
it's not supposed to be comfortable.
And if you're the kind of tourist that returns home
with thousands of snapshots that are not very good,
then everywhere you look here is a snapshot
that is going to thrill your relatives.
The scenery is part lunar landscape, part Kimberley,
and part molten chocolate taut.
It's important to be aware of a couple of things if you come here.
To avoid the heat, take these safaris either in the early morning
or in the late afternoon.
We went in the latter part of the day,
so it's quite late when you get back to the rest house.
You should stay overnight.
Most of the day-trippers are gone,
which leaves plenty of room in the $5 a night two-person tents.
There's also a shower and toilet block,
but this isn't luxury camping.
What is a surprise is the food.
A Jordanian version of a smorgasbord will cost you about $12.
Expensive for these parts,
and it's not too bad.
I suppose the advantage of how primitive this place is
is that it still retains much of the loneliness and isolation
that those early caravan drivers would have encountered.
And unlike so many places made famous by history,
here the words of T.E. Lawrence still resonate.
Our little caravan fell silent,
afraid to flaunt itself in front of these stupendous hills.
Wadi Rum is about a four-hour drive south of Amman in Jordan.
Adventure World has six-day, five-night packages in Jordan
with a tour to Wadi Rum starting at $884 per person twin-share,
including accommodation, breakfasts and transfers from Amman.
Egypt Air flies twice a week to Amman via Cairo.
Return airfare starts at $1,600 per person
from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
Adelaide and Perth viewers, check with your travel agent for details.
Don't forget, if you've seen a place on the show tonight
that you've always wanted to go to,
you could win a trip there in our BP competition
and take the whole family with you.
To enter, spend $10 at any participating BP service station.
Get an entry form stand,
nominate your getaway destination from tonight's show
and drop your entry in the mail.
You might like the idea of Seattle,
staying overnight on the barrier reef
or, if you're a bit more adventurous, Wadi Rum in Jordan,
where we just saw David roaming around.
The prize includes five nights' accommodation
and return flights for two adults and up to three children.
There are three weeks left in the competition.
Remember, you can win any holiday you see on the show
over the rest of August.
We'll announce the week one winner at the end of tonight's show.
Good luck.
Sunday, join Malcolm Douglas on his around Australia adventure.
Well worth the trip.
The spectacular wetlands teeming with wildlife
and the ancient beauty of the bungal bungles.
You might even spot a fossil.
Our World Beyond Highway 1 Sunday on 9.
Dear BP, I've got an idea.
Wouldn't it be great if you had special trucks
that could turn into petrol stations?
Then we could buy what we need
and get to where we're going without stopping.
What do you think?
Sign Tom.
Dear Tom, we like to keep people moving.
That's what our stations do.
As for special trucks, well, never say never.
BP, we keep you moving.
If you hurry into Woolworths,
you can grab a great special to end the week.
Cans of Kirksoft drinks are only 33 cents,
save 25 cents.
At this price, you can start the weekend with some real fizz.
Australia's Woolworths, the fresh food people.
At Captain Snooze, you'll be laughing
with no deposit and 12 months interest free.
No deposit on mattress and bases,
no deposit on bedroom furniture,
plus 12 months interest free on our entire range.
At Captain Snooze,
we've got more bedroom scenes than Hollywood.
McCormick helps you bring home a world of flavour.
Hyundai invites you to their 200,000 sale celebration.
Immediate delivery on the powerful 1.5 litre fuel injected XL Sprint.
Big on fuel efficiency and space, still just $13,990 drive away.
And Hyundai's 3-year warranty, so celebrate now.
You spend hours on the outside.
What about spending five minutes on the inside?
New Nestle LC-1 Yoghurt has a unique active culture
to help reinforce your body's natural balance.
New Nestle LC-1 Yoghurt works wonders on the inside.
Saving teenagers from suicide.
These kids are dying from sadness.
The plague that's killing eight kids every week.
It's a story to ring alarm bells in every family.
You said I'm serious, kill yourself with me.
On 60 Minutes, Sunday.
My friends have been telling me for years
that I ought to have my head read,
given half the places I end up on getaway.
Well, I'm finally having a brain test.
But it's not to find out whether I've got a brain or not,
it's to find out if my stress levels manage to decrease
over the next few days.
Now if you're thinking,
how can someone who works on a holiday program be stressed,
well, we've brought along a more likely candidate, Jackie Sayer.
Our fantasy getaway winner this week is in the super stress zone.
She's about to do her higher school certificate.
This weekend away starts at the Anchorage Resort at Port Stephens.
And what we're about to experience is supposed to be so life-changing
that tour operator William McDougall probes the minds
of all his customers to get a before snapshot
of just how tense they are.
So what we're looking at here is your brainwave patterns.
And the blue here, which is fairly high, shows the amount of stress.
What's going to make the big difference?
Well, get ready for a bit of new age psychology
because we're going to find the dolphin within.
William is one of the founders of the Dolphin Within Society
and believes in the calming and healing powers of an encounter
with these gentle mammals.
Hello.
This is Olivia.
Hi, Olivia.
William and Olivia have been getting inside people's heads
for about three years, and they're convinced that there's a correlation
between dolphins and stress.
What we realize is that when people are with a dolphin,
especially over two days, living with them and swimming with them,
they reach a state of freedom.
So they can be free of stress and free of fear.
For Jackie, having the freedom to scan the water
instead of a textbook is a pretty good start.
Everyone keeps reminding me, you know, if I don't pass, you know,
you're not going to have a chance to have a really good job
or anything like that.
And so you get really tensed up about the fact that everyone's reminding you
constantly every day that you've got to do well.
Guests are encouraged to find their own dolphin within.
And if that sounds far-fetched, try looking a little deeper.
Dolphins really know how to have a good time.
Well, you know, the dolphins spend one-third of their time playing,
one-third of their time eating, and one-third of their time making love.
Fantastic!
I really want to find the dolphin within now.
We found some in the water instead.
Look, look, look.
Can you see the big splash?
Yes.
Dolphin.
Over there.
Where are they?
They're right in front.
Here they come.
Woo-hoo!
Wow!
Oh, thank you!
To make the most of the dolphin experience,
it's best to get in the water with them.
Wet suits, snorkelling or scuba gear are available for hire.
Woo-hoo!
Unfortunately, when the dolphins are playing,
the games usually hide and seek, and we didn't even get close.
The chilly midwinter water of Port Stephens didn't help with the stress levels either.
The Sirius returns to its birth at the anchorage overnight,
and guests can bunk on board or pay extra and stay in the resort.
Either way, everyone has access to the resort's facilities and their test results.
Despite only a near-dolphin experience on the outside,
the brainwave monitor seemed to indicate that we may have gotten closer to that other dolphin, the one within.
So, Jackie, on your graph, you're producing a lot more red,
which is the relaxed brainwave pattern, after than you were before.
And it was a bit like that with yours as well, Cyril,
as you can see you've got more red as well and a little bit more of the yellow coming in too.
I must have been asleep on the last test.
Well, the brain tests do show that both Jackie and I managed to de-stress over the weekend,
and I am sure that Jackie would attribute that to being with the dolphins instead of thinking endlessly about schoolwork.
But for me, it was just being out on the water.
I can't think of very many other ways that I can relax that easily.
It was just a fantastic weekend.
Port Stephens is 220 kilometres north of Sydney.
A two-day, two-night dolphin society experience, including food and accommodation on the boat, is $300 per person.
The trips run every second weekend.
Lavender is used as an antiseptic to help in cuts and burns to prevent scarring and to heal quickly.
It's also a very strong relaxant to help you make your sleep,
or if you've got headaches, to put some of your temples,
and if you've got sore muscles and joints to massage it on, to help ease that.
So there's obviously more to this plant than just a pretty smell, and this is a good place to learn about it.
It's the largest lavender farm in the southern hemisphere.
Brittistowe State Lavender Farm is just an hour from Launceston.
Every December and January, the hills of Nabila become a blossoming carpet of purple.
And while the lavender is being harvested, guides like Judith Anderson run short tours around the farm.
So Judith, what's the history of this place?
Well, the seeds were brought from the French Southern Alps in 1921.
And what is the lavender mainly used for?
Mainly in perfumeries.
Where do you export to?
Mainly to Europe, America and Japan are the biggest ones.
Lavender is steamed into the purest of oils in a painstaking process overseen by manager Gary Cassidy.
So how many plants would it take to generate this much oil?
That would take 800 adult plants to generate 3 litres.
That beaker nearly full.
And of course, the farm sells almost every lavender product imaginable, plus a few surprises.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Have a short bread.
Didn't think of that, did you?
Brutus Stover State Lavender Farm is at Nabila, an hour's drive northeast of Launceston.
Tours cost $3 and run only during harvesting in December and January,
but the farm is open to visitors any time between September and May.
The past comes to life.
Have you had some boyfriends?
In a night of surprises.
We're only after the 70s.
Who'll be next on This Is Your Life?
That's a way to...
Right now at BP, if you feed a book muncher, you could win an awesome Seager Saturn system with Meg's TT game.
Oh, baby, a book now!
Hurry into a BP service station now.
The
Kleenex toilet tissue has always been soft.
Now we've made it even softer.
The
new Kleenex toilet tissue, the softest ever.
Even if you have a healthy diet, things like stress, natural aging and overindulgence
can cause an imbalance of bacteria in the digestive system.
You're caught in your daily diet, provides enough beneficial bacteria to help keep your digestive system balanced and working efficiently.
You're caught.
If you had yours today.
The comic helps you bring home a world of flavor.
Hey, everything in nature can do with a little help now and again.
And as it gets harder to make my skin look good, I'll take all the help I can get.
Ponds night replenishing cream with evening primrose oil and liposomes with vitamin E gives a firmer, more revitalized appearance
by replenishing your skin's moisture overnight when it's most receptive.
I didn't know I could do so much with my eyes closed.
On a current affair, the stories that sell millions
Oh really? Sounds good. Okay.
behind the scenes with the gossip columnists.
My job is telling the truth.
They make it up.
As they pursue the rich and the fat.
The golden rule is never to check the fat.
Tomorrow 6.30.
Believe it or not, some Friday nights, this pub attracts up to 800 people.
The locals reckon it's because of the cowboys out the back.
But I reckon that's a load of.
Making a buck in the hotel business isn't easy.
So when Terry O'Hanlon bought Rockhampton's Great Western Hotel,
he knew he had to come up with something more exciting than karaoke to get the crowds in.
I thought if we were going to have a pub with a difference, we'd put bull rides at the pub.
And if you're going to do that, the best place to do it would be Rockhampton.
Bulls next slide to the front and outside. Hamish Mundell.
The former cattle farmer puts on 20 rodeos a year in the pub's backyard.
And with $2,000 prize money, there's no shortage of cowboys willing to give it a go.
What these guys have to do is stay on for at least eight seconds, holding on with only one hand.
And as soon as they hit the dirt, they've got to get out of there as quickly as possible.
Tell me why you guys get out there and do such a crazy thing. It looks pretty frightening.
It's for the money.
Is that true?
Yeah, lots of money.
What is it that draws you to it?
Oh, it gets you away from your girlfriend for a while.
Whatever motivates the riders, the audience loves the show.
It's well organised with plenty of seating and even corporate boxes for those who don't want to get too close to the action.
And despite what you might expect, the crowd is really well behaved.
Not often that you can get to take the kids out, like, on a Friday night.
And here they're not in the bar. They're out here, they're next to the bulls.
They enjoy themselves. It's a good night out.
He's off.
Straight up the fence. It's seriously dangerous, isn't it?
Oh, it's a hell of an occupation. Better than them than me.
They get knocked about.
They're tough boys.
I'm just scared for them, actually.
If you fancy yourself as a bit of a cowboy, you have to pay $60 to enter.
But if you want to ride these bulls, you will need some experience.
You want to be a cowboy when you grow up?
No way.
Why?
I can get head!
The Great Western Hotel is in Rockhampton.
The rodeo costs $5 for spectators.
There are about 20 rodeos on a year, and the next one is on the 29th of August.
Every week about this time, we bring you the very best,
the really hot travel deals, like this one to China.
If you book a tour of China with Destination International,
you'll get free return airfares to Shanghai or Beijing worth $1,100.
The tours include twin-share accommodation, rail and boat transport,
sightseeing, guides and most meals.
Prices range from $899 for a five-day tour
to $5,995 for a 26-day tour.
This special deal is available to 300 Getaway viewers
on tours departing September 14 to November 13,
but you must pay in full by September 1.
Call Destination International on 03 9670 5966 to book.
And finally tonight, a great discount on a holiday to the north coast of New South Wales.
Byron Bay Beach Club is offering 30 viewers,
two nights accommodation plus continental breakfasts,
for two adults and two children at just $160.
You save $150.
The special discount is valid until the end of October,
but excludes school holidays.
Call 066 685 8000 to book.
Getaway's hot deals have places put aside for viewers in central and western regions
affected by time differences.
If you'd like any further information on those deals
or any story you've seen on tonight's program,
then your options are numerous.
You can call us on 1902 210 210.
You can write to us at PO Box 50 Willoughby New South Wales 2068
or you can use our phone fax service on 1902 210 002.
And you'll find even more at getaway.com.au, our internet site.
And finally, don't forget our BP Dream Family Getaway Competition.
Get your entries in and give yourself a chance to win a holiday
to any destination you've seen on tonight's program.
And in the meantime, have a great week and we'll see you next Thursday night.
And we'll see you next Thursday night.