The Wildflower Wanderer (7 Days)

Arrive early into Perth? The West Australian capital has some of Australia’s most happening lifestyle precincts, many filled with eye-popping street art, others with the kind of cafes you might expect to find on the streets of New York. Explore the city at your leisure before meeting fellow flower lovers for canapes as the sun sets over the mighty Swan River. Get set for a Western Australia tour full of colour and characters.

Settle in for a few hours of hypnotic coastal scenery on your tour from Perth as you make your way north to Kalbarri. All the wave gazing is thirsty work. Thankfully, family-owned Illegal Tender Rum Co. has a few quenching distillations prepared for your arrival. Go behind the scenes to glimpse how this distinctive sugar-cane-based spirit is made, sampling award-winning spiced rum (among others) while you wander between barrels with the owners. Lunch is served on the distillery’s deck overlooking dreamy fields, with each bite like Western Australia in a mouthful thanks to the owners’ close connections with local producers.

Some 400 million years ago, the Murchison River carved its way through Kalbarri National Park, leaving behind echo-inspiring gorges of red-and-white banded sandstone as well as soaring coastal cliffs. It’s quite the sight, and best taken in from a height. Enter the Kalbarri Skywalk, a precipitous projection 25 metres beyond the gorge rim and a dizzying 100 metres above the river. A different perspective is offered from the Hawk’s Head Lookout and Nature’s Window, the latter a natural rock arch that frames the gorge far below. The real reason you’re here, however, is for the wildflowers – more than 12,000 species carpet this part of the state, 60 per cent of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Some are hard to find, so tread lightly on this wildflower tour.