The 10 Best Coastal Escapes in Australasia

Bora Bora is a small volcanic island in the South Pacific surrounded by a technicolour lagoon of electric blues and greens enclosed within a coral reef.

The island's dramatic basalt peak, Mount Otemanu, rises 727 metres from the lagoon and is mirrored in the still waters below.

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, stretching 2,300 kilometres along the Queensland coast and visible from space.

Home to over 1,500 species of fish, 4,000 types of mollusc, and 600 types of coral, it is the largest living structure on earth and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Twelve Apostles are a collection of limestone stacks rising up to 45 metres from the Southern Ocean off the Port Campbell National Park on the Great Ocean Road.

Carved from the cliffs by erosion over millennia, they are most spectacular at sunrise and sunset when the low light turns the limestone golden.

Bora Bora's only public beach, a tapering spit of pale sand running out into a lagoon clear enough to see reef fish and passing rays from the shore.

Palms back the sand, and Mount Otemanu rises across the water behind it.

It is the free counterpoint to the island's resort strips, and the calm, shallow lagoon makes it one of the safest swimming beaches in the Pacific.

Jorn Utzon's Opera House is the building that gave a whole country its silhouette.

The white shells, actually more than a million cream and white tiles, change character constantly: blinding at noon, golden at sunset, glowing like lanterns at night.

Shoot it from Milsons Point on the Harbour Bridge side, from a ferry, or up close where the tiled geometry turns abstract.

Fiordland National Park in the South Island of New Zealand contains some of the world's most dramatic fjord scenery, carved by glaciers over millions of years.

Milford Sound, the most famous fjord, features vertical granite walls rising 1,200 metres directly from the water's surface, with waterfalls cascading down their faces.

The Great Ocean Road hugs 243 kilometres of Victoria's coastline, curling past golden surf beaches, sheer cliffs, and the wind-carved limestone stacks of the Twelve Apostles.

The route swings from crashing Southern Ocean views to fern-draped rainforest in Otway National Park.

Koalas doze in roadside eucalypts near Kennett River, and small surf towns like Lorne and Apollo Bay make easy overnight stops.

Bay of Islands is a sheltered stretch of Northland coastline scattered with around 144 subtropical islands, sandy coves and clear, sailable water.

Paihia and Russell serve as bases for game fishing, dolphin cruises and trips through the natural archway at Piercy Island, and the nearby Waitangi Treaty Grounds mark where New Zealand's founding document was signed in 1840.

It rewards a slower visit by boat rather than a quick stop on shore.

A pristine 7-kilometer beach in the Whitsunday Islands with powder-soft white sand made of 98% pure silica, and turquoise water shading a coral-fringed shoreline.

Reachable only by boat or seaplane, it remains genuinely remote despite its fame, with almost no development along its full length.

A sailing cruise through 74 islands scattered across the Great Barrier Reef's inner waters, anchoring off Whitehaven Beach's swirling silica sand and turquoise shallows.

Days mix snorkelling on fringing reefs, a walk up to the Hill Inlet lookout, and sunset drinks at anchor.

Multi-day catamaran and yacht trips are the standard way to see the outer islands, since most are uninhabited.

Conditions stay calm and tropical almost year-round.