The 18 Most Breathtaking Natural Wonders 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.

Uluru is a 348-metre monolith of rust-red sandstone rising sheer out of the Central Australian desert, sacred to the Anangu people.

It performs twice daily, smouldering orange at dawn and deepening to violet after sunset, and the colour show alone justifies the pilgrimage.

Up close, the base walk reveals waterholes, rock art and lush pockets of desert life.

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.

Aoraki/Mount Cook is New Zealand's highest peak at 3,724 metres, rising above the Mackenzie Basin surrounded by glaciers and turquoise lakes.

The Hooker Valley Track provides one of the most accessible and rewarding walks in the country, leading to views of the mountain across three swing bridges.

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.

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 single willow stands alone in the shallows of Lake Wanaka, backed by the Southern Alps - improbable, minimalist, and famous well beyond New Zealand.

The lake itself is a vast glacier-carved expanse ringed by mountains, with lakeside walks and the Roys Peak track nearby for anyone wanting more than a quick stop.

Still water at dawn doubles the tree in near-perfect reflection.

Rotorua is a North Island city built on an active geothermal field, where steaming vents, mud pools and geysers push up through public parks and backyards alike.

It is also the centre of Maori cultural tourism in New Zealand, with performances, carved meeting houses and hangi feasts at Te Puia and Whakarewarewa.

Beyond the thermal activity there is mountain biking, lake swimming and forest walks, worth more than a single day's stop.

Named after the Afghan cameleers who once helped open up Australia's interior, The Ghan runs nearly 3,000km from Darwin to Adelaide through the dead centre of the continent, crossing the red desert around Alice Springs and Uluru's outback region over two to three days.

Off-train excursions into the MacDonnell Ranges and Katherine Gorge break up the journey.

New Zealand's best-known Great Walk runs 53.

5km through Fiordland from Lake Te Anau's Clinton Valley, over the alpine Mackinnon Pass, down to Milford Sound.

Along the way are hanging valleys, the country's tallest waterfall at Sutherland Falls, and dense temperate rainforest.

Only 40 independent walkers a day are allowed onto the one-way trail, and hut bookings for the season sell out within minutes.

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.

A limestone cave system with an underground river, reachable only by boat across Lake Te Anau.

Deep inside, a grotto ceiling is studded with thousands of glowworms, their bioluminescent threads creating a silent, star-like constellation in total darkness.

A pair of small roadside lakes on the drive to Milford Sound that reflect the surrounding peaks and tussock grassland with near-perfect clarity on calm mornings.

A short boardwalk loop makes them one of the easiest stops on the whole Fiordland route.

A vast field of parallel red sand dunes stretching across central Australia's outback, crossed by one of the country's classic 4x4 adventure routes via the notoriously steep Big Red dune outside Birdsville.

The dunes run in improbably straight lines for hundreds of kilometres, turning deep crimson at sunset against a sky with almost zero light pollution.

Crossing it is a genuine expedition, not a casual day out - self-sufficiency and proper 4x4 preparation are essential.

An hour from Adelaide, the Barossa Valley is home to some of the world's oldest continuously producing Shiraz vines, some planted in the 1840s by German and Silesian settlers who brought Lutheran church architecture and winemaking traditions that still shape the valley's small towns.

Historic stone wineries give the region a rustic, unhurried character.

A converted 19th-century railway line runs 150km through Central Otago's high-country landscape, crossing viaducts and old tunnels between Clyde and Middlemarch.

Riders pass abandoned stone stations, schist rock outcrops and wide tussock valleys with barely another soul in sight.

Most riders spread the flat, gravel trail over four or five days, staying in small towns like Ranfurly and Naseby along the way.

At the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island, Marlborough produces the majority of the country's wine and put New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc on the world map with its distinctively intense, herbaceous style.

Vineyards spread across the flat Wairau Valley floor, framed by forested hills separating the region from the Marlborough Sounds' waterways.