5 reasons you don't want to miss Floriade 2017

Canberra's fabulous flower show known as Floriade will transform the nation's capital this Spring as the city bursts into bloom for the festival's 30th anniversary year. Here are five reasons you need to celebrate Australia's premier spring celebration.

There will be surprises around every corner
This year's Floriade will feature amazing works of art that are set to transform Canberra’s Commonwealth Park. The masterpieces have been created by a mix of local and national talent, using everything from natural stone through to repurposed plastic. There will also be amusement park rides designed to give visitors a bird's eye view of the flowers.

The inaugural twilight concert will celebrate this year's 30th anniversary of Floriade.

This year's celebration will include an inaugural twilight concert
To celebrate three decades of being in bloom, this year's Floriade will include an open air musical performance by The David Bowie Tribute band, which is to supported by the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. This ticketed event offers an exclusive opportunity for visitors to see the 2017 flowerbed designs before the gates officially open the next morning.

A walk of art... Floriade will explode in a riot of colour to mark the change of seasons in 2017

Floriade embraces four-legged fun
On Saturday, October 14, dog lovers will be able to bring along their four-legged friends as Floriade's popular Dogs' Day Out returns.  

There will be so much to see and do for children at this year's Floriade 2017.

Kids will be kept happy
Floriade offers something for the whole family in 2017 with an impressive roster of activities for children designed to encourage them to stop and smell the tulips, explore, discover and play. The kiddie-friendly activities on offer include hands-on cooking demonstrations and circus workshops.

Floriade is a celebration that will surprise and delight the entire family.

This year's Floriade 2017 will be held from September 16 until October 15 at Commonwealth Park, Canberra. Visit floriadeaustralia.com for more details

Five of the best places to Instagram autumn in Australia

Mt Tomah in the Blue Mountains' Botanic Garden puts on a spectacular autumn display each year. Image: Supplied

Take a swathe of perennials, a few arches of trees ablaze in copper and orange tones and throw in a few perfectly placed park benches and you have yourself a happy place. After a stroll through the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mt Tomah, you can gaze across the valley, which has pockets of vivid copper and red foliage. The hatted Tomah Gardens Restaurant is a great place to enjoy a kaleidoscope of autumn colours and enjoy all the region has to offer. Time your visit to coincide with the annual Leura Harvest festival. Click here for some Insta inspo. 

Fall's gold: Canberra turns on a riot of red, gold and yellow during autumn.

Autumn in Canberra is every bit as stunning as it looks. The beauty of doing some leaf-spotting in the national capital is that it's so easy to get amongst it. The bike lanes in Canberra are one of the best things about the city and the vast parks, nature strips and tree-lined streets make it one of the best locations to peep at #leafporn.  Book in to a Mushrooms and Minibeasts Family Walk at Canberra's Arboretum in the April school holidays, which includes a hike through the Himalayan cedar forest. See Visit Canberra for inspiration.

Treehuggers unite at Centennial Park in the centre of Sydney. Image: Chris Gleisner

The woodlands of Centennial Park in the heart of Sydney, NSW, can be easily covered on foot, skates or pushbike. Picking one must-see spot is a challenge but circumnavigate the park and you are sure to satisfy your urge for some seasonal leaf spotting. Strolling around this park is such a peaceful way to celebrate the season and bid farewell to summer. Make the most of the great outdoors in the milder weather and book in an outdoor movie at Moonlight. BYO blanket.

Moss Vale Garden is one of the jewels in the Southern Highlands' crown. Image: Destination NSW

Walk around the historic township of Moss Vale before veering off the path and finding your very own Highland hideaway. Leighton Gardens are situated in the heart of town and perfectly situated for family picnics. The best fall foliage happens at the start of the season. Visit Southern Highland Food and Wine Clusters for inspiration. One for the calendar is the Festival of the Roast Autumn Foodie Field Day at The Loch, Berrima

Hunter haunt has the EXP. factor

Husband-and-wife team Frank and Emma Fawkner are forging their own path at EXP. Restaurant.

EXP. Restaurant's head chef Frank Fawkner is visibly proud of the ground he stands on. After spending the last four years working as head chef at Muse Restaurant, the ambitious young chef has taken some of what he has learnt from his friend and mentor Troy Rhoades-Brown and blended it with his own ambitions at the Oakvale Winery restaurant he opened with wife Emma in March.

Head chef Frank Fawkner is focused on giving diners a memorable EXP.erience at EXP.

The warmth that radiates from this happy couple seems to have been infused into the space and the reasons why the new eatery should be on the list of must-visit Hunter locales are many and varied: take the custom-made tables, the white-on-wood decor, the colour-coded crockery, whip-smart wine list, original artworks and general attitude of the warm and friendly staff led by restaurant manager Danielle Doffay.

Everything from the staff aprons to the bespoke plates, artworks and furniture has been well thought out.

"I feel that dining at a restaurant should be about everything - from fabulous food and wine, to the music, service, art, painting, crockery, aromas, furniture and fit-out," says Fawkner.

Frank Fawkner can be found fossicking in the vegetable patch ahead of service at EXP. 

Of course, great restaurants rely on more than just a fab fit-out and bespoke furnishings, and a quick glimpse of the menu, which is divided into Food from the Earth, Sea, Land and Sky, Cheese and Sweets, is a good starting point when it comes to understanding the EXP. factor.

Oakvale Winery has become even more of a destination with the addition of EXP.

Fawkner was part of the team led by Rhoades-Brown that helped the acclaimed restaurant achieve two-hat-status in The Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Guide 2015. As with Muse, part of the EXP. theatre is watching the 27-year-old chef in the galley-style kitchen as he calmly presides over food from a menu that is totally responsive to the seasons.

Head chef Frank Fawkner prevails over the pass with a Zen-like calm. 

The key to the EXP. concept is authenticity, and the reason the place feels so real is that diners get a sense that the team - both front- and back-of-house - seem to genuinely love what they do. As fans of Fawkner's work at Muse will recognise, the chef's inspiration is rooted in regional produce, some of which is grown just metres from the entrance to the restaurant.

Diners are encouraged to pulverise their own herbs to add to the butter for house-made focaccia.

The first dish to arrive at our table is so fresh that it certainly enlivens and amuses our bouches. It's a mortar and pestle brimming with fresh herbs from the garden beds where Fawkner is seen fossicking ahead of service.

The just-picked herbs have been blasted with liquid nitrogen, which spills like a storm front over the rim of the mixing bowl before dissipating. It's a magical act one, scene one, as we are handed the pestle and invited to pulverise the herbs at the table, mix them with house-churned butter and then spread liberally over a fresh spongey cube of just-baked focaccia.

EXP. menu reads like a love letter to the land, with some ingredients grown metres from the restaurant door.

Like much of Fawkner's menu, the dishes are both innovative and earthy.  Fawkner takes his inspiration from the techniques he has learnt everywhere from the UK - where he worked as sous chef under Tom Aikens at Tom's Kitchen - to Australia. Fawkner describes working at Muse as a defining moment of his career, and says Rhoades-Brown was a great mentor, fast-tracking his career when he appointed him head chef in 2013.

From the earth: house-made haloumi, heirloom tomato, manzanillo olive and herbs.

While the chef is quick to pay tribute to his good friend, he says he is also thrilled to be at the helm of his own restaurant in the thick of NSW's most famous wine-producing region.

"Working at Muse was a great platform for me to develop as a chef. Being part of the team when Muse Restaurant reached two hats also gave me a hunger to find my own voice. I really look up to Troy. I aspire to be like him. He's cool, calm and humble and he's taught me everything I need to know. Where a lot of chefs might just wave you goodbye, Troy has been an open book when it comes to helping me set up EXP." he says.

From the land and sky: chorizo-spiced bacon, chickpeas, spiced broth and lemon. 

The philosophy behind EXP. is on the experience. While Fawkner and Rhoades-Brown both favour a similar contemporary style of cooking, EXP. embraces a more pared-back rustic approach, with less components on the plate. The chef also aims to give the freedom of choice back to the diner so there is no menu, no set order of dishes. Instead, the diner can curate their own adventure on a plate and choose from a range of exceptional dishes that read like a love letter to the land.

Chef's signature dish: black garlic risotto, cauliflower, pyengana cheddar and nasturium.

One of the dishes that most excites is the black garlic risotto with cauliflower, cheddar and nasturtium. It is black and white with nice fresh green leaves.

It's ham on toast, but not as you know it. with duck and macadamia on focaccia

From the Land and Sky section, the ham on toast with duck, focaccia, fig, macadamia and mizuna also tells a story about what Fawkner is about. Sweet tooths will also go nuts for the dark chocolate shell, basil parfait and passionfruit gel, basil jellies and caramelised chocolate, one of Fawkner's signature desserts at Muse.

Chef Frank Fawkner plating up with precision at the pass at EXP. Restaurant.

If you fail to snag a ticket to one of the wine events at the Hunter Valley Wine & Food Month, console yourself with a booking at EXP. 1596 Broke Rd, Pokolbin. + 61 4998 7264. If you would like to view the full program for the Hunter Valley Wine and Food Month in June, click here.

Warm blue cheese, brioche, honey and marigold falls under the Cheese heading.

Carla Grossetti was a guest of The Hunter Valley Wine Country.

Hazelhurst Cafe: the ace of spades

Gymea has found its groove thanks in part to the efforts of chef James Watson, who is now gripping the reins at Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe and giving the 'burb a big giddy-up. Watson is like a rock 'n roll version of Jamie Oliver. And he's brought a bit of that 'oright geezer' grit to Gymea, in Sydney's Sutherland Shire.

Chef James Watson has upped the ante in the Shire.

Watson's Bay
For those who don't know much about the English-born chef, he first earned his culinary chops working under Gordon Ramsay, at Aubergine, and then St John Restaurant in London where it seems he was also prepped in the art of peppering a kitchen with expletives.

The 38-year-old migrated to Australia in 2002 where he quickly gained attention at Balmain's Riverview Hotel. He has since earned a lot of cred for being one of the first of the city's award-winning chefs to look at Sydney's outer suburban strips anew.

After Watson opened the Peacock Trattoria in 2010 in a non-descript smear of shops in Kyle Bay he shifted his gaze to Gymea, with the launch of the Italian Stallion and Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe in August 2014.

The 'cock' as I like to call it, is one of my all-time fave neighbourhood bistros in Sydney and I was beyond happy when I heard the chef's culinary aspirations had crossed Tom Ugly's Bridge. The fact Gymea is just 20 minutes' drive from my home in Cronulla is also a beautiful thing.

The Italian Stallion has helped give Gymea a leg-up in the culinary stakes.

Giddy-up Gymea
The Husband and I were so excited about the arrival of The Italian Stallion Bar and Griglia we galloped there a week after it opened. We both loved how deliciously New York divey and vibey it was and were impressed with our Planet of the Grapes mojitos followed by a few glasses of riesling and the chef's signature duck salad and divine crab linguine. The service from restaurant manager Fabio was also fabulous. So much has been done to rejuve the Stallion since then that it deserves a return visit in the the next few months, when the renovations are complete. (Watch this space.)

Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe has helped Gymea find its groove. 

From garden fork to plate
Now for the heads-up on Hazelhurst. Thanks to Watson - who was also responsible for the recent reworking of the Seawall Restaurant in Walsh Bay - the gallery cafe has benefitted from more than a few tweaks. The new design is rustic and real and references the garden aspect with a feature wall of vintage tools, communal tables that could double as work horses, tin tubs spilling with flowers and well-placed branches, lemons and pineapples providing many points of sculptural interest.

Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe now takes advantage of its location, overlooking a sprawling garden.

The newly rejuvenated Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe is now a place to linger longer.

Art and about
Taking pride of place inside the cafe is a mural by Mulga the Artist that is based on a caricature of the Italian Stallion's Fabio. The character is wearing sunglasses that frame the pass where the chefs peep out onto the floor and it sets the tone of the new cafe, mainlining it with personality. It doesn't matter where you sit, Fabio is there, wearing hot pink frames, glowering at you, challenging you not to be impressed. Watson's notion - to make the gallery cafe a cool place to stay and hang - has paid off. In fact, it's a trademark of his eating houses that you don't want to leave.

Heading them off at the pass is a mural painted by Mulga The Artist.

Perfectly potty
What I really love about the new-look cafe, which was fairly staid in its former life, is that the pensioners in sensible shoes and cardigans feel as welcome as the couples with young kids tumbling about on the lawn next to arty hipsters and locals looking smug that Gymea has lifted its game. It's also fantastic that it's drawing more and more people to the first-rate exhibitions on show in the gallery space next door.

Shear genius - the cafe has been reworked and is now both rustic and refined.

Hello pumpkin
The cafe is an all-day dining affair serving breakfast and lunch until 4pm each day and the menu itself taps into the zeitgeist in that it's food we want to eat. Expect proper ballsy cooking with breakfast options such as Persian pumpkin pancakes, haloumi, dukkah, egg, herbs and Syrian chook or the Big Breakfast Bruschetta, with poached eggs, bacon, herbed mushroom and tomato.

Scones with jam and cream served in pretty terracotta pots.

For all those in-betweeners
There is also an in-between menu with scones with berry jam and double cream served in cute terracota pots and a tempting kids' menu of chicken schnity and chips, quesadilla or fish 'n' chips all served with a nudie popper and seasonal fruit.

House-baked muffins and friands are the order of the day.

Hello ducky
Although the 'cock's signature crispy duck salad, with nectarine, hazelnuts, witlof, watercress, radicchio and vino cotto makes a cameo on the lunch menu, diners are enticed to branch out with solid options such as Tuscan panzanella salad, heirloom tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, crisp bread, baby basil, tomato vinaigrette designed to thrill. As for the reuben sandwich filled with corned beef cooked with golden syrup and malt vinegar, Swiss cheese, pickles, red cabbage and onions? Out. Of. Control.

The reuben sandwich is reason enough to visit the Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe.

There's a song in my art
Hazelhurst Gallery has always been a hot local spot, with major exhibitions, art classes and markets. Now the cafe also deserves attention in its own right, as does James Watson who has made the Shire a better place than when he arrived. Now, head chef Sarah Marsh's ingredient-led menu sits comfortably alongside tidbits 'foraged' from the garden and the mains look like they've riffed with Mulga on how to pull off being a key player.

Breakfast muesli and fresh fruit and yoghurt in a jar ... what a perfectly poised start to the day.

It's elementary, dear Watson
"What I've tried to create is an upbeat, funky modern place to go where the breakfast is good, the lunch is good, the service is good and there are lots of add-on activities in the area. Everything is taking shape and really all I did was capture the goodness in the place ... the bones were there, we've just put some flesh on it," says Watson.

Click go the shears at Hazelhurst Cafe.

The ace of spades
Watson has certainly captured the goodness in the garden cafe in spades. The place is poised and perfect and, like the rest of his restaurants, is lacking in pretension and intent on doing things well rather than being self-absorbed. Add upbeat tunes, a buzzy local vibe and order from a wine list that swaggers around the globe and the result is what Shire locals crave: a gloriously civilised cafe with accomplished chefs delivering food that thrills with the bonus of a garden view. Booyah.

Mulga the Artist has also helped the gallery get its groove on.

Tuck into a tropical fruit pavlova which is bolstered by lemon curd and passionfruit sorbet.

Hazelhurst Gallery Cafe, 782 Kingsway, Gymea, NSW. 2227. For bookings, phone (02) 8536 5755. Open 9am-4pm Mon-Sun.

Kick off summer on the Central Coast

Jumping for joy at Umina Beach. 

If they were to be reincarnated, my two sons would surely return as labrador puppies. They need to be fed, run, watered and loved. Luckily, my husband and I are in synch with their exuberance and, while holidaying on the Central Coast, agree there's no better way to get a feel for a coastal town than to start the day with a walk along the beach in the buttery light of dawn.

Day two of our holiday along the Legendary Pacific Coast begins at Ocean Beach Holiday Park at Umina Beach. After a clamber on the rocks in the nook the locals dub ‘Kiddie’s Corner’ the boys bend their bodies like straws and star-fish into the sand. After being properly schnitzelled, breadcrumbed in sand and dirt, we have a quick dip in the sea before heading back to our cabin, which is bright and modern and has its own ensuite.

Caravan parks in Australia have come a long way, capitalising on their prime locations and offering so many options for children to go berko while parents enjoy the comforts of a really comfortable cabin replete with all the mod cons. 

Huevos rancheros at the the Point Cafe.

The next day, we have to bribe our boys to exit through the boom gate with the offer of breakfast at the Point Cafe in Avoca, where the customers all seem to know each other and the morning shift has a brisk turnover. It’s easy to love a place that sits overlooking the beach, which is curled like a comma just metres from our table.

In the swim of things

We watch one group of locals who swim year-round, no matter the weather, crawling out to sea in their cossies before returning to the cafe for coffee; a table of retirees who, according to the animated staff, might stay from breakfast to lunch; and young families building castles on the sand and dipping in and out of the sea.

The cafe has vases of flowers, easy listening tunes, tasty breakfast and lunch options and views that lower the blood pressure. The menu is pulled together using local produce and the chefs are flexible enough to tweak to your tastes or dietary requirements. Go for huevos rancheros, googey eggs with toast dippers or smashed avo with baby capers, smoked salmon and poached eggs on pumpkin seed bread.

Reserve a table overlooking the beach at Avoca, which curls out like a comma in front of the cafe.

Aqua culture

Come mid-morning, after a walk along Avoca Beach, we still have more than enough fuel in the tank for some Aqua Fun and are thrilled at the opportunity to try out the company’s large range of people-powered watercraft. 

While The Husband and I start off with the more sedate pedal boats, my two action heroes grab a watercraft that is part bike, part boat. The operation is run by Mick and Jennifer Kilp and their son Nick, who is the fourth generation of the family to be in the business of hiring out kayaks. Mick is Mr Water Man himself: his first job in the school holidays in the 70s was hiring out kayaks, and he was a deep sea fisherman for 15 years before launching the Aqua Fun venture 15 years ago.

Pedal-powered boats and water bikes are one of many Aqua Fun options at Avoca Lake.

“My grandfather hired our kayaks in Manly and my father spent the Second World War taking prisoners in kayaks. He was beyond enemy lines during World War Two in a kayak made of canvas conducting stealth missions,” says Mick, who is visibly proud of the long-standing link to the kayak, a type of canoe that was originally used by the Inuit.

Mick and Jennifer Kilp and their son Nick, of Aqua Fun on Avoca Lake.

After whirring about Avoca Lake for an hour or so, we all pick up the pace with a stand-up paddleboarding session, following a family of ducks using their spatula-like feet to get to shore and enjoying the aquarium below, which is full of flying mullet, plants and frogs.

Keep cool at the Kincumber
After people-powering around the waterway for a few hours, we head to lunch at The Kincumber Hotel, which has undergone an extensive makeover. It’s got it all: there are nooks for books, trivia nights, boutique craft beers on tap, staff with a sense of humour, table tennis for the children and a really excellent range of pub grub which includes Healthy Stuff as a main, rather than an after-thought. 

The signature Kincumber salad is one of many clean and green options on the menu.

The hotel, once owned by journalist Mike Willesee, is included in one of the 52 Local Secrets campaign to lure visitors to the Central Coast and, judging by the lunchtime crowd, this secret is well and truly out. Be sure to check out the boutique brews available on tap from local brewers, the Six String Brewing Co, which flings open its doors Wednesday to Sunday offering samplers and selling street food.

The Hairy Goat that inspired the name of the bar at the Kincumber Hotel.

Kincumber Hotel presents trivia nights every Wednesday.

Boutique brews are the order of the day at Kincumber Hotel.

The Kincumber Kitchen is all dark and moody with pendant lighting and comfortable booths.

We do as the staff suggest and share an octopus salad and the signature Kincumber Salad of quinoa, roast pumpkin seed, sunflower seed, roast almond broccolini, alfalfa and rocket before checking into our terrace suite at the Crowne Plaza Terrigal,

Watery views from our corner balcony room at Crowne Plaza, Terrigal.

Terrigal: a place of little birds  

Once settled into The Crowne Plaza Terrigal, which is in the process of undergoing a tasteful renovation, we spend the rest of the afternoon exploring the township of Terrigal – named after the Indigenous word that signifies a ‘place of little birds’ - playing a round of beach cricket and thrashing around in the shore break. We also huff and puff up to the promontory known as the Skillion, a local landmark that offers a birds’-eye perspective over the area.

The Crowne Plaza, Terrigal, is in the process of being brought up-to-date.

Our room has a restaurant directly below it, which is a great spot to watch the thunder and lightning show over the sea, stretched out like sheet metal in front of us. The Florida Beach Bar – or Beery’s as the locals refer to it – is also a-clatter with the sound of pool cues and Powderfinger. It’s known to cater to raging parties on the deck out front, which is festooned with lights, but on a Monday evening the crowd is a mix of conference-goers, out-of-towners and locals loving up their neighbourhood spot.

The perfect beach for a round of french cricket with the family.

At the day's end, The Husband and I reflect on how many holidays we've had to the Central Coast in the past few years and agree they are the type of short breaks that we will look back on for years to come. The fact that it's so close to Sydney only adds to the appeal of chasing the sun up the coast.

Carla Grossetti was invited to the Central Coast as a guest of The Legendary Pacific Coast

Body-surfing the shorey at the main beach in Terrigal.

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