National Parks in Oceania

The spiritual heart of the Red Centre, where a lone sandstone monolith erupts from an endless spinifex plain. Walk the 10 km base loop at dawn to watch the rock shift through ochre, rust and violet. Climbing is now permanently banned out of respect for the Anangu traditional owners.

Australia’s largest national park sprawls across floodplains and sandstone escarpments twice the size of Yellowstone. Cruise the Yellow Water billabong at dawn past basking crocodiles, then trace Ubirr rock-art galleries recording 20,000 years of Aboriginal life. Come in the dry season for the plunge pools of Jim Jim Falls.

One of the oldest surviving rainforests on Earth, where ancient jungle tumbles down to the reef at Cape Tribulation, the only place two World Heritage areas meet. Cruise the river for estuarine crocodiles and watch for the endangered southern cassowary. Reach it via the Daintree ferry north of Cairns.

Home to the Bungle Bungle Range, a labyrinth of orange-and-black striped sandstone domes hidden in the remote Kimberley and unknown to outsiders until the 1980s. Hike into the sheer amphitheatre of Cathedral Gorge, or fly from Kununurra to grasp the beehive pattern. Access demands a dry-season 4WD.

A network of deep, water-sculpted gorges slicing into some of the oldest exposed rock on Earth, in Western Australia’s iron-red Pilbara. Scramble, wade and swim through narrow chasms like Hancock and Weano to reach hidden pools and waterfalls, where banded walls glow crimson against green fern.

The Top End’s swimming-hole paradise, close enough to Darwin for an easy day trip yet packed with waterfalls and clear pools. Cool off beneath Florence Falls and the tiered Buley Rockhole, and marvel at the towering magnetic termite mounds aligned north-south. Many pools here are croc-free and swimmable.

A rugged sandstone range rising from the plains of western Victoria, laced with trails and one of the southeast’s richest concentrations of Aboriginal rock art. Climb the exposed slabs to the Pinnacle for sweeping views over Halls Gap and photograph the tiered curtain of MacKenzie Falls, strongest after winter rains.

The southernmost tip of mainland Australia, a granite peninsula of squeaky white-sand beaches and forested peaks known to Victorians as ‘the Prom’. Hike over Mount Oberon for a sunset panorama, then laze on Squeaky Beach, where the fine quartz sand truly squeaks underfoot. Wombats and emus wander the campground at dusk.

Also known as Katherine Gorge, thirteen sandstone gorges carved by the Katherine River and deeply sacred to the Jawoyn people, who jointly manage the park. Paddle a hire canoe between towering ochre walls, or commit to the multi-day Jatbula Trail. Swimming opens only once rangers clear the saltwater crocs.

Famous for the Pinnacles, a surreal desert of thousands of weathered limestone spires rising from golden dunes on the Coral Coast, hours north of Perth. Walk the loop at sunrise or sunset, when long shadows stretch across the sand and the formations resemble a petrified forest. Linger after dark for stargazing.

New Zealand’s largest national park is a vast, dripping wilderness of glacier-carved fiords and moss-hung rainforest in the wild southwest. Cruise or kayak beneath the sheer wall of Mitre Peak in Milford Sound, or lace up for the fabled Milford Track. A wet day spawns hundreds of temporary waterfalls.

Clustered around New Zealand’s highest peak, an alpine realm of grinding glaciers and milky moraine lakes where Edmund Hillary trained for Everest. Walk the Hooker Valley Track over swing bridges to a lake studded with icebergs. As the core of a Dark Sky Reserve, its night skies are dazzling.

New Zealand’s oldest national park and a dual World Heritage site, centred on three active volcanoes gifted to the nation by Maori chiefs. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is widely rated the country’s finest day hike, threading past steaming craters to the startling turquoise Emerald Lakes. Fans know Ngauruhoe as Mount Doom.

New Zealand’s smallest national park is also its sunniest, a string of golden-sand crescents and turquoise coves at the top of the South Island. Walk the Coast Track between secluded bays and kayak past fur-seal colonies at Tonga Island. Regular water taxis let you hop beaches without a heavy pack.

A rugged core of the Southern Alps built around the pyramid peak Maori call Tititea, offering New Zealand’s most accessible high-country hiking near Wanaka. Trek the world-class Routeburn Track past hanging valleys and thundering waterfalls, or pull over at the Blue Pools. Pack for weather that can flip within hours.

Jagged dolerite spires and dark glacial lakes form the northern gateway to Tasmania’s wild heart and the trailhead of the six-day Overland Track. Walk the boardwalked Dove Lake circuit beneath the serrated skyline. Wombats graze at dusk, and lucky visitors may glimpse a Tasmanian devil. Snow is possible even in summer.

A dramatic collision of river gorge and sea cliff on Western Australia’s mid-north coast, where the Murchison River has carved winding red-rock chasms. Step onto the vertigo-inducing Skywalk and hike to the photographed Nature’s Window arch. Spring transforms the sandplains into one of Australia’s great wildflower displays.

Better known as Kings Canyon, a sandstone chasm in the Red Centre whose sheer 100-metre walls blaze crimson at first light. The 6 km Rim Walk climbs past the weathered beehive domes of the Lost City before descending into the spring-fed Garden of Eden. Start early, before the summer heat.