GREAT OCEAN WALK:

Having grown up in California's Bay Area, I know this terrain well: winding two-lane coastal road, ocean far below, steep hills threatening mudslides at every turn. Eucalyptus and pine rustle under partly foggy skies; rain forms sheer curtains dividing one clear expanse from the next. If it weren't for the left-side placement of the driver's seat and the absence of fast-food joints along the road, I'd think I was driving up the Pacific Coast Highway, heading home from Los Angeles. But this is the Australian state of Victoria, an alternate-universe version of my home state--and billboards and new construction are restricted on this famous route, the Great Ocean Road. After winding our way inland, through green valleys dotted with farms and a temperate rainforest that swallows the car for several miles, we emerge near Cape Otway, where we'll rest and refuel before heading out on the road's pedestrian counterpart, the Great Ocean Walk--a new hiking trail that follows roughly the same path but encompasses the fragile areas of coastline where cars aren't allowed. The walk opened two years ago--the culmination of years of planning and investment.
The Great Ocean Road was a project dreamed up after World War I by local government officials, businesspeople, and community members. It was meant to improve access and attract revenue to once-isolated coastal communities, and also to provide work for returning war veterans. The entire road had to be dug by hand with pickaxes and shovels from the formerly impassable coastline on the southernmost edge of mainland Australia. The area's natural beauty has stayed relatively unspoiled even after years of heavy tourism, thanks to government restrictions. Still, driving is not the ideal way to see the environmentally sensitive Victorian coast. In the high season, traffic is bumper-to-bumper from the start of the road outside Melbourne to the endpoint, the majestic Twelve Apostles rock formation, about 250 miles away. The route veers inland in several places, which protects some of the most pristine areas from car traffic but cuts them off from visitors.

Hence the creation of the Great Ocean Walk, a $2 million state-funded project that officially opened early last year. Like the road, the walk was built almost entirely by hand with basic tools, in this case to protect the fragile ecosystem. In addition to offering an incredible diversity of terrain and wildlife, the trail is friendly to all levels of walkers, from people looking for brief, scenic strolls to hard-core backpackers. Its "step on, step off" design allows visitors to do short hikes between lodges, campsites, or towns, or to hike the whole trail over eight or nine days. Tourism and park officials even pick up hikers by bus at the end of a day and take them to their accommodations, which range from very basic and ultra-greened-out campsites--complete with composting toilets, rainwater catchment tanks, and bathrooms made from reclaimed wood--to modern eco-lodges, which run on alternative energy, offer all-natural personal care products, and serve healthy, organic, and local fare. Moonlight Head Hotel, a seriously luxe four-bedroom eco-villa designed by star green architect Glenn Murcutt, opened last year; an adjacent boutique hotel will open sometime in the next few years.