Saturday April 19
7:30pm

Tonight Tom Williams hosts a special Great Outdoors where we take a look at driving holidays around the world.

Ernie Dingo starts his driving adventure on the Great Nature Trail in the north west of Tasmania. He starts in the town of Penguin, and braves the rain to spot the fairy penguins that come ashore every night. Then it’s on to Burnie, where paper-making has become a fine art. Ernie then drives to Wynyard, where every spring there is tulips as far as the eye can see.

Tom Williams is in Marinello, a town in Tuscany, Italy. It’s otherwise known as “Supercar Valley”, because this is the headquarters of Ferrari and Maserati. Here is the ultra-sophisticated Ferrai factory where the cars are lovingly built, but if you can’t afford one you can always visit the Galleria Ferrari: a whole museum dedicated to Ferraris. Only 2,000 Australians own a Ferrari, but Tom experiences the next best thing when he gets to take a brand new vehicle for a test drive through the streets of Marinello.

Jennifer Hawkins checks out extreme rally driving at Cessnock, just outside Newcastle. It’s not only a day of thrills and spills, you also learn defensive driving skills while your car is heading sideways! Then Jen does a hot lap with a professional driver to really push the experience to the limit.

Andrew Daddo heads to Santa Barbara Wine Country in the USA, where more wine is made per year than in the entire Australian wine industry. But this being California, the wine tour is run out of the back of a yellow jeep, and besides tasting wine, you also meet artists who paint with wine. The tour ends at Solvang, which bills itself as the Danish Capital of North America, and it is authentically Danish, right down to the amazing pastries.

We also take a look at a round of the Australian Rally Car championships in the Great Lakes region of NSW, where vehicles travel at more than 200 kms an hour through the bush. Apart from the professional rally drivers, navigators and race volunteers, the sport attracts a loyal spectator following.