Adventure Down Under

A scenic escapade at Western Australia’s food and wine capital Margaret River is much more exciting in a Lexus

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I remember a time, not so long ago, when, if a car company wanted to flex, they would take you to an international race track or scenic driving route, throw ina factory tour, dazzle you with lots of stats and figures like hp, kw, 0-100, drag coefficients and top speed, then cap the junket off with an industrial strength drinking session with their top designers and engineers. That’s how you sold cars. At least in the old days.

Many still do this, of course, but for Lexus, this formula became stale once they started shifting their business model from transporting people to transporting senses. They understood, better than most, that the luxury car market was as much about selling cars as, say, a Patek Philippe was about telling time. For them, it was, and always has been, an ownership experience. And that is exactly what they showcased last November in Margaret River when they invited several owners to experience an amazing gourmet escape through one of the most gastronomically diverse regions of the Southern Hemisphere.

The adventure begins in Perth, Western Australia, one of the most beautiful cities you’ve never heard of. And that’s just how the folks down here like it. I should know because I lived here for almost 10 years and the unofficial tagline was, “Yeah, we know it’s bloody beautiful; try not to tell anyone so it stays that way.”

That was in the mid-nineties, though. Since then, Perth has blossomed even more, and her beauty has gotten almost impossible to keep secret—so much so that Western Australians slowly started to embrace it, but on their own terms. One of those is the Gourmet Escape, which is an initiative of the Western Australian tourism ministry as well as the private sector that promotes the incredible wines and fusion cuisine born out of this giant melting pot of cultures.