6 unique Christmas present ideas for nature-lovers

If you’re try­ing to win Kris Kringle with the most unique gift, wrack­ing your brain about what to get the aun­tie who has every­thing, or just real­ly into expe­ri­ences rather than things, we’ve made the per­fect Christ­mas list for you.

Here are 6 top ideas for your nature-lov­ing fam­i­ly and friends:

1. Buy grand­ma and grandad a year’s worth of days in the park

What’s bet­ter than a walk in the park? A walk where you get to feed potoroos!

Cle­land Wildlife Park is one of South Australia’s most icon­ic tourist attrac­tions, renowned for its wide open spaces where you can get clos­er to ani­mals includ­ing koalas, kan­ga­roos, wal­la­bies and potoroos.

A range of Cle­land Wildlife gift vouch­ers are now avail­able just in time for Christmas.

From one off day pass­es to year­ly mem­ber­ships, there is some­thing for every­one. Love wom­bats? How about a close encounter with the world’s friend­liest wom­bat, Fred? Or your loved one can even have break­fast with the birds. 

The best bit? Know­ing that your mem­ber­ship con­tributes to the many pro­grams and con­ser­va­tion efforts under­tak­en at the park.

2. Buy mum a beach

OK, so going full Richard Bran­son and buy­ing your mum a beach isn’t entire­ly real­is­tic. But you can get her a mul­ti­ple entry parks pass so that she can expe­ri­ence the best of South Australia’s nation­al parks year round, at sites like the white sand beach­es of Lin­coln Nation­al Park on the Eyre Peninsula.

An annu­al parks pass cov­ers vehi­cle entry fees for parks where fees apply, such as Belair Nation­al Park, Cof­fin Bay Nation­al Park, Deep Creek Nation­al Park, Ikara-Flinders Ranges Nation­al Park, Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park, Lin­coln Nation­al Park, Mount Remark­able Nation­al Park and Para Wirra Con­ser­va­tion Park.

A 12-month pass costs $99 ($79 con­ces­sion) and can be bought online. And there’s anoth­er feel-good alert – pro­ceeds from the pass con­tribute to the main­te­nance of SA’s huge nation­al parks estate, which cov­ers more than 21 per cent of the state.

3. Buy aun­ty a memory

There’s always that one per­son on the Christ­mas list who has every­thing. But does Aun­ty Marge have a his­tor­i­cal aer­i­al pho­to­graph of her favourite part of South Australia?

Map­land has a com­pre­hen­sive library of aer­i­al pho­tos dat­ing back to 1949. Prints can be cus­tomised to your require­ments, so you can get them print­ed in large for­mat, lam­i­nat­ed or block mounted.

Prices start at $102 for A3 size (29.7cm x 42.1cm) and up to $266 for A0 size (118.9cm x 84.1cm). Cus­tom sizes are avail­able, and priced on appli­ca­tion. To pur­chase, call (08) 8463 3999 and check the price and pay­ment details online.

4. Buy your bestie a good long walk

Is going for a walk ever real­ly about the walk­ing? Head out with your squad to feel the sun on your back and have a good long chat with the help of Mapland’s detailed park maps for Cle­land Nation­al Park, Deep Creek Nation­al Park or the Hey­sen or Yure­bil­la Trail.

Maps are sold at the Depart­ment for Envi­ron­ment and Water’s cus­tomer ser­vice cen­tre on the ground floor of 81 – 95 Way­mouth St, Ade­laide, which is open from Mon­day to Fri­day, 9am to 5pm.

They’re also avail­able at retail­ers includ­ing the Friends of the Hey­sen Trail shop on Pirie St in the city, at Pad­dy Pallin and the Scout Out­door Cen­tre on Run­dle St, The Map Shop on Hind­ley Street, Car­to Graph­ics on Unley Road at Unley, and at select­ed vis­i­tor infor­ma­tion cen­tres across the state.

Give them a call ahead of your vis­it to make sure that they have the map you’re after in stock.

5. Buy your Kris Kringle some­thing unique­ly South Australian

The pres­sure is on for office Kris Kringle. You need to get some­thing unique, some­thing fun or some­thing funny.

Gift shops in nation­al parks includ­ing Mt Lofty Sum­mit, Cle­land Wildlife Park, Nara­coorte Caves, Seal Bay and Flinders Chase Nation­al Park stock a huge range of prod­ucts suit­able for even the most hard-to-buy-for colleague.

There’s every­thing from local­ly made hon­ey to books about native wildlife, hand­made creams and skin­care prod­ucts, tea and cof­fee acces­sories, maps and stuffed toys.

7. Buy your dad a Cooper’s Classic

No, not that kind of Cooper’s – the tree kind of Cooper’s! Cooper’s Clas­sic is just one of more than 1000 plants that you can buy at State Flo­ra​’s nurs­eries at Belair and Mur­ray Bridge.

Thumb through the nurs­ery cat­a­logue to find the best plant for your dad’s gar­den. The cat­a­logue is easy to use and details gen­er­al grow­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics, soil pref­er­ences and flower colours.

It also lists the regions of SA to which species are indige­nous, and the con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of each species. So, Ellen­dale Drag­on, Cop­per Rock­et, Bur­ren­dong Beau­ty or Eyre Princess – what will you choose?

With the shop­ping list sort­ed, maybe it’s time to think about how you’re going to dec­o­rate. Ditch the exot­ic plants this Christ­mas and deck the halls withthese native species instead.

This sto­ry was orig­i­nal­ly post­ed in Novem­ber 2019