Showcasing the best of Orange to Australia and the world

After years spent showing Australians the best of India, Morocco and other exotic destinations, tour operator Nicole Farrell is now showcasing the local delights of her own region to the world.

“I was in denial for some time,” says Nicole, who’dspent three years running her own boutique international tour company, Red Door Tours, before the pandemic struck. “This year I had ten international trips booked and tours were full everything was just going so well with the business and then...COVID.”

Born and raised in Orange, Nicole’s entire career has revolved around travel in some fashion or another. Trained as an early childhood teacher, she spent eight years teaching in Singapore and Hong Kong before returning to Australia, where she next set up an online craft company importing goods from China. “When I moved back from Hong Kong I saw all these things that weren't available in Australia, so I decided to start importing them, this was when online was very new, but the craft business allowed me to go to China every year and buy new products,” says Nicole.

And it was not long after selling that business, that travel took Nicole down yet another career path. “Well that's a funny story,” says Nicole, who after the sale of the craft business had booked herself on a tour to India. “The tour was I call it a ‘fake tour.’ It was very superficial, there was no meeting the locals, it was all in gated hotels—everything about it was just fake! But I had arrived earlier and already done this great stuff on my own, so all my friends on my tour were like let's get Tuk-tuks here tonight and we'll go out and see all the monument slit up.”

But as they went to leave the hotel, the rest of Nicole’s tour group joined them.“It was only meant to be six of us sneaking, but then everyone was there... and so then I was just running sidetours off that fake tour!” said Nicole.

”And so it just happened.I came home and started an international tour business.” But then of course, the Coronavirus spread throughout the world and borders slammed shut. “I came home with those first people who had to quarantine at home, so I spent two weeks in my house on my own... In April people were still hopeful that this was a short-term thing,but I think reality sunk in around the end of May, that this is not going anywhere, that things would have to change.” Nicole took a call centre job to get by, but it wasn’t long before she decided to follow another ofher long-held travel dreams; showcasing what we have right here on our own doorsteps.

“It started with one walking food tour,” says Nicole. “I had the idea because I'd done food tours around the world and I loved them. Food is such a good connection to the culture and the people and the country, but if you come to Orange outside of our festival times, there's really not that connection to the food here or what's grown in the region.” And so Nicole’s Country Food Trail tours were born.

From one daily walking tour, Nicole has grown her offering to include local history tours and visits to some of our region’s best producers. “I was quite shocked by how much we do produce in the region and the diversity,” says Nicole. “There are some places in town that you'd be surprised by how much local stuff is on their menu and they haven't even highlighted that...people are really wanting to connect more with where things are from and who owns the company and that sort of thing. So when we finish the morning walking tour the platter we have isfully local and I can tell peopleabout the cheese and where it is made and all that sort of thing.

“Peoplewant that connection,they are wanting the story behind it,and they are wanting to support regional places, so the response has been great!

”When international borders eventually reopen, Nicole is looking forward to taking groups overseas again, but her love for all things local will continue. “I will run the two businesses side by side...probably forever!” said Nicole.

“I think they complement each other well, I've already had a lot of people on the walking tours who, when it opens upagain are going to go to Morocco with me. “I'm always looking for good new things to do. So I may take some smaller groups regionally myself and just see what happens, where the demand is and what people are looking for... “A New Zealand tour company are talking to me about bringing people out regionally, so it would begreat to offer these sorts of tours to international guestsand get them to experience the best of regional Australia. That will be exciting!”