SA: Dorinda. SA ambassador-at-large

AAP General News (Australia)
04-29-2004
SA: Dorinda. SA ambassador-at-large

By James Shrimpton (with pic AAP886)

SYDNEY, AAP - South Australia, said the state's ambassador for tourism, is the bellybutton
of the nation.

"It's nurturing, it's giving, it's the living centre of Australia - and you wash it
all down with our wine," exults Dorinda Hafner, who assumed her ambassador's post last
September.

The Ghana-born Dorinda was recently in Sydney with Tourism Minister Jane Lomax-Smith
on a mission promoting The Festival State.

Dorinda is indeed an ambassador-at-large: firstly, she travels around Australia and
the world fronting both a TV cookery series and tourism; secondly, she's, well, large.

She claimed not to know her exact weight but was happy to also be known as designer
of a range of clothing for "lusciously large women," a category she laughingly says includes
herself.

Divorced, with two children, Dorinda emigrated from Britain to South Australia 25 years
ago and quickly fell in love with life in Adelaide.

(Her daughter is Nuala Hafner, a lawyer who currently is the TV weather girl on Channel
Seven in Sydney, and her son James is a doctor, also in Sydney).

"Life is here to be lived," enthuses this vivacious and versatile lady as she commends
South Australia's range of cultural, culinary, beach and sporting attractions.

They include the Adelaide Festival of Arts, the Fringe Festival, and the festivals
of WOMADelaide (World of Music and Dance), Feast and Cabaret.

As for the wine industry, Dorinda points out that South Australia (population about
1.6 million) supplies 70 per cent of the country's wine exports, worth $1.5 billion last
year.

"It's not a state, it's a lifestyle," she says.

Her website (www.dorindahafner.com) is pretty right when it calls her "a human dynamo
... a kaleidoscope of colour and vibrancy (who "infects' everyone who watches or meets
her ...."

In her career she's been an optician, a registered nurse, a caterer, a chef, a theatre,
film and TV personality, an author and public speaker.

Dorinda's A Taste Of ... television series, made in Britain, has been shown in 48 countries,
including Foxtel's Lifestyle channel in Australia and PBS in America.

She's also written best-selling companion books such as A Taste of Britain, of Africa,
of the Caribbean and The United Tastes of America.

Her favourite foods? "Lots of seafood, fresh greens and steamed rice."

A frequent visitor to New York, she is "thrilled and flattered" when cab-drivers recognise
her and call out "Hey, Miss Dorinda!"

Dorinda's next project, in collaboration with actress-singer Rachael Beck, is "a dinner
and musical extravaganza titled The Call of The Wild, to be presented in theatres and
restaurants around Australia.

Dorinda is coordinating an African-inspired meal, and the entertainment will include
songs from Rachael Beck and stories from Dorinda of her African heritage.

Adelaide may have lost the Formula One Grand Prix to Melbourne, but it still has many
big-time sporting events.

During the Sydney promotional visit, Tourism Minister Jane Lomax-Smith specified the
success of the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under cycle race around Adelaide and South Australia.

Begun in 1999, the six day event - "biggest of its kind in the southern hemisphere"

- attracts cyclists from Europe each summer.

The minister said she had become "obsessed" by cycling - although confessing that she
cannot ride a bike.

When she was a child in east London, she said, she was never given a cycle because
her mother believed the traffic was too dangerous.

.....

Details of South Australian tourist attractions: visit www.southaustralia.com

AAP js/cjh

KEYWORD: TRAVEL SA DORINDA (TRAVELFEATURE WITH PIC)

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