Adelaide

Adelaide, our official holiday spot.  Since beginning this tour of Australia it has been extremely hectic trying to visit all the major landmarks, tourist attractions and back end spots.  There is so much to see and do in each town we have visited plus all of the hours spent in the car driving has been very exhausting.  But the most vaulable of expriences ever.  We decided that Adelaide would be a wind down place.  Enjoy not going to far.  Having a great relaxing break ready for our return to Geelong in the near future.

Our first day in Adelaide was spent with the kids and Nigel alternating between playing, reading books and swimming in the pool.  I spent it shopping for clothes and last minute Christmas gifts for all of us.   A little retail therapy never hurts really.

Time for new pants.  Luckily we are almost home.

We met up with cousin Scotty, Amanda, Jacob and Lucas and had a lovely meal with all of them.  It was nice to catch up with them before they headed for Beulah for Christmas.  We talked about lots of things and had a great laugh together.   Nigel, Scott and kids all went to watch the sunset and have a play at the beach while Amanda (who is wearing a moon boot after ankle surgery) and I stay back to clean up a little.  We had a little entertainment in a rat running along the fence line.  Not once but at least 20 times.  Each time we would look at it, it would dart back in behind the water tank.  Looks like a rat trap will be put up before they go.  We really enjoyed our night.  Thanks Scotty, Amanda and boys.

Quick game of footy on the beach

Our days of not touring was short live as we got itchy feet and needed to get back in the car so we did a 350km round trip covering; McLaren Vale, Willunga, Victor Harbor, Goolwa, Hindmarsh Island (The Mouth of the Murray), Cape Jarvis (Kangaroo Island ferry terminal), Myponga Reservoir and Port Willunga.  It took us most of the day to complete and arrived in for a late tea.

I pointed out to our 2 sleeping and one uninterested child where the Williams family first move to Australia at Willunga.  Well that was a let down.  I was interested and so was Nigel.  We then continued our drive around the windy hill climb towards Victor Harbour.  He we had lunch at the pub then walked across the pier watching the horse drawn tram come across.  We also did two lookouts from here.  One not far out of town and to the north and then the second a little later taking in Newland Hill.

After Victor Harbor we drove to Goolwa we we crossed the river to Hindmarsh Island.  We drove over the Murray River and then drove down to the Coorong National Park and saw the Mouth of the Murray.  It is dregged every year and a staggering 600,000 to 1 million cubic metres of sand is removed.  This allows the river and waterways to maintain a perfect environment for the birds and beasts.

Murray River

Mouth of the Murray River
1 million cubic metres a year of sand is removed from
the mouth of the river to keep the water ways health.

We drove back via Victor Harbor then drove up and down some hilly country to get to Cape Jervis.  We watch the ferry returning from Kangaroo Island.  Took some pretty shots then kept driving back towards Adelaide.  We were able to take more photos of the rugged coastline then visited Myponga Reservior wall.  Glad we were not trying to see these place towing the van.  The pulls up would have been slow and the brakes would have been read hot from the downhill breaking.

Port Willunga was our next stop.  It was a very pretty place and I imagine that it would be a very popular place for a stay.  Driving back into Adelaide the valley opens up on the last hill and displayes Adelaide in all her glory.  It was a long day in the car but one well worth doing.

Christmas Eve day was spent being completely and utterly slack.  We just loved it.  We read books, lounged about on our chairs and swam in the pool.  Well the other did.  Me I spent the afternoon wrapping presents and hiding them before the kids could shake rattle and roll them to work out what they got from us. Santa visited in a golf buggy and handed out lollies to the kids.  Kaleb had to show him his new Xmas colour book.  He and the other two were reward with another pack of lollies.  Lucky them.  That evening I watch the sunset over West Beach.  What a beautiful sight and then we all watched the Melbourne Carols.  It was nice they telecast them in SA.  I was also able to secure a couple more nights at West Beach so we will be now leaving on the 28th instead of Boxing Day.

Oh my Christmas Day wake up call was nice and early.  Jordan was up at 5am then she had to wait patiently for the other two to wake up.   They were so excited when Santa turned up.  He had found them.  They were a little worried.  The night before hand as every other year since Jordan could remember we put out shortbread and milk for Santa and water and carrots out for the reindeer.  A little oatmeal in case they need a little pick me up. The all went to investigate this first before they open their first presents.  This is always a little special because they look forward to seeing if the presents they have been given have been appreciated.  Which as always they are.  This means that they are now ready to open presents.  They all took it in turns to open a present as they all love to see what each of them had been give.  They seemed very chuffed by what they were given even though as Austin put it, "I only got one thing of my list, WHY?"
 

For lunch we sat down to a full roast turkey meal and pudding for dessert.  It was all baked in the electric fry pan and we thorough enjoyed out quiet lunch.  We spoke to many family and friends on the phone.  It was a quiet day compare to our normal Christmas.  It is usually too hard to fit all of the activities in but we do manage each year.  The large family factor has always been nice.  But the experience of having Christmas together an on our own will be one of the many firsts we have had on this trip.

The next couple of day we packed the van up and moved to our new site for 2 night.  That task is becoming easier with each internal movement we do.  We don't mind if we do have to move and if it allows us to take advantage of the great facilities then so be it.

Our last day in Adelaide took us around the city centre.  We looked at all the beautiful architecture and marvelled at the number of churches.  We then continued our drive along North Terrace and marvelled at the arts area and how it had been developed.  It was great.  The kids decided that they wanted to go to the Adelaide Zoo and we lucked it for a park directly out the front.  This is the first zoo we have visited in ages.  The kids had been zooed out on the East coast so we did not expect them to decide that this is what they wanted to do on our last day.  But in the end it had been an absolutly fabulous day.  We enjoyed wandering around looking at all the animals and even had a laugh when the goat decided to take a bite out of our map and that it ended up with a hole right in the middle.  Nigel never expected the goat would eat it.  Now how wrong was he.  The pandas Funi and Wang Wang were major attractions and we enjoyed the Macaw flight demonstration.  What a nice way to end our time in Adelaide.  Lots still to see here but time to move on as we are not far from home now.  Off to Meningie for a few nights.