Trip to Adelaide: 20^th – 28^th September 2010

Here is an account of our trip. We had three days in Adelaide then four days divided between the ‘limestone coast’ (south of Adelaide) and the Barossa Valley (north east of the city), with a final afternoon in Adelaide before flying out.

Adelaide has about the same population as Auckland but seemed to have a lot less traffic. We had a four lane highway just outside our motel which we could cross without pausing for traffic at any time of the day. It is a great city for tourists as it has a free bus doing a loop of the inner city, and a free tram running more or less up the middle of the CBD and back. Also, as it is laid out on a grid system, it was easy to find our way around. Our motel was just a few blocks from dozens of restaurants, and we were also close to a huge indoor market which was fun to wander round - heaps of fresh fruit, veges, nuts, fish and meat, bakeries and Asian foods.

One thing I hadn’t expected was the high proportion of Asians. Most restaurants within walking distance from our motel were Asian and there was even a Chinatown in the city. Walking back from dinner each night while in Adelaide we would pass groups of young Asian women or entire families all out enjoying the evening. The kids are so cute!

I was also surprised by how early Australians eat out. We would look for a restaurant shortly after 6pm each evening, thinking we would be in and out before they got busy, and they would be full of diners already! Lots of family groups too, which you don’t get here so much. Here it is more couples or groups of people celebrating something. We also noticed that most restaurants were licensed only, or if they were BYO, the corkage was very high.

On our first afternoon we walked around Port Adelaide which is a heritage area with some lovely old buildings but there didn’t seem to be a lot happening – felt more like a Sunday than a Monday, and the buildings were mostly empty which was a shame. I gather the area is still in the process of being done up. There were some specialist museums (maritime, aviation, railroads) but not ones that really appealed to us. However there was a funky café (where we had lunch) that had sheets of newsprint for table covers and crayons so you could draw, decorate or doodle the time away between ordering coffee and drinking it!

My café doodles

While in Adelaide we visited the Art Gallery of South Australia and the South Australian Museum - both fabulous. In fact we went back to each three times during the time we were in Adelaide. We saw a lot of Aboriginal artefacts in the SA museum and I could see how they had been able to survive in the most inhospitable desert regions with their knowledge of how to get food and water. Also impressive was their use of bark and fibre for making containers and nets, and animal sinews (particularly kangaroo) for making spears and axes.

We also explored two botanic gardens while in Adelaide: the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide (a few minutes walk from the museum and art gallery and north of the main city area) and the Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens on the slopes of Mt Lofty, out of the city, which was more like a series of bush walks.

The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide had a Palm House, a rainforest enclosure, and a huge indoor pond with an Amazon waterlily. Both Gardens had a Wollemi Pine which was very exciting. A number of this unusual tree (related to our Kauri) was discovered growing in a gully in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney in 1994. The species had only been known by fossils before this and was thought to be extinct. It predates the dinosaurs and had survived 11 ice ages. It has been propagated and now there are trees in a number of Botanic Gardens in Australia. I had seen a Wollemi pine in a park in Canberra about ten years ago but it was protected by a kind of metal cage and was impossible to see let alone take photos of. I was really surprised to be able to get up close and personal with the ones in Adelaide.

Up close and personal with a Wollemi pine

After three days in Adelaide we drove south along the coast. We were heading to Robe, a small town on the coast about 4 hours drive away. In summer it is very popular, but being off-season (still early spring) we had the advantage of choices of accommodation and restaurants without the people! Before we got there we passed through another small town, Kingston SE, notable for a giant model lobster.

Larry the Lobster posing with Charlie

Robe was our base for two nights giving us a full day to explore the ‘limestone coast’. This is an area that was once covered by ocean and has lots of geological features like sink holes and caves associated with the subsequent limestone. Nearby, in the city of Mt Gambier are two huge sink holes, so large that entire gardens have been planted in the bottom!

The Umpherston Sinkhole in Mt Gambier

There was also a volcanic lake in the city, called Blue Lake. It is blue because of the calcite crystals in the water. At least, blue in summer where there is some effect of temperature. It was more grey than blue when we saw it but still impressive.

Blue Lake in Mt Gambier

On our way back to Robe from Mt Gambier, we visited a huge limestone cave network at the Naracoorte Caves National Park. In the grounds were life-sized models of Australia’s mega-fauna and we took a guided tour of one cave where bones of prehistoric animals had collected up to ½ a million years ago. The animals had fallen into the cave down sink holes which were up to a metre or so in diameter, over a period around 200,000 years before the sink holes were either filled in or had become covered over by vegetation. Walking through the cave was amazing enough with all the limestone formations, stalactites and stalagmites etc but the truly awesome thing was that in one part of the cave we got to see the actual bones of actual ancient animals where they had collected. We were roped off from touching them but to see them in situ was incredible.

Prehistoric animal bones from ½ a million years ago

Diprotodon (Australia’s largest marsupial)

about to have Charlie for lunch

After that excitement, and our second night in Robe, we drove back towards Adelaide heading for the Barossa Valley which is north and slightly east of Adelaide. I was interested in the origins of the settlement by Lutheran Germans around 1840 who shifted there to escape religious persecution. I feel there is a certain irony that the Valley now is known for its wine production which I am sure was not high on the list of priorities of the Germans who settled there! We did a walking tour of the small town of Tanunda where there were still some of the original German buildings.

One of the original cottages built around 1850

We had a wonderful lunch at one of the very many wineries, and visited a lavender farm in the afternoon. That was lovely even though it was early in the season and not many of the bushes were in flower. I bought some lavender soap for our neighbours that were collecting our mail, and some lavender shampoo for me.

Enjoying lunch at the Schild Estate Winery

Butterfly enjoying lunch at the Lyndoch Lavender Farm

The next morning we drove back to Adelaide and had time to visit the museum and art gallery again briefly. We had booked our last night in Adelaide from the Barossa Valley so didn't have to spend time looking for a motel. This gave us time to visit one last shopping mall and I got to wander a David Jones department store which I remember from visiting Melbourne about 10 years ago, and being impressed with the quality - and prices!

So that was our trip! The weather was good – mostly overcast but no rain apart from one shower, and temperatures very similar to Auckland.