Sealed roads, dirt tracks and light aircraft flights - that's what you call variety!
We've spent a lot of time in Australia on holidays and visiting family over the years. When Jennie spotted a limited numbers tour from Adelaide in South Australia by 4WD truck up to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the Red Centre, we jumped at it as we'd never been significantly inland before. Winter is a great time to do it as cold night and early morning temperatures are followed by warm days, but not up to the 50 C of summer! The plan was to spend a few days exploring Adelaide and the wine regions of Adelaide Hills and the Barossa Valley , then do the tour and finish in Melbourne to catch up with our daughter and our son in law.
Adelaide Region
Flying directly from Auckland to Adelaide was about 5 hours, being picked up in an upmarket Mercedes and being delivered to the Playford Hotel (How the other half live!)
Mrs J in retro heaven at the Playford
The hotel was only a short walk from the Torrens river and the Adelaide Oval cricket ground. It's a city of 1.3 million but seems largely free of congestion thanks to good infrastructure such as free trams in the central part of the city - we loved it.
Torrens River and the Oval Cricket ground
The city was a good mix of old and new buildings, the beautifully restored Adelaide Arcade being a great example both inside and out.
Adelaide Arcade exterior
Arcade interior with boutique shops
The railway station was another example of excellent restoration.
Food was also excellent and similar in price to NZ. We found a superb Mexican restaurant down a side alley which got great reviews and we can see why! I had my first bowl of traditional Pozole soup made with pork, chillies and hominy, with various herbs - absolute heaven and completely filling.
However, it was wine-tasting from one of the world's great regions that we were really interested in and a fair amount of sampling went on. Most were high quality but nothing absolutely stood out until we stopped off at Chateau Yaldara.
Can't wait to get inside!
Seriously impressive
Decisions, decisions.....
There were some pretty nice wines but at the end of the tasting session, the big guns were rolled out in the shape of a limited release 2017 Grenache - smart marketing! Our eyes just about popped out, it was that good. I'm not going to disclose the normal selling price or the circumstances of our discount but 6 bottles were purchased as a present from Jennie for my birthday in October. They'll be shared with good friends on special occasions. They arrived in NZ well before we returned with no hassles. I might mention that their most expensive item was a vintage port at A$600 a bottle. Good job that Jennie doesn't like port!
Nectar of the gods
During our Barossa trip, we also saw a pub/microbrewery with a great name. This is it:
What a great name for a pub!
We also visited the village of Hahndorf which is Australia's oldest German settlement. Whilst it was nice to see the old buildings, much of it was set up to sell unexciting wares to tourists. Not unexpected I suppose but not done with the low key touch of Arrowtown in NZ's south island.
A bit of a theme here......
That concludes our exploration of the Adelaide region and the next post sees us on the first part of our 4WD trip towards the Red Centre.
I can see the theme developing right enough Geoff. :-) The pics are great though, and if the whole trip lives up to that first instalment, the two of you must be planning a return visit already. Happy days|
ReplyDeleteHi Ian,
DeleteHaha! As it happened, consumption dropped and enjoyment skyrocketed as we moved further into the desert. I'd recommend the trip to anyone. As an Irishman, you'll understand that there are times that new discoveries are almost spiritual. This was one such occasion. Can't wait to add more photos!