A short flight from Tasmania got us back to the Aussie’s mainland. We continued our tour in South Australia and for six more nights while based in its capital Adelaide. Originally we expected our stay here to be shorter, however, our local friend Kendal we got to know in New Zealand showed us all that the city had to offer. Hence we explored the surrounding area more, visited the nicest markets, tried some South Australian wines, visited a bit of local Germany, spent one day feeding native animals and hung out with Adelaideans. Let’s have a look :)
- Exploring Adelaide and beyond
- Wine tasting in McLaren Vale
- A taste of Germany in Hahndorf
- Cuteness overload in Cleland
- How to arrive and get around
- Where did we stay
Exploring Adelaide and beyond
Adelaide is a nice city on the south coast of Australian mainland and the capital of the state South Australia. Neither large nor small and with a population comparable to Prague, it seems to be quite a convenient place to live. And here are some more or less surprising facts about the city we are going to explore:
- As you may know, all major Australian cities were settled by convicts. Apart from Adelaide – so there’s not a lot of criminal history here :)
- The nickname of Adelaide is The City of Churches, which is justified not only by the sheer number of churches at almost every corner, but also by the diversity of faiths and religious freedom.
- Throughout the history Adelaide was very progressive thinking and became the first city with voting rights for women, recognizing indigenous land rights or criminalizing sexual and racial discrimination. Cool, right?
Breakfast at the Central Market
We started our first morning in the city very prosaically – with a tasty breakfast and coffee at the Central Market. Based on our observations, central markets belong to standard inventory of all larger Australian cities, but this one was especially nice. It’s definitely been one of the nicest markets we’ve ever visited – full of great coffee, beautiful cakes, cheese, fruit & veg and anything else your hungry and thirsty you could crave.
Wandering around the city
Step-by-step, we explored the city by foot. We walked through the city center and alongside the river Torrens and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of these places. We’ve looked inside the St Peter’s Cathedral and even mingled with the students of the University of Adelaide. Luckily we still look like students :)
However, our favorite city monument was the statues of four cute pigs in the middle of the shopping street, the Rundle Mall – Truffles, Horatio, Oliver and Augusta. Aren’t they cool?
City views from Mt Lofty
New city – new view to find! We’d heard you can get a really nice one from the summit of Mt Lofty, located about 15 km east of the city center. And quite coincidentally, we realized the bus going to Cleland made a several minutes vista stop on the way. However, if you feel like doing some hiking and not just looking at the city, there are several hiking tracks you can try.
Sunset at the Glenelg beach
Australian beaches are amazing, at least the ones we saw. Quite often they are just outside of the city center like this one in Adelaide. It seemed really handy, especially in warmer months. But even if you don’t go for a swim, surf, dive or <insert your favorite water activity>, you can still enjoy a walk and a gorgeous sunset here and wash it down with a nice espresso martini :)
A taste of Germany in Hahndorf
Hahndorf is a cute German village in South Australia. Sounds strange, right? Well, it was founded by German migrants in the 19th-century and the German spirit can be felt all over the place. You can do some shopping here, wander through the streets and/or sip German beer and get something traditional to eat. For example a mega long hot dog with a tasty wurst and lots of sauerkraut served by a waitress in a dirndl! And let’s not forget there are also wineries in the nearby Adelaide Hills and a local distillery producing very yummy gin.
Wine tasting in McLaren Vale
South Australia is one of the prime wine regions of the country and with more than 200 different wine cellars Adelaide can be proudly called the wine capital of Australia. And it even belongs to the noble company of Great Wine Capitals of the world. And since our friend loves wine, she showed us one part of it – the stunning McLaren Vale.
We spent a nice day tasting various local wines in many wine cellars and wineries, talking to the friendly wine makers, tasting local delicacies and generally being our best make-believe sommeliers. As a bonus we even spotted a couple of curious kangaroos in the vineyard :)
Cuteness overload in Cleland
The day in Cleland Wildlife Park was awesome and one of the highlights of our trip so far! They said we need 3-4 hours to walk through the wildlife park, see all the animals and interact with them. In the end we stayed till the closing time! At the entrance, you can buy packs of special animal food and feed kangaroos, wallabies and anything else interested in those small green pellets. When you are an animal lover and you find yourself around Adelaide, definitely don’t miss this place!
The top park inhabitants are the koalas – one of the iconic Australian animals. They look sleepy and apathetic all the time (no surprise after eating copious amounts of eucalyptus) but are so fluffy and super soft. And the way they stretch their tiny paws towards the caregivers when they want a lift – awww!
Other superstars were kangaroos and their various relatives – there are so many kinds! From small potoroos…
…to all kinds of wallabies and smaller kangaroos…
…and these giant and super strong guys!
We’ve totally loved the moments when these beautiful guys and girls came to us, held our hand with their little paws and started munching. The cuteness of these jumping creatures is overwhelming!
We reckon we have never seen so many different and colorful birds as in Australia. You can see and hear plenty of native birds also in Cleland. Our favorites were rainbow lorikeets, but all of them are beautiful.
And where Tasmania was lacking, Cleland delivered! Ladies and gentlemen, one small and scary Tasmanian devil.
How to arrive and get around
We arrived in Adelaide by plane from Hobart, Tasmania. Adelaide airport is really close to the city center (ca 6 km) so it would be a doable walk, however, you can also use the public buses, rented or shared car or whatever suits you best. We opted for an Uber to placate hungry and tired Mia as soon as possible.
To move in and around the city we usually prefer public transportation. We’ve happily used it also this time (for example going to Cleland and Mt Lofty). But to be honest, it was quicker and more convenient to be driven by our friend when visiting Hahndorf or McLaren Vale wine cellars.
Where did we stay
Since we first thought we would stay just four nights we booked them in YHA Adelaide. We’ve already had a very positive experience with this hostel chain in New Zealand (and even a discount on our New Zealand’s YHA youth card) and we were definitely not disappointed. Very nice place, big and comfy rooms, laundry, huge kitchen and dining and common room. We can recommend it.
Unfortunately, after deciding to prolong our stay in the city quite spontaneously we couldn’t get any room in our hostel, so we had to move for the extra one for two nights. We picked Travelers Inn Backpackers Hostel which wasn’t such a great experience. But we survived and became hardened for our next adventures.
Leave a Reply