So once school was out it was time for me to start my holiday travels. The first place I traveled to was Adelaide. Adelaide is cosidered the state of South Australia. It is know for it's wineries and one of it's biggest tourist attractions is Kangaroo Island.
Getting to Adeliade wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Laura had said she wanted to go with me so I booked the tickets for both of us. The morning it came for me to fly out it turned out Liam who was orginally going to take me to the aiport couldn't anymore. So he actually called his mum to take me. I felt terrible to have to make her take me. When we were about to leave Laura was too sick to go and had to forfeit her trip. So I was off by myself to Adelaide. I had packed quickly and mainly sun dresses but the weather wasn't on my side and the beautiful summer weather felt more like winter.
So once I was there I went ahead and toured around some of the more known streets in Adelaide and stummbled across some good food. I found the center of town and saw their beautiful christmas tree in the square. However by time I got back to the hostel I wasn't feeling so good. It might of been the lack of sleep from the week before, sharing the bed with Laura the sick girl before coming over, over eating, or the quick change of weather but whatever it was didn't allow me to meet up with my friend Carla for a few drinks.
Luckily I woke up the next day feeling much better! I got up and went to read a bit while sipping on some amazing coffee. A little while later Shayna flew in and met up with me. We spent the rest of the day walking through town then we were off to the beach. When we got there we fought the wind to make it to the end of the pier. Right before we got to the rails it starting coming down like a monsoon! We ran all the way back to the shops and dove into a cafe. It turned out to have over 20 different types of hot chocolate and we indulged into our nice hot cuppas. After the rain died down it turned out to be quite a beautiful day. We walked around the rest of the beach town and headed back to Adelaide. We found the botanical gardens and walked through the beauty.
The best came after, when we stumbled upon the Carols by Candlight site. We had heard about it and wanted to go but wasn't sure where it would be. It turned out to be a lot larger than we thought. I just assumed it would be a few townspeople singing Christmas Carols.
When we got in and crawled our way to the front we saw there was a huge stage with a choir and a symphony. There were many performers during the 2 hour concert including a harp player, kids choir, all boys choir, a few famous Australian singers and a famous Australian pop star that we had seen at the Oprah show just a week before in Melbourne.
It was beautiful and we sang along with the carols. Santa even showed up for a few songs. It really helped to get us in the Christmas spirit.
The next morning we got up for our tour to the famous Barossa Valley. This is where many great wines in Australia come from. We were able to go to 4 wineries but before we got to the first we stopped at this place called the whispering wall.
It is a water reserve that was built in a curve. THey didn't realize it until they were building it but the way the wall bent allowed sound to travel from one side to the other. So I ran across the bridge and tested it out. The whole tour could hear me without me even raising my voice and I could hear them even though I was on the complete opposite side of this at 200 meter bridge.
It was really cool. Then we were off to the more important part of the day, tasting wines! I loved the wineries and all the beauty. The wines were delicious but mainly Cabernets. Each winery had some amazing wines. I got a beautiful riesling from the second winery and a delicious sparkling shiraz from Wolf Blass.By the end of the tour I was feeling quite good that is for sure and enjoyed myself very much.
That night I met up with my friend Carla. We talked and talked!(be surprise) She had mentioned to she needed a change and that she knew a lot of people moving to Melbourne. About a week after I left Adelaide I got a text that she was moving here! So we are now thinking of living together since my lease is up very soon. We enjoyed ourselves then it was off to the hostel for some sleep since I had to wake up at 5:30 then next morning for Kangaroo Island.
Kangaroo Island was beautiful but truly a full day. We left the bus station around 6:30 for an hour drive to the ferry then a 45 minute ferry ride to the island. Shayna and I were pumped to see what it had to offer but also snoozing every chance we got. The first stop on the island was seal cove, where we saw an amazing amount of seal and seal babbies (calves I believe they are called).
Some were sun bathing, others jumping the waves, fighting with each other and even some babbies crying for their mommies then waddling up to them. It was great to see. We then had the most amazing buffet lunch....yummy!
After lunch we saw the birds of flight show. It sounds nerdy but it was awesome. They brought out different birds and they did tricks. We saw an owl, kookaburras, the largest eagle in the world and a few more. I even got to wear the trainer glove and two kookaburras (australian birds) flew unto my arm. It was so cool. Then we saw the arch which had an amazing view and had different kind of seals playing in the cove. It was a great day but by time we got back to the hostel it was almost 11pm and I was absolutely exhausted.
The next morning I flew back into town and was ready to start the Christmas celebration!
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