DJ's Down-Under
Thursday, 24 January 2013
January 17: Farewell Party
Our Last Saturday at Little Kickers and our friends Dean & Ruth offered to host a post-match farewell party for us. The weather wasn't great but Daisy, Kiera, Dylan, Tudor & Fletcher still insisted on jumping in the pool, and then spent a few hours drying out in-front of Skylanders! We had a great day eating & drinking and sharing jokes about Caaaardiff, and Newport. It was great fun and we finally staggered home* way past our normal bed-time. A good day was had by all!
(*obviously Gem & Daisy weren't doing too much staggering!)
January 15: Bye Bye Unit 12
So with our shipping collected and somewhere on route to Cardiff, and our remaining possessions moved to a (small) one bed unit in the city, all that remained was for Gem & Daisy to clean out the fridge and and wave goodbye to Unit 12.
Despite the lack of heating in winter and the lack of AC in summer, despite the occasional invasion by ants and spiders, despite the noisy extract in the downstairs toilet and even despite the uphill walk home from Manly we enjoyed our time in High Street. We hope the next tenants have as much fun as us!
January 06: Back in Manly
Back in Manly, and the last night of our holiday before Nick started work again. It wasn't quite as warm as KI but you can't beat an ice-cream and a stroll through the surf to round off the weekend!
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
January 04: 46 Degrees
Driving back from Kangaroo Island to Bendigo on the first leg of our return journey and the dashboard tells us that its 46 degrees outside! Lucky the air-conditioning was working. Thankfully we only had to stop a few times to fill-up and buy more ice-cream!
January 03: Kangaroo Drives
January 03: Kangathree Island
Today we explored the North Coast of the Island and found ourselves on Snellings Beach. Its hard to describe how amazing this place was. We drove onto the middle of the beach, parked up, ran tip-toe across the burning sand and dived straight into the crystal clear water. The temperature was up over 40 degrees and the water stayed less than a metre deep for a good distance from the shore so we all spent what seemed like hours messing around in the water. We could have stayed all day but we had a ferry to catch, and so after a drive through Stokes Bay and a snack-stop in Kingscote, we boarded the Sealink and waved goodbye to Kangaroo Island. What an amazing place - hopefully we get the chance to visit again!
January 02: Kangaroo two
Right out on the Western coast of Kangaroo Island lies the Flinders Chase National Park, home of the Cape de Couedic Lighthouse and the 'Remarkable Rocks' (obviously named by the same person who discovered 'Mount Lofty'!). As well as the kangaroos and koalas the park is home to a colony of New Zealand fur seals and you can walk down to the base of the cliff at the Cape to get a full on sensory experience. The scenery was amazing but it was a case of hold your nose while you take the photos. As Daisy said 'Yurgh - its 'gustin daddy!'
Monday, 21 January 2013
January 01: Kangaroo Island
After the apetiser that was the Barossa and the main course of Adelaide it was time for the big fat chocolate covered desert that is Kangaroo Island! We left Adelaide at 10 and caught the 1pm Ferry to Penneshaw. We were staying in a little cabin near the ferry so didn't have far to roll out on the other side. After unloading we headed straight for the nearest beach at Baudin, which was pretty much deserted apart from a few stingrays. Kangaroo island is about 150kms long by about 90kms wide and we knew it was going to take us a couple of days to explore properly so we decided to explore the area around Penneshaw today and drove down to Cape Willoughby lighthouse, complete with whale jaw-bone sculpture! Most of the roads on the island are un-surfaced so we were pretty glad that we'd hired a decent sized car! That evening we tried to see the fairy penguins on an organised tour around Kingscote. Although we did see a few we can't put any photos up cos it was too dark! Saw a couple of Kangaroos on the way home tho!
December 31: New Years Eve
New Years Eve in Adelaide! After a trip to the indoor market (pretty cool!) to buy stuff for our picnic later this evening we took a drive out to Mount Lofty (they obviously ran out of imaginative place-names) to get a couple of pictures looking down on the city. Later we joined the other families at the (alcohol free!?) Party in Elder Park. There was the usual bands and entertainers and a fireworks show at 9pm. We just about managed to stay up until 12.......
December 30: Adelaide Zoo
Our first full day in Adelaide, and it was very quiet. We were hoping that it was just because it was Sunday but to be honest it was pretty quiet the whole time we were there! We were staying in a cool little apartment hotel in the city centre so we could walk everywhere, but Nicks suggestion to walk to the zoo and back in 35degree heat was a bit too much for Gem and Daisy! The Zoo was good fun with plenty to keep explorer Daisy amused. She enjoyed the Macaws (something to do with her new favourite film RIO maybe?) and the kangaroos in the petting zoo. Adelaide has the only pair of Giant pandas in the Southern hemisphere so we had to pay them a visit before leaving. Pandas are supposed to be shy animals but they didn't seem to mind Daisy climbing all over them. We didn't really understand what the big fuss was about?
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