REAL TALK WITH DANIELLE - Travel in Adelaide: The Hidden Gem of Australia
/Where is Adelaide??
Adelaide is a hidden gem nestled in South Australia, about an hour and a half flight west of Melbourne. We spent almost 3 weeks there, so be prepared to learn everything you ever wanted to know about a place you didn’t know existed until now...
How did you end up there??
Trusted Housesitters is an online community in which homeowners ask house sitters to take care of their homes while on vacation. This also works out very well for travelers looking for free accommodation abroad. Most of these sits include taking care of pets, and let me tell you, our experience in Adelaide has been the best yet! Our wonderful hosts showed us around Adelaide before going on vacation and it was fabulous getting to know some locals and hearing about their experience living in Australia. We took care of their absolutely gorgeous dogs, JJ and Dusty (pictured below). Our hosts were even nice enough to leave us their car while they were away, so we were able to visit some places off the beaten path.
Left: Dusty - Bichon Frisee x Poodle *** Right: JJ - Terrier x King Charles Spaniel
Real talk, you all know that I would not promote a service unless I absolutely 150% believed in it. Travel is, for me, one of the most important things I could do with my time. But it costs a lot of money to book accommodation! So how do I get free accommodation anywhere in the world? TrustedHousesitters allows for just that. After doing a few housesits in Boston, we have already been able to find 6 weeks of housesits internationally. We get to spend time with some adorable animals in actual homes, and we’ve saved $1500! If you’re into the idea of free travel, don’t forget to: click my link! Even better, you’ll be helping a friend out because, full disclosure, I get a little $$$ if you use my link!
Activities
New Years Eve from Windy Point Lookout - Adelaide hosts fireworks from a few different locations. Although we were quite tired from travel, we still wanted to experience at least some fireworks. So we made ourselves a little wine and charcuterie board, and headed over to Windy Point in Belair, where we got our view of three different fireworks shows happening across Adelaide! It wasn’t too crowded and really exciting to see on one of our first nights here!
Belair National Park - This park has loads of wildlife, and is inhabited by large packs of kangaroos. I love animals, and, to my surprise, the kangaroos let me approach within 5 feet of them! (However, at that point, a few of the males started lining up in the back to stare at me, so I backed off!)
Harrison Music - This was a great little music store with two floors! Terrance and I love finding these because we don’t have our instruments, and we’re desperate to play. I played some keyboard and practiced a new song I’ve written.
South Australia Museum - This national history museum was full of interesting exhibits! My favorite was a giant squid that spanned the length of all four floors of the museum. As we ascended the staircase, we saw the 36-foot squid from all angles! The museum also had an impressive collection of Aboriginal art. We learned about the long history of oppression the Aboriginal people have suffered, and although it’s not as bad as it used to be, Australia still seems to hold onto some of that casual racism.
Holey Moley Golf - This was a fun outing to beat the heat (104°F)! This is an indoor mini golf course that is designed to look like famous movies. They also have a full bar and pizza. (It’s kind of like bowling, but added cuteness and less grossness). The staff was really laid back and fun as well! They also have locations in Melbourne and Sydney.
Cleland Wildlife Park - This was hands down my favorite part of Adelaide. The park has all the animals you think of when you think Australia. Kangaroos, koalas, wombats, wallabies, etc. I wrote a lot about my experience with the koalas in my last post because people were surprisingly rude to staff (Click here for more on that!). But one thing that I absolutely loved about the experience was feeding the kangaroos. We were literally in fields with kangaroos walking up to us for food. We even got to feed a baby!
Open Mics - We went to two open mics while in Adelaide, Alma and The Goody. Both were hosted by the lovely Marcus Toop. Not only is he an excellent musician, but a really kind person who cares about building the music community. We met him and quite a few new friends. The Adelaide music scene was overall really warm and welcoming!
Mount Lofty Hike - What I learned on this hike is that I’m way more of a beast than I thought. (Well...) Okay, so it wasn’t that easy. Actually it was really fucking hard. This is a steep hike. I don’t really hike all that much, and this was the first time that I was on a trail that was marked as a difficult hike. But the point is, after 1617 feet, I did it! And here is the photo evidence of me proving to myself I can do physically challenging things...
Deviation Road Winery - Fabulous in every way! Such a scenic view of the vineyard while tasting some delicious wines and eating from a charcuterie board. My favorite was a Lofty Vintage Brut, which combined pinot noir and chardonnay (did not know this was possible!)
Beaches - All of the beaches here are absolutely stunning and we were lucky enough to visit Port Norlaunga and Brighton. Port Noarlaunga is huge and was hosting some competition sports while we visited. We also got to walk the dogs from our housesit here and they seemed to love the beach! In Brighton, we watched some epic sunsets, and there is a very special place called Royal Copenhagen Ice Cream on both beaches... more on that below!
Food:
Royal Copenhagen Ice Cream - This was the most delicious ice cream we had in Adelaide. This ice cream chain lets you top your cone with UNLIMITED SPRINKLES. (My inner child was so satisfied.) There are locations throughout Australia. Their original flavor tastes like butterscotch ice cream, and was quite good for being a grandparents generation ice cream flavor.
FruChocs - The best kept chocolate secret in the world, perhaps? The FruChocs factory covers anything you want with chocolate. They are most famous for their chocolate covered apricots, which are clutch! But their little store is located at the McLaren Vale winery part of town and they have tons of candies to select from which you can get chocolate covered in minutes!
Mandoo - Another hidden gem we would have never expected. These were the best dumplings I have ever tasted in my life. Crunchy, not greasy, yummy goodness on the inside. They were just absurdly good.
Schnithouse - Schnitzel is fairly popular in Australia! There was a wave of immigration here from Germany, and they brought the yummy schnitzel recipes along! This place is a pub atmosphere, and they pile on the schnitzel and fries! A good cheap and cheerful restaurant.
San Churro Chocolateria - Mecca for chocolate lovers (AKA me). This place is known for making “real” chocolate, and although I don’t really know what that means, it tastes way better than your average Cadbury bar! My favorite thing here was the gold chocolate and ruby chocolate. These are actual flavors of chocolate (like white chocolate or dark chocolate). I don’t know why, I don’t know how, I just know YUM.
Beck’s Bakehouse - Our wonderful hosts took us out for this treat near Port Norlaunga. This place was absolutely packed. We tasted a lot of Australian dessert favorites including vanilla slice, chocolate éclair, and lamington (a sponge cake dipped in melted chocolate and covered with coconut).
The Duck - Another very nice restaurant/bar that our hosts introduced us to! The food here was absolutely excellent. We shared some appetizers including hummus, pita, and eggplant parmigiana! There was also a lovely porch outside to sit with the pups.
Fancy Burgers - The weirdest burger I’ve ever had? The ingredients used in these burgers were not common, but somehow they worked! I had the Sunrise Surprise, which included tomatoes, avocadoes, and pineapple! I would have never thought pineapple and a burger go together, but don’t knock it til you’ve tried it!
Travel Tips and Fun Facts:
“Buggered” and “Knackered” are my favorite words used for tired and exhausted.
If you order a a chocolate milkshake in Australia, you are ordering the equivalent of chocolate milk in the United States. If you want a milkshake like in the US, you order a “thickshake”.
Candies are called lollies! And cotton candy is called Fairy Floss!
The fires in Australia have cost so many people their homes, and 23 people their lives. Not to mention over 800 million animals have been killed. We have met so many people who have said to us “We’ve never had anything like this.” We were luckily pretty far from the fires, but we could still smell smoke in the air occasionally. If you have not donated already, I truly implore you to please, please donate to any of the organizations linked below. Climate change is happening now, and Australia needs our help!
New South Wales Rural Fire Service - many of these firefighters are unpaid volunteers!
RSPCA New South Wales - help the animals!
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