Adelaide, Barossa & The Hills (South Australia)

Evidently it has been a long while since I last posted about a trip! My plans to post about Leura after writing about the National Pass have obviously failed - 8 months later still no update. The awesome food-safari-esque trip to Penang Malaysia last year has also failed to materialise thus far, however, I will be writing about my most recent trip to the delightful Adelaide City and surrounds...Yeah!!

Courtesy of my awesome American Express credit card, I am entitled to a free domestic trip each year. As is customary RC style, the best time to redeem a free flight, is when it is just about to expire. As I panicked about the possibility of losing my free flight if I didn't act fast enough, I booked a trip to Adelaide, South Australia, for no reason other than, I've never been there before! As Mothers Day was approaching, I convinced mum and dad to go on this last minute trip with me, just so we could do something different for once on a weekend; and Mothers Day seemed like a good excuse to get mum out of the house! Luckily, my parents were both very keen on the idea, especially mum! Win!

Vineyards @ Barossa

I arrived into Adelaide on Friday May 18th - the last flight which Virgin operates to Adelaide. Given there were 3 of us here, I booked ourselves into a serviced apartment @ Mantra Hindmarsh. You can read my review of Mantra Hindmarsh here on TripAdvisor. I actually think a Serviced Apartment is the way to go for these short domestic trips if the group is larger than 2; and can highly recommend Mantra Hindmarsh if anyone is planning to visit Adelaide. 

Sat May 19th we set out to visit the world famous - Barossa Valley! Why is the Barossa Valley so famous? It is Australia's premier wine region. If you don't know anything about wine, just google Penfolds Grange, which retails upwards of $500 for a single bottle. It comes from the Barossa Valley! I've had the pleasure of tasting this beauty before, thanks to some very generous friends, but as I am not a wine buff/expert in any way, I was more interested in capturing the scenery of the Barossa Valley with my camera. The Barossa Valley is only a short one hour drive from Adelaide, so if anyone is going to Adelaide, you must hire a car and drive here. So as we were driving towards the Barossa and I could see the beautiful valleys and vast open spaces, I excitedly took my camera out of the bag only to realise, I didn't charge my D-SLR camera battery!! FAIL! Has it been that long since my last trip that I forgot to charge my camera battery? Luckily these days we are all equiped with Smartphones, so I reluctantly resorted to my iPhone, which I have to say, can take some very good photos. I was very impressed.

The Barossa Valley

The number of wineries in the Barossa can be rather overwhelming, so I'd highly recommend you mark
out a few wineries you're keen to visit before just driving off with no clear direction. I had a few recommendations from friends and colleagues so I pretty much followed that, and whilst we didn't visit the well known ones like 'Penfolds' and 'Jacobs Creek', I certainly had an awesome time visiting the four listed below:

• Château Tanunda - This was our first stop and I was impressed with visiting my first 'Château' of the region. The building is really quite impressive; and I did like the setup here where small wine makers can have their own stand to promote their wines; so you get to taste both those Tanunda wines and something a little different. 

Chateau Tanunda

Ready, Set, Go

• Yalumba - We came here purely for historical purposes. It is Australia's oldest family owned winery. I thought wine tasting experience was very pleasant here and the grounds were full of fabulous autumn colours. I definitely spent more time taking photographs around the gardens than tasting the wine. 

The beautiful grounds at Yalumba

Love Autumn colours and light!

With mum & dad

• Seppeltsfield - The drive into Seppeltsfield was probably the highlight of our entire drive in the region. The gardens surrounding Seppeltsfield are just gorgeous. I wasn't too impressed with the $5 wine tasting fee, and given it was so busy, I didn't actually taste any of their fortified wines there. However, do visit Seppeltsfield, you will be impressed with the gardens and grounds. And the drive into Seppeltsfield was certainly worth the trip! Especially when we drove past the grounds of 'The Louise' which houses the upmarket restaurant Appellation - the top 3 hatted restaurant in South Australia. Perhaps next time I visit the Barossa, I will make a booking at Appellation, just to catch that commanding view...for lunch!

If it's in a glass case, must be special!

I didn't get to the wines...so take photos of antique cars!

This is South Australia. Just loved the landscape. 

Aussie Farm Postcard shot

• Rockford Wines - This was a much smaller winery compared to the 2 mentioned above, however, it certainly had its own character and charm. I really loved this place. Again the drive into the Rockford estate was just gorgeous, especially since it was around sunset and we were driving towards the hills, a beautiful array of orange-purple shone through the landscape. 

Enter this little cute house to taste the wine! This place really had great character. 

Changing colours as the sun was setting...

Other Snapshots from the Area...

Thanks be to God!

Lutheran Churches feature prominently in SA. 

I have so many photos that look similar to this. Just loved the scenery!

Amazingly, even though I was just sitting in the car giving my dad directions of where to go, I was really tired by the end of the day! I'm glad we didn't plan a fine dining restaurant experience as I would not have enjoyed it given how much ground we covered! However, I would like to go back next time just to taste the South Australian produce, as it is advertised to heavily as being the best in the country, yet I didn't have a chance try it this time.

There's no time to rest on weekend trips! Sunday morning after cooking our own brekky, I headed out to Adelaide Zoo whilst my parents went to walk around and attend a tour of the Adelaide Botanical Gardens.

Adelaide Zoo - It has probably been a decade since I last visited a zoo, and normally I wouldn't go but since Adelaide Zoo has the privilege of hosting Panda's, I just had to go! It was worth my $32 just to see these cuties - Wang Wang & Funi eat their bamboo and play with each other. I have to admit Disney/Pixar movies have had a profound effect on me as I was almost expecting Wang Wang to pull some Kung Fu moves. Oh dear! And I was almost expecting the lions to break out into song. It's funny how the mind works! But yes, do pay the zoo a visit if you happen to pass through Adelaide.

Cute Pandas!

Wang Wang & Funi

Handsome looking lion there

These tortoises really did move slowly!!

Botanical Gardens - Whilst waiting for my parents to finish their gardens tour, I wondered into the gardens and really wish I had more time here to explore and photograph the scenery. It's located just next to Adelaide Zoo.

Autumn has clearly arrived at the Gardens

Adelaide Hills - Another highlight of the trip (I seem to have too many!) - wow just a fabulous drive only 30 minutes away from the city. I was really pleasantly surprised on our drive to Hahndorf, which is Australia's oldest German settlement town. We probably only spent around 30-45 minutes at Hahndorf but I really love how they have used their German heritage to lure tourists. It works! I certainly felt like I had travelled to Germany for a short period of time. The shops here I guess were typical of country town shops (just thinking about my visits to Leura & Berry last year) but with a German twist. If I could plan my Sunday again, I would have definitely headed here for a lunch or a cup of coffee and some German pastries.

Driving into Hahndorf

Shop at Hahndorf - just like I went to Germany for a day!

Hahndorf

Quaint old houses on Main Street

Artsy crafty stores

See what I mean by German? 

Christian Heritage of the region can be seen throughout this area

We also stopped by Mount Lofty on our way back to the airport - whilst the lookout itself was Ok I thought - nothing that remarkable, it was only a lookout to see Adelaide City from the top, again, the drive towards Mount Lofty was really quite nice.

View from Mount Lofty lookout - can't see a lot with this light and clouds! 

Overall the weekend trip to Adelaide was just superb. I went to South Australia with zero expectation but came back pleasantly surprised by the experience. It's definitely good to get out of my own city & state once in a while. Australia is so much larger than simply NSW or Sydney. The time spent with my parents was just precious too. Happy Mothers Day Mum!

Happy Mothers Day!