Adelaide

We arrived in Tanunda, which is in the heart of the Barossa wine region about an hour outside of Adelaide, late afternoon on St Patty's Day. Amy and her boyfriend Hugh were kind enough to let us crash at their place for the next 5 days or so, while we explored wine country, checked out Adelaide and celebrated Amy's bday.

When we arrived Amy was having a bbq with a group of friends to celebrate St Patty's Day, so we just joined in! Lots of Guinness was consumed, as well as lots of delicious wine and food. It was really nice to sit and chat with Amy, Hugh, their friends and their two animals, Cooper the dog and Mika the cat. Everyone was so nice and welcoming and we had a great time!

Our first day there was a pretty lazy one. We slept in and did some laundry. Then we spent most of the day organizing the rest of our Australian adventure. We booked another camper van to drive from Sydney to Cairns, a few tours (of Fraser Island, surf camp, etc), booked our hostel for Sydney and tried to nail down some dates for the next few legs of our adventure through Asia. We also spent the afternoon helping one of Amy's friend (Jo) prepare a huge Chinese food feast. Jo was in Tanunda visiting Amy from Sydney for her bday, so it was a full house! But we helped Jo make spring rolls, ribs, fried rice, chicken balls, etc. There was so much food, but Amy had apparently requested it all and Jo was very nice to prepare it all for her bday. We ate like kings that night! I loved every second of it, but I guess it was a little too greasy for Dave because by that night he wasn't feeling very good. In fact, a few hours after dinner he was violently puking. It was so loud - everyone was a little worried about him.

Dave was still feeling really weak and not great the next day so we had a bit of a lazy day. He did manage to leave the house by early afternoon and we went to visit Amy at work. You see, Amy works at the St Hallett's winery in Tanunda. She wasn't too busy so she gave a tour of the winery and then I did a little wine tasting, while Dave watched. The wine was all so yummy! That night we just relaxed - I drank some more wine with Jo and Amy, Hugh had some work to get done and Dave sat quietly recovering on the couch.

An amazing wood carving at St. Hallett's winery

 

Dave seemed to have a little more energy the next day so we decided to make our way into Adelaide and explore the city. We did a little shopping, walked through Chinatown and went to the market. Laura, you are going to be so jealous because it was the beginning of feijoa season - it is a fruit with a very interesting flavour - and I was able to hunt some down to try. I don't think I like them as much as you do. That day was actually Amy's real bday so we went out for dinner to a restaurant called FermentAsian - get it...because it's in the Barossa?! It was delicious.

We all had the chef special, which was about a 6 course meal of all specially prepared dishes. We definitely ate some things I had never had before, but it was all really yummy. And of course, there was more wine to go with it!

On Friday, Amy had the day off so we spent the day with her and Jo. She took us on a little wine tour to all of her favourite wineries, as well as a little shopping in Tanunda. It was such a cute little town with tons of little shops - cute vintage one's, really nice clothing stores, delicious looking little cafes and restaurants...I really like Tanunda. What Amy didn't know, was that her boyfriend Hugh had planned a weekend away for her and her friends to a little area in the Barossa called Clare. So, once our day was done we had to try and get her to pack an overnight bag and get in the car without asking too many questions. Everything was going really smoothly and they had all told her a lie so she had no idea what was going on, until the cat got out. Dave, Jo, Amy and Hugh and I spent almost 30 minutes looking for that stupid cat since we wouldn't be coming home later that day. Unfortunately, we never got her and she had to spent the night outside that night. But off we went to Clare.

Hugh had rented this cute cottage there. There was almost 10 of us there and we just spent the night drinking, eating, dancing and socializing. But to top it all off, Jo had bought us all matching onesies. So we did all of the above mentioned in matching onesies. A hilariously fun night!

Happy Birthday Amy

 

Sadly we had to catch our flight to Sydney the next morning so we said our farewells to the crew, especially Amy and Hugh. I love seeing familiar faces and catching up with people, but we were off to Sydney next and we were very excited!

Thanks for reading

xo