Adelaide Zoo

So on our final full day in Adelaide we were all excited about our trip to Adelaide Zoo and it didn't disappoint. Our friends contacts meant we were allowed special access to the veterinary dept inside the zoo where the children were looked after whilst we watched a seal post mortem. We also managed to get a glimpse of Adelaide's two new pandas, Wang,Wang and Funi which literally had been opened to the public that week and not in a post mortem sense either.

We spent most of the morning and early afternoon taking photos of animals and herding kids before heading once more to the beach to escape the heat and enjoy the sunset, kite surfing and food. Kite sufing to all newbies ( included me) consisted of a surf board and a kite and we watched in awe as a particularly able individual was pulled huge distances into the air perfoming aerial acrobatics before landing deftly on the sea surface once more. I could have watched all day and longed to have a go but knew deep in my heart I would have spent more time combing the bottom of the sea with kite and board perched on my head, wondering where the sky had gone.

Oh My God I Thought Adelaide Had Good Weather

With yesterday's temperatures in the 40's( but not matching Melbourne's 43 degrees ) we looked forward today to a tour of the wine valleys( yet another attempt by me to try wine tasting!) But again it was not to be as the heavens opened and a biblical flood descended on what had been promised as a much more reliable city for weather than Melbourne. Even our trip to Hasslehoff as I liked to call it but more accurately know as Hahndorf, descended into a watery farce as we sloshed our way through road rivers to try and enter folksy shops to look at soveigners. some of us exhibiting more relish than others at this prospect with Sarah bemoaning at our reluctance, "but I don't get out much!"

We finally managed to pull the shopping deprived mother of three from yet another fleece me fleece me you tourists'll buy any sort of shite shop on the promise that we would stay with the younger kids whilst she hit Adelaide shopping mall with our older two of our girls, on a fashion spree. Poor woman! So as Sarah set off on this adventure, we settled the youngest of the party down in front of a dvd player to watch the very young child friendly, eighties classic , The Lost Boys...

Adelaide

So yet again we set off for another break. This time however we were forced to leave Grant home alone( no more holiday leave!) whilst the girls and me jetted off for sunnier climes leaving sourpuss sulking in his cave back in Melbourne.

This break involved once again the Archard Clan , also leaving their paternal figure at home working whilst Sarah did the six and a half hour drive across country to Adelaide.

Our main reason for treking to this part of Oz was to catch up with friends from Vet school , Claire and Gerry whom had relocated to Adelaide some three years previously.Unfortunately our third dick vet veteran whom also lives in Adelaide, had left for a " holiday" in the North of Britain enjoying the best that British weather could throw at him and boy did it throw some big ones this winter, so glad we missed that but sorry that we missed him!

On our arrival Gerry and Claire kindly picked us up from the airport and then proceeded to take us to the beach as shark bait. I watched in fear as my kids frolicked in the sea along with the Archards, checking the horizon for any sign of a raised fin. I was rewarded with the sight of numerous fins emerging from the waves and only partly put at ease as my friends reassured me these belonged to a pod of dolphins and then returned to panic again when we saw a helicopter overhead as these, I was informed, tended to follow sharks for visiting tourists to photograph from above.

Still it was a very nice beach and a very nice afternoon as was the thai we enjoyed that night in central Adelaide, but dont ask me which street as I never got to grips with the Adelaide system of roads and travelling in different directions at different times of the day, oh and a sat nav with a sense of humour and short term memory loss!

Holiday photos on Flickr

This is going to be a little out of synch as we haven't finished the Taz blog, but Flickr links to holidays for both Taz:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36445314@N08/sets/72157622941696189/

and Sharon and the girls trip to Kangaroo Island:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36445314@N08/sets/72157623116635655/

Taz - last day of guided tour

Our last day of the guided tour was brilliant sunshine again. Somewhat annoying as today we were going for walks into some caves, while yesterday it was wet while trying to climb - aarggh.

The caverns where interesting enough and after these our personal guide returned us to civilisation or only just....

However we did manage to find a decent resteraunt in Launie for our last night so it was almost saved although it was a very scary place after midnight;boy racers, drunken yobs throwing beer cans, vomiting on street corners and not a policeman in sight... mmm. Maybe we are just getting old?

So in summary, Taz is a little Bogan, but the countryside is beautiful and there is loads to do - we barely scraped the surface in our 6 days, with other national parks, the 6 day Overland Trek, white water rafting on the Franklin river, and a shed load of nice towns in the South around Hobart to visit. .

Taz - the Guided Tour - day 2

The next day , having got the into the groove again for quality hill walking, we drove further into the hills and entered the hydro electric dam area, to climb Mt Murchison.

Mt Murchison I'm told is a dramatic peak, and the occasional break through the clouds enveloping its upper half suggested as much. Unfortunately the clouds wouldn't budge, and an hour into the climb it started raining. As we had to get through a rock band, Aron called the walk off deciding it would be too slippy.

We then dropped down into what I thought was some kind of illegal immigrant deportation centre. Turns out it was a "hydro" town, which was no excuse really. Aron at this point drove us to one of the dam edges and wandered off to catch lunch. Unluckily or luckily he was not successful and we enjoyed a more routine lunch of ham and cheese.Post lunch we went back to Cradle mountain and completed the lake walk in reasonable weather.

On the way home we stopped off at the alpine lodge where Aron generously allowed us a couple of drinks - a little unfair as there was no choice in him being nominated driver. Unfortunately this was two drinks too many for Sharon, exhibiting her ability to crash into a drunken stupor on a whiff of alchohol and then bounce back 2 hours later. How we laughed - actually Aron didn't, and spent the rest of the night looking a little perplexed/bemused.

Taz - Cradle Mountain

After our 2 days of Tasmanian "orientation" we

got picked up at the start of our 3 day guided tour in the Cradle Mountain/Lake St Clair National Park.

This trip went off to a good start as the guide turned up in a 20 seater mini bus, saying we were the only two on the tour. Our own chauffeur driven bus, and dedicated chef.

The trip started at a hectic pace with a 3 hour drive up to Cradle Mountain, initially through endless poppy fields (Taz is the worlds, or is it Southern Hemispheres, largest grower of medicinal opium). Personally I thought all opium was medicinal but this particular strain has been modified to remove the "recreational" component. The poppy fields turned into alpine meadows with quite impressive rocky peaks glowering in the distance.

Stopping off at the way in a country town we picked up supplies. Aron our guide seemed a bit taken aback when I interpreted this as the need for a large cardboard box full from the bottle shop.

We arrived at Cradle Mountain itself about 1pm, and as the weather was so good, decided to undertake the 6 hour round hike that very afternoon. It was a fair old trip, with the last hour involving a reasonable amount of scrambling. How the trainer clad, placcy bag carrying Japanese tourists manage it is beyond me, or come to think of it the 90 year old stooped pensioner we saw climbing down. The views from the top were well worth the walk, with views disappearing out into the mountains, in full sunshine and no heat haze.

That evening we arrived at our eco bunkroom cabin (i.e. composting toilets, solar heating and rainwater tanks), drank and ate, and found out that it's cold in the mountains at night, hazah for wood stoves!!