Adelaide

Next it was off to Adelaide where we traded Caron and Michael’s five star treatment for Julian’s royal tour. Julian has a beautiful apartment in the city near the main conference centre. Tereza, “Julian, your Italian mamma taught you well - we had white robes, towels, slippers, soap, smarties all waiting for us! Oh, did I mention we also had access to the gym and Jacuzzi!” Julian did the tour guide thing and took a day off work to take us around Adelaide and its surrounds. Adelaide is a beautiful little city, with wonderful old buildings, churches, galleries, Boer War Memorials, libraries, universities and “oh yes!” the mandatory red light district. The centre of the city is a square mile with planned parks all around. The residents are quick to point out that the city was founded by free settlers (as opposed to convicts) and is one of the more liberal and progressive regions of Australia, having been the first to acknowledge women’s right to vote (well before the UK). It is also the site of the Governor General’s plush residence (ie the guy who is in charge of Australia on behalf of the Crown – all rather archaic stuff to me) as well as a large Free Mason’s Lodge (intriguing – perhaps their arcane rights of initiation require sheep!).
Julian took us to a wine farm in a small village founded by Germans called Hahndorf which Julian’s father aptly calls Kokstad (Ricky missed it until Julian explained that “hahn” means chicken in German. Ricky, “And I thought it was a reference to the hallucinogenic drug “harn” referred to in the book “Brave New World” which I understand is derived from a Greek word meaning “to make one Godlike”). Not surprisingly the wine farm was called “Hahndorf Wine Farm”. This wine farm has been established by two South Africans (previously from Mulderbosch wine farm). They have been very successful in Adelaide and have won awards for their wine. Their farm is beautiful setting with picturesque vine fields, rolling grass lands with scattered copses of gum treas. Like this infusion of South African’s into South West Australia, the surrounding countryside reminded Ricky a lot of the Orange Free State and Stellenbosh rolled into one.
Then it was drive through to Port Elliott where we had a fantastic seafood lunch at the Flying Fish overlooking the sweeping azure bay and drinking delicious wine. After lunch Ricky and Julian waddled out into the sea and played like kids jumping off a bleached wooden jetty. All in all a glorious day! Julian thanks for an unforgettable time, filled with great food, great sites and great conversations.
The next day we spent touring the library (all libraries in Australia conveniently have free access to the internet), galleries, a quick trip by tram out to GlenElg (similar to Manly Beach in Sydney) and Central Market which had a mouth watering range of cheeses, meats, fruits and vegetables. And lets not forget the “Zuma café” (perhaps he has a plan!).
That evening we had slow dinner with Julian at Grange café watching the sun set over the sea before heading for the airport to fly to Auckland. It was a fitting end to our brief travels through Australia, leaving the gold embossed waves slowly fading in the back of our retinas as the plane taxied onto the runway.