Adelaide
After taking a super early flight we made it to Adelaide with time to spare before our Kangaroo Island ferry. This was planned on purpose so that we could stop by one of the opal shops in downtown Adelaide :)
The shop owners here buy the raw sandstone and cut/polish the opals themselves. They actually supply most of the Sydney shops that sell opal jewelry as they are wholesalers, so Adelaide is the best place to buy them. Directly from the experts!
It was a really neat process though, the shop owner brought out several bags of already polished black opals, dumped the contents on this black tray and we would both sort through them. He had me begin by selecting a few I liked so he could get a sense of the color I was going for. Once we found around 30 or so, he then chose 5 that were the highest quality of the ones I chose. I then picked my favorite, which just so happened to be the very first stone I selected from the whole bag! Meant to be :)
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| sorting through all the opals, hard to choose! |
I've always wanted an opal for my ring, but just recently discovered and fell in love with the black opal since we've been in Australia. The black opal is the rarest form of opal, found only in opal mining fields in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales in Australia. It comes in all sorts of colors, but I was drawn to the blue/green shades...
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| the opal I chose, it actually was the first one I selected from the group |
After choosing an opal, we left it with the shop to create the setting around it. I basically showed him a few pictures and he drew a design and knew exactly what I was looking for. He then said we could pick it up when we get back from Kangaroo Island on Friday the 13th :-P
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| lunch after the opal shop, Justin and I love these turkish style food places! |
Kangaroo Island
From Adelaide, it's about an hour and a half drive down to Cape Jervis where the 45 minute Sealink ferry takes you to the island. We had a rental car with us, but luckily I didn't have to back it up onto the ferry like the cars in the photo :)
Our airbnb was then about a 45 minute drive from the harbor, in a place called American River. As there are limited grocery stores and gas stations on the island, we replenished both before making our way to our new place to stay for the next 3 nights!
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| Airbnb view, with our rental car in the foreground :) |
American River
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| Sunrise in American River |
We learned the history behind the area we stayed on the third night we were here, after taking a nocturnal tour with a local. American River isn't actually a river, it's a bay, but is named for the Americans that built the first sealing boat here, called the Independence. A little American history where we didn't expect it!
Lots of wildlife just walking around our little neighborhood...
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| Justin says these holes are dug by kangaroos looking for food |
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| American River harbor, where the sealing ship, The Independence, is believed to have been built |
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| cool rocks along the bay |
Remarkable Rocks + Admiral's Arc
Our first full day here we set off to drive to the southwestern coast of Kangaroo Island. On accident, I took the road out that cuts through the center of the island... actually got us there faster but was a very boring drive. Lets just say Kangaroo Island is a lot like Australia in the center, not much going on lol.
But, we eventually made it to the remarkable rocks!
These rocks are the result of 500 million years of erosion...
Right next to Remarkable Rocks is a place called Admiral's Arch. Lots of seals hanging around by the rocks and underneath the arch! I hadn't done a lot of research on Admiral's Arch, so walking down the steps and seeing the arch itself was really cool... beautiful place!
We then made our way back on the road I meant to take originally, which had a little more activity than our first road.
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| Justin wanted a picture of the long roads I put him through lol |
We stopped at Seal Bay on the way back, which after seeing all the seals at Admiral's Arch we weren't as impressed by. However, it was still a beautiful beach and coastline! A lot of the seals are actually from New Zealand that migrate here, and Admiral's Arch is their resting spot while they make their way around to Seal Bay.
Stokes Bay Beach + Emu Bay
Our second day we decided to do a little less driving, and see the Northern beaches. Stokes bay was our first stop, and my favorite beach in Australia so far. It might have been the journey to get to the actual beach, but the beach itself was just gorgeous once you step through the rocks.
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| entrance to the beach, doesn't look like much, does it? |
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| Following the rock path to the beach, it was only about a 5 minute walk |
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| Are we going the right way? |
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| Just duck and squeeze through.... |
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| The final rocks to mark the entrance to the beach! |
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| Stokes Bay Beach |
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| Looking back on the rock path! |
The beach had some really smooth pebbles and rocks, so Justin got artsy with his photography :)
After hanging out at the beach for a couple of hours, we decided the view from top would be cool to see too... so we hiked up the hill above the beach.
We ended the day stopping by Emu Bay, and then exploring Kingscote a bit.
Nocturnal Wildlife Tour
Before we headed off to Stokes Bay Beach I decided to book a nocturnal 4WD tour for our last evening. At this point in the trip we had only seen a few kangaroos on our way to our airbnb initially, and had seen more seals than kangaroos/wallabies! haha. We were kind of limited with our rental car, and since kangaroos/wallabies will jump out of no where at night, I hadn't been driving our rental car after dark. So, I thought this tour would be a cool way to see them. Turned out that the tour guide lived right across the street from our airbnb, and it was only Justin & I on the tour! Pretty neat evening where we saw a lot of wildlife and even learned a bit about the history of Kangaroo Island.
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| Don't mind us, just being creeping shining flashlights |
We saw tons of kangaroos who were already active at dusk, then we saw tons of wallabies after dark. The wallabies wait for night to fall because there are several species of birds of prey that hunt for them during the day. We were also lucky and saw two echidnas during our tour, the guide said these are rare to see. At the end we spotted a possum as well, our guide was determined to find one for us and it was actually on the same street our airbnb was. I have to say they are much cuter than our American possums!
It's hard to make out the echidna in these pictures, the red light is used because it doesn't disturb their night vision as much as a normal light.
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| Possum butt! |
Overall I'm really glad we came to Kangaroo Island, and especially glad we did the nocturnal tour. Although it was a very rural island, it was kind of nice coming from the big city to relax some more and get back into nature.
Back in Adelaide...
After Kangaroo Island we made our way to our Adelaide airbnb, which has been our favorite airbnb so far. It was just really well thought out, had some modern appliances we hadn't seen yet (an induction cooktop and washer/dryer combo), and had a beautiful patio with lots of plants.
Annnnddddd, on Friday the 13th, we got to go pick up my ring! So so happy with how it turned out! Even the shop owner said it looked like a ring I would have. Really glad I chose that shop, love that it is locally owned and they are experts in the opal/diamond field. And I feel like genuine customer service is a rare find these days. I really couldn't of imagined a more beautiful ring than the one they made for me...
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| The shop has a simulated mine underneath, this is what raw opal looks like! |
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| I kept choosing opals with ocean colors, and I love how the wavy design carries that theme |
Barossa Valley
Of course, we couldn't leave Adelaide without visiting the Barossa! Alicia recommended Rockford Wines, so that was our first stop. Tried some delicious whites and reds, but especially liked their Moppa Springs blended red, it's grenache, shiraz, and mataro grapes. We also visited Langmeil winery and Chateau Tanunda. The pictures below are from the Chateau Tanunda winery, when we remembered to take some pics :) I especially loved the sparkling shiraz at both of those wineries, love a sparkling red! The aussies say to drink it with breakfast! We also got to try a $125 bottle wine that's been aged for 100 years at Chateau Tanunda. It is usually reserved for the paid tasting, but the employee said we traveled a long way so we should try the best. Pretty neat to try, very smooth red wine.
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| Our goodies, one from each stop :) |
The rest of our time in Adelaide we pretty much chilled out, got some
work done, caught up on some tv shows, and basically enjoyed more of a
normal routine that we both were craving.
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| an afternoon at Maslin Beach |
Now, it's time for Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road! Can't believe our time in Australia is coming to an end soon, and that we've officially crossed the halfway point in our trip. Hope everyone back home is doing well, thanks for following along with our journey!
- Sarah
"Because when you stop and look around, this life is pretty amazing"
~ Dr. Seuss
p.s: continuing the theme of things Justin loves... in Adelaide it was the combined washer/dryer in our Airbnb (just put the clothes in and it washes and dries them all in one), and an airport sink...
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| modern airport sink :) |
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| washer AND dryer |
