Adelaide

We arrived on Kangaroo Island last night after a nice relaxing few days in Adelaide with Helene and her kids. We did loads and loads of washing and managed to buy most of the things on our list that we needed, like new shoes for the kids, cooked up a lasagne (that Daniel had been missing) and Nick and the boys went for a visit to the Haighs chocolate factory while I dropped in to see Liana and Hannah in her new office. The kids got to use the computer, watch tv and play with other kids’ toys so were very happy, and we got have nice hot showers and use the toaster and oven. Yesterday we had a brief visit to the SA Museum as our only real bit of sightseeing in Adelaide, where we saw some Egyptian mummies and a whole lot of minerals – did anyone know that they are making gem quality Emeralds now? As we drove away from the museum (which Daniel hadn’t been enjoying that much) they started talking about seatbelts on buses, like the ones that they go on school excursions on, which prompted Daniel to say wistfully “I miss school excursions”… I didn’t take that very well considering we’d just been on an ‘excursion’ and had trouble getting him interested. I think what he really meant was that he missed the bus trip with his friends… anyway after that we had a quick play in the cool Belair NP adventure playground with Luka and Mette, Helene’s kids, quickly packed up and headed down for the evening ferry (or fairy, as Daniel keeps calling it).

I’m glad that we’re getting the ferry back next week in the day time because there is probably a great view as you come across, but it was dark last night. It was still pretty cool for the kids to see all the cars in the middle of it (ours included), and watch the huge trucks reverse on – Nick and I were amazed to see them reverse a truck with two trailers joined together onto the ferry in one go like it was a little two door car – I still haven’t got my head around reversing our trailer yet. It’s only a 45 minute ride but it was still pretty fun for the kids, so it will be even better in the daylight. Then it was a drive around the island (which again would have been much nicer in the daylight) and Bron and Mike were waiting for us. The kids’ eyes nearly popped out of their heads to see the shelves and shelves of lego things made up so we had to drag them off to bed, and they’re now fully ensconced with Joel and Kian making things. Unfortunately they and Bron have the flu at the moment, so this will be a test of our immune systems! This morning we’re off to do some exploring I think, the plan is for Flinders Chase NP.