7th – 11th December

Hello to an old friend

Sam and I grew up over the wall from each other in Great Urswick. She’s now done the amazing move with her family to Australia, and since had her third little one, Casey 😍. I hadn’t seem Sam for a year and a half, Casey was 9 months old already! My first time meeting her, she’s absolutely gorgeous 🥰. It was so lovely to catch up with Sam, see Dean, Levi & Keris again and hear all about their new lives down under! Oh, and meet Teddy the pup, the other new addition to the family! We spent the afternoon catching up by their swimming pool in the sunshine 👌.

Family Weekend

I arrived on a Friday, it was great timing that I’d planned to arrive in time for the weekend, everyone was off so I could spend time with the whole fam. The following morning I went for a run (thank god Adelaide is less hilly than Sydney!). We went shopping for a couple of bits on Saturday, Levi and Keris wanted to get Casey her own ‘Build a Bear’ for Christmas and find card etc. to make their own Christmas cards ☺️. Then later in the afternoon we went to their friend’s salon opening and had a few drinks.

When we got back Keris and I took Teddy out for a walk all around the trails by the park. It was such a lovely chance to get to know her properly – a really bright and sweet kid, definitely full of beans! We took longer than expected and got back to a bbq dinner that had been ready for a while 😬, it was still yummy!

Sam kept taking the piss (as she does, like a big sister!) that I was like Ben from the Inbetweeners 2 movie with all my SE Asia travel stories 😂. So that night we watched the movie, felt very apt for Australia. I swear that’s the only reason most Brits know about Byron Bay!

The next day we went kayaking, they have two kayaks and Levi loves it! I had a go first, good fun and a workout for the arms! I then sat and had cuddles with Casey whilst we watched Dean, Levi & then Sam kayak up & down the creek. It was def a well deserved ice cream moment after this, I had one with Levi & Keris before we hit the road 😋. We all had a swim in the pool when we got back and a chilled evening.

McLaren Vale

Alexa and I had arranged to do my favourite thing together on the Monday, drink wine! Adelaide is well known for its wine regions and I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to hit up a couple of vineyards! (You know me 🥴) Alexa was staying with an Airbnb host, Thomas, who was born and raised in Adelaide. Thomas very kindly offered to take us to the closest wine region for the day, McLaren Vale, to which he had been many a time!

I started out the day with another workout to make me feel better about spending the day drinking vino. The one thing I was supposed to remember was my big bottle of water so I didn’t get dehydrated, which, of course, I forgot 🙈.

We went off to the vineyards late morning. It was great getting to know Thomas and chatting to Alexa again (and reminiscing about our, interesting road trip 🤨 ). Thomas had 3 wineries in mind, which were all different and interesting in their own way. The first was called Alpha Box & Dive, a small, newish, quirky winery that was aiming to make wines that had names starting with each letter if the alphabet, hence the winery name. The guy doing the free wine tasting was also quirky and a fun true Aussie, not holding back with the swearing 😂, he was great! We tried a few wines and a prosecco, most were lovely and I enjoyed the prosecco so much I decided to buy one as a thank you present for Sam & Dean for when Sam is able to drink again after breastfeeding. Of course I took the obligatory pics of the wine list to show father when I get back 😁.

Thomas had made lunch reservations for us at Pizzateca, a popular Italian that is usually hard to get into on a weekend. I can see why, the food was authentic & delicious and the setting was gorgeous.

We then went onto the second winery called Molly Dooker. This was set among the vineyard and had the most stunning, romantic view of rolling hills and the vines. This winery was a bit more commercial, we paid for the tasting and were able to try around 12 wines! Starting from white, to rose and onto the reds, with a fizz or two in there too. Some weren’t too great, but some were lovely. We had the last few sat outside on their decking in the sunshine, chatting away and enjoying the experience of feeling a bit posh!

The Cube

The finally winery was not just about the wine, it was a full on experience in itself! Thomas hadn’t told us too much about it so it would be a surprise, and that it was. The owner of this winery had had the crazy idea of creating an Alice in wonderland type maize, where there’s different rooms to go through and experience before reaching the tasting room at the top of the cube. It was so much fun, so different to anything I’ve seen before! I would definitely recommend to go if you’re in Adelaide! There was a weird cinema room that told a story about the winery and its owners, a sense room where you could smell different hidden fruits and flavours that you may find in the wines and reveal whether you got it right, a maize pathway and even the toilets were done in an eclectic way. We reached the top with little time to taste the wine, but don’t worry, we managed 😂, tasting a couple of white & reds and taking in the view. I bought a bottle of The Hermet Crab Viognier Marsanne as a gift for Mark & Charlotte for having me.

After this we went back and I said goodbye to Alexa and Thomas after an awesome day. But it wasn’t over! Sam insisted I had to see their beautiful nearby beach before I left, so we did the typical seaside thing and had chips followed by ice cream 😋, apparently the Copenhagen ice creams are meant to be one of the best brands in Oz.

Off Back to Sydney

I said bye Dean that night and to the Sam & the kids the next morning before I went on my way. I’m so grateful for them putting me up in their lovely home and for their amazing hospitality – lovely home cooked dinners and showing me round their new home. Sam & Casey dropped me off at the train station and I jumped on a train to Adelaide city centre. There I had a wander around, seeing a couple of touristy sites including the central market (full of yummy treats!). I then made my way to the airport for my next flight, back to Sydney! One day until I see my Tommy!! 😆😆😆😆