Leaving Tasmania behind meant that each of the four ports
yet to visit in Australia would be new ones for us. And to say that our love affair with this
incredible country continued, would be an understatement. Australia always fascinated me and the more I
see of it, the more interesting it becomes.
Our next destination was Adelaide, the capital of the State
of South Australia. That means that by
our third trip here, we have now visited five of Australia’s seven states: Queensland (Cairns and Brisbane), New South
Wales (Sydney), Victoria (Melbourne), Tasmania (Hobart), and now South
Australia (Adelaide). The two remaining
states are West Australia and the Northern Territory; the former we will visit
in a few days.
Even those with limited knowledge about Australia know that
it is noted for its charming indigenous animals, many of which are marsupials
like the kangaroos and koalas.
Historically, most know that Australia was founded as a penal colony and
that the English colonization founded Sydney and Tasmania for that
purpose. Barb commented on those roots
in a previous post. The history of South
Australia is vastly different as our Explorations Speaker on board, Dr. John Crews
pointed out in his lecture on South Australia.
Clearly the purpose of founding a colony in South Australia was not to make it a penal colony. Rather there would be a careful selection of settlers
to go to South Australia with an emphasis on young married couples so that it
would encourage a natural population growth.
Rather than the rough and tumble kind of individual that might be
expected with a primarily convict population, the people in South Australia
would hopefully be of a higher moral caliber.
A major debate ensued among some of the British founders,
first as to where the major city and capital would be located and then what its
name would be. The present city of
Adelaide was selected and named after “Adelaide”, wife of King William. Founded in 1836, the city boasts a population
of about 1.2 million inhabitants and ranks as Australia’s 4th or 5th
largest cities. Another group of people
encourages to make the long voyage by boat to the southern continent were
German craftsmen who settled a community known as Hahndorf. When the first ships arrived in South
Australia, they arrived in December, right at the beginning of summer.
(It’s
hard for those in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in northern US and
Canada to think of December as the beginning of summer, but we always have to
take our months and reverse them by six months.
Thus, for us, “December” – the beginning of summer equals “June” – the
beginning of summer. Then it’s easy. Therefore, this month, “February”, so think
“August”. When our Lincoln-Way travel
group visits Australia and New Zealand in June 2014, we have to think
“December!” The only consolation is that winter in Australia isn’t the harsh
northern winters we experience with lots of snow. Rather we have been told to expect highs
around 15° C or mid 50s F.)
Settlers had no idea as to what to expect in terms of
climate, but they knew the kind of heat they experienced was vastly different
from home. The 40° C that South Australia recently experienced is pretty hot by our
standards, unless of course, one comes from someplace like Arizona!
We had an arrival time of 10 AM (by
the way, South Australia is one of the rare places where it is a half hour
ahead of New South Wales and Tasmania, not a full hour) and as we were docking
there was a small band, “The Old Gum Tree-O” Bush Band playing rousing Aussie
music for us, including a rendition of what Americans think of as the Aussie song, “Waltzing
Matilda”. Since we had a complementary shore
excursion from our cruise booking agency, AAA, called “ Hanhdorf, the Adelaide
Hills, and Wine” scheduled at 11 AM, Barb and I were anxious to make a quick
trip to the terminal which had several souvenir shops set up. Barb in particular had had little opportunity
in Australia to check out shops, so was eager to do so. We made our quick trip out and back on in
time to check in for our AAA tour.
Our tour whisked us out of Port
Adelaide to Adelaide itself rather quickly.
I was impressed with the unique architecture of the area. Early settlers had used the abundant stone to
construct many of the buildings. Those
sturdy buildings continue today, though many are used for different purposes
than originally planned. Many stores are
built of stone and often have porches on second floor levels. Individual homes are nicely maintained and
again are often old stone homes. In
front are many leafy trees, providing ample shade for a relatively hot
climate. We noticed that the ground was
quite brown but most of the indigenous trees need little water.
Entering Adelaide, our guide explained
that the city is ringed with parkland so that one can’t come into the city from
any direction without passing through a parkland area. That adds to the charm and beauty of the
city. Adelaide was also noted years ago
for its many churches; today churches are outnumbered by the pubs and
nightclubs. We passed elegant state
government buildings as well as Adelaide’s major universities.
Unfortunately our guide, who told us
that there was zero per cent chance of rain for the day, said that the sky was
hazy and gave the appearance of clouds, but the haze came from the smoke from
brushfires burning in Victoria, the state to the east of South Australia.
As we left Adelaide, we climbed to
higher elevation to Mt. Lofty where we had a nice lunch at the top consisting
of quiche, fries, a leafy salad and a variety of cheeses for dessert. There was an opportunity to look out over
Adelaide for a panoramic view but it was obstructed somewhat by the fire-caused
haze in the area. There was a
commemorative “Flinders Column” for the man who had explored the area and also
a monument to those lost in a dramatic Ash Wednesday 1983 fire that burned
trees and killed several people. It was
a stark reminder to those who live in the area as to the constant summer
dangers from forest fires. A tower is at
the top of Mt. Lofty and is manned 24 hours a day to be on guard for
fires.
Our next stop was the German community
of Hanhdorf. Organized in 1839 by
Prussian immigrants, it was named for the captain of immigrant ship, Dirk Hahn,
which brought the Germans to the Adelaide Hills outside the city. The community was consistent with the theme
of South Australia in that settlers came voluntarily and represented a group of
industrious people who were determined to be a success in this far away land.
Today, Hahndorf is a magnet for tourists who come to browse the shops for
handcrafts and to eat in one of the many German and other style restaurants and
coffee shops. We enjoyed our hour and
half visit there and enjoyed wandered in and out of the shops before returning
to the bus and heading for the Penfold Wineries in the Barossa Valley. Since neither Barb nor I are into tasting
fine wines, we just tagged along with the group. Neither of us cared to
participate in the wine tasting, but I joined the group for the winery
tour. Barb’s foot was bothering her
again after so much walking during the day, so she opted to sit with a few
others who had chosen not to do the winery tour. Although I have visited other wineries, I
figured it would be more interesting than just sitting and waiting for the tour
to end. We wouldn’t elect to do an
itinerary with a winery tour and wine tasting unless the rest of the tour
looked outstand, or unless the excursion was complementary as this one was from
AAA.
After the tour ended, we drove back to
the ship, but by then we were crawling through Adelaide at afternoon rush
hour. We took a somewhat different route
and did enjoy seeing more of the parkland that marks the boundaries of the city
and having the opportunity to admire other stately buildings there as well as more
of the unique architecture that Adelaide offers. While we knew we would be late for our dinner
seating, there was an Aussie Outback BBQ on the Lido Deck which we attended
with our Aussie friends, John and Gerda.
As our next port, Kangaroo Island, is a part of South Australia and lies
only about 9 miles from our Port Adelaide, our departure was an unusually late
11 PM.
As February draws to a close, regret
that our stay in New Zealand and Australia will be ending soon. The emphasis on those countries embracing
about a quarter of our cruise time was a major reason for booking this journey,
so we look forward to savoring the time in the last several ports in Australia!
CT
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