Our first day in Adelaide just happened to be Halloween. While the holiday is not as big here as it is in the USA, they still celebrate it. We had bought the boys scary masks in Auckland before we left. We set out around 6pm in search for candy. After finding a house here and there giving out candy, we located a neighborhood with several homes partaking in Halloween. It seemed like it was more of a neighborhood night out type of holiday to them. The houses handing out candy all seemed to be having parties with friends and neighbors. Nevertheless the kids still made a haul and had a great time in the process.⁶⁶yh h
Our Airbnb in Adelaide is enormous. We are the first ones to rent this place and got a steep discount because of it. We also got a discount for renting it for a month. It has been great for hide and go seek since it’s around 3000 square feet. Our place in Auckland was about 800 sq ft which was not as ideal for hide and seek. It is located in a city called Semaphore South about 20 minutes from Adelaide CBD. We are about 2 blocks from the ocean and are a few houses down from the bus stop.
We took an Uber to the Adelaide Central Market. It is an indoor market with over 70 vendors selling everything you can think of. The market is one of the largest in the southern hemisphere. There are also many restaurants inside. We bought some fruits and vegetables, meat and got some icecream. Connected to the market is the Chinatown area. There all all kinds of Chinese restaurants, grocery stores and other shops in the area. We ended up getting some awesome pork dumplings, steamed buns and spring rolls.
There is a free tram that runs through the center of Adelaide CBD. We took it from the market over by the Adelaide Oval a giant stadium where their rugby and cricket teams play. We got tickets to see U2 play there later in the month. Across from the Oval was an Asian festival called the Oz Asia Festival. They had a bunch of food vendors, music and other Asian cultural activities. We then bought transportation cards and figured out how to take the train from town back close to our Airbnb. The cards work on all kinds of transportation around town and you can transfer from one to another for free for two hours after you board.
About a mile from us is the Semaphore Steam Train. It is a small tourist train that rides along the beach for 2km and then comes back to the station. In order to turn around they unhook the engine and pull it onto a turn table. They then go around the train cars on a separate track and attach the engine to the opposite side of the train. The kids thought it was a lot of fun. Our favorite thing was the toothless train worker named Blue. Tom wanted to tell “you’re my boy Blue” to him.
We walked to the end of the Semaphore Jetty, a giant pier that goes out into the ocean. There were lots of people fishing from the pier. Once back on land we saw signs for a free bike rental at the local library. We decided to head over and ask them about it. Turns out if you leave collateral like your Visa you can take a bike for as long as you want. There are lots of bike paths by the beach that would be fun to try out. We did get a library card and checked out a few puzzles to work on at our Airbnb. Both puzzles were missing quite a few pieces. We learned our lesson and purchased puzzles from the mall the next time. Locals can check out up to 100 items at a time from the library which seems a bit much compared to the 5 items that we can check out.
There was a free Cricket game at the Adelaide Oval that we decided to attend. We watched a quick rules tutorial on YouTube before we left but it did not help. It was fun to watch but quite confusing. Perhaps we will meet someone that can explain it to us.
One night as we were getting ready to go to bed we noticed a heavy police presence outside our house. Turns out somebody had lost control of their car and drove it into the real estate building a few doors down. The driver and passenger fled on foot but were apprehended. A local reporter stopped buy asking if we had security cameras and told us about the incident. We watched the story on the news later that day.
It is no secret that our boys love transportation vehicles. We made sure to hit up the Historic Railway Museum in Port Adelaide. It was a very neat museum with all kinds of trains for the kids to check out. They also had a model steam train that we rode around the museum grounds. After that we headed over to Pirate Life Brewing. It is an enormous brewery housed in a really cool brick warehouse. We got some food from their food truck and Mom and Dad sampled a flight of beers. We then walked down by the harbour to check out some of the old ships and the lighthouse. Port Adelaide is a really fun area to check out.
Like in Whangaparaoa, NZ we found a great community pool in Adelaide for the boys to swim at. Open swim for the whole family is only $10 which is a seems like a very good deal still. Our boys both love to swim so it has been a great resource.
Every Sunday in Port Adelaide, they have a Fisherman’s Wharf Market. We Ubered over to check it out. It’s a giant two level building filled with merchants. Most of it was things we didn’t really need, but we did buy the first Harry Potter book to start reading with the kids.
Just down a little from the market sits The Clipper Ship of Port Adelaide. It is a historic ship that used to take 300 people at a time in search of a better life from England to Australia. The journey took around 90 days and it took the ship a full year to make it back to England. There are upwards of 250,000 decendents living in Australia from the people that made the voyage. This ship is one of a few like it remaining in the world. It was transported from Scotland to Adelaide to be restored and turned into a museum. It was very interesting and really cool to see.
While walking down the harbour towards another giant 100 year old sail boat that was offering free tours we spotted a dolphin in the water. It was pretty amazing to see. Tom and the boys had never seen one that was not in captivity.
After a quick pancake lunch, we took a bus over to the mall. It just so happened that Santa was visiting that day, and on November 10th none the less. The nice thing about this Santa was that he was free and allowed us to take our own photos. Later on we found Santa walking down the mall and the boys ran up and gave him a great big hug. It was really cute. Mason had been afraid to sit on Santa’s lap in each of his previous years so it’s nice to finally have a happy picture with him.
We love the beach. The beach here is different than the shell-filled beaches of New Zealand or the surfer beaches of Sydney. It is very shallow and has some seaweed as the tide changes significantly. It has been nice to be able to walk the short distance to the beach. We look forward to several more beach days as the weather starts heating up.
Since the kids had so much fun on the trampoline at our Airbnb in New Zealand, we took them to a trampoline park called Bounce. Our whole family had a great time jumping on all of the different trampolines. Mom and Dad were sore for several days, but it was totally worth it!
About 13 minutes from us by car is Henley Beach. It is a wonderful little area full of shops, restaurants, a Jetty and a great beach. We spent an afternoon walking around the area and had an awesome dinner in a restaurant located on the second floor of the Henley Surf Life Saving Club that overlooked the ocean.
We began our Chistmas season in a new way this year. We participated in Port Adelaide’s holiday festival. We went to the parade. We saw the local community organizations and their floats. The kids got lots of high fives and some candy. Then the boys took part in a few free carnival rides. After grabbing a quick dinner, we watched fireworks. The boys loved. It turned out to be a great show and a nice way to kick off the holiday season.
We are looking forward to the return of both Grandmas along with Chelsea’s sister Dr. Courtney. They will be with us the rest of our time here. The Grandmas will then head on to Perth with us at the end of November where Courtney will leave us.