Mt Gambier/Adelaide Weekend February 2013

Weather in Mt Gambier - 28

Weather in Adelaide - 32

Before we headed over to Adelaide this weekend we diverted to Mt Gambier as Craig's sister has just moved there with her job and we thought it would be a good opportunity to see where she lives and works.

We left Bendigo around 2.45pm on Thursday and arrived in Mt Gambier at around 7pm without any mishaps. We booked into the motel and after depositing our bags in the room, headed into the attached pub for dinner. After dinner we headed over to Sister's house which is brand new and really nice. She had just finished work and was trying to quieten down the dogs who were so excited to see her home. We chatted with her and David before making arrangements to meet for lunch tomorrow then headed back to the motel for a sleep. After waking on Friday morning, having a shower with our thongs on (wasn't the cleanest of motels and there was no bath mat provided) and breakfast we headed out to discover Mt Gambier.

Mt Gambier is the major service centre for the limestone coast and is surrounded by volcanic craters, lakes, limestone and underground aquifers. It is home to and most famous for the Blue Lake which changes colour dramatically. Early in November the lake starts its colour change from winter steel blue to brilliant turquoise blue and then in March changes back to steel blue. It's 500 metres across and 70metres deep and is the source of water to the city. Mt Gambier's population is around 20,000 people but services around 80,000 people.

Firstly we headed to the Umpherston Sinkhole (referred to as "the sunken garden") which was once a cave. The sinkhole was created when the top of the chamber fell to the floor of the cave, creating a perfect environment for its sunken garden. The garden was created by James Umpherston in 1884. Next we headed to the information centre however we were too early and it wasn't open but there was a big ship out the front called The Lady Nelson which travelled to Mt Gambier from England in 1800.

Next we headed to Blue Lake where we had a guided tour descending down the volcano via a lift through the old well shaft and tunnel to learn about the hydrology of Mt Gambier's water supply and stories of local history and aboriginal legend. That was quite interesting.

Then it was off to find the house where Sir Robert Helpman was born and raised until 1914 when the family moved to Adelaide. From there we headed to the centre of the town called the Old Town Hall district to see the Cave Garden which in the winter has a waterfall, saw the newly redeveloped City Hall and strolled through the main street soaking up all the old buildings as well as a coffee and a cake.

We thought we'd better have a look at sister's workplace and as we wandered through the streets we saw the Old Oat Mill - a fairly impressive building. Finally getting to sister's workplace, we took a few happy snaps and then proceeded to walk down the other side of the main street to the car. Sister's work is just around the corner from where we stayed last night. If we'd known that she could've met us for a drink at the pub!

Hopping into the car, we drove to Engelbrecht Cave which is a huge complex of limestone caves which reach right underneath the streets of the city. We would have liked to take the tour however it was nearing 1pm and time to meet sister and David for lunch. Lunch was relaxed and leisurely at the Vanilla Bean café. We left Mt Gambier around 2.45pm to head over to Adelaide. On the way we drove through Penola. We stopped to have a look at the Woods MacKillop Schoolhouse. This is where St Mary Mackillop taught for a short period of time and the church nearby where she prayed. I went into the church to see the stained glass window depicting Mary Mackillop but the Schoolhouse wasn't open. So it was a short but interesting stop.

We arrived in Adelaide at around 7pm and after checking into the hotel (5 star Rendezvous Grand Hotel Adelaide) we were directed to restaurants a few blocks away where we could have something to eat. The only trouble was that most of the restaurants were chinese and Craig really hates paying for what he considers a take away meal. I spotted a pub so went inside to ask if they were still doing meals and we were in luck, so l grabbed Craig and we opened the menu to choose a meal only to find it was a chinese menu which was provided from the restaurant next door!!! Oh well….it was nearly 9pm and we were very hungry so we just made do and it tasted pretty good. While we were eating we heard some drums and clashing cymbals being played somewhere so after we finished eating we investigated and it turned out to be a dragon dance as this weekend is Chinese New Year. Looked just like what we would see in Bendigo.

On Saturday after showering and dressing we drove to Macca's for breakfast then headed off to the Adelaide zoo. It's the only zoo in the southern hemisphere that has giant pandas and l thought Craig would like to have a look. I've already seen pandas when l went to Hong Kong but it was still awesome. One of the pandas was asleep but the other one was awake and walking about. We spent about 90 minutes at the zoo taking in the tall giraffes and tiny meerkats (they were so cute!), chimps, a sick lion, baboons and a kookaburra. It was a lotta fun J J We had booked in for a free tour of Haigs chocolate factory at 11.30am so we hot tailed it over there and learnt about how Haigs started and also got to taste some of the chocolate. It was yummy and l ended up buying some as well. Haigs actually started in Mt Gambier! Time for lunch and back near the zoo is to the National Wine Centre so we drove there and had lunch. We got a free glass of sparkling each but of course l had to drink Craig's seeing as he doesn't drink….the things l do hehehe. After lunch we drove to Glenelg beach and wandered the seashore collecting shells then we drove a little further to Hallet Cove, a 51 hectare conservation park of geological interest whichi is located about 22 k's from Adelaide. The glacial pavement at Black Cliff, and melt-water sediments are recognised as the best record of Permian Age (280 million years ago) glaciations in Australia! Really very interesting and beautiful. I picked up a few great looking rocks while l was there.

By this time it was nearing 6pm and l was starting to get absolutely b*****ed so we made our way back to our hotel. It had been so hot and we had done so much walking that l decided to put on my swimmers and take advantage of the hotel pool to cool off. Craig came with me but he sat on one of the lounges and read his magazine. After a wonderful swim and shower l was feeling refreshed and we decided to walk to a nearby hotel for dinner which was nice enough. It was a pretty early night and l went to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Up early and checking out before 8am, we decided to have breakfast on the way to Hahndorf however it was too early for the locals with nothing being open. We didn't even see a Macca's! On the way, we stopped to have a look at the Bridgewater Mill waterwheel which was huge then continued onto Hahndorf, driving past a large selection of eating places before settling on The Hahndorf Inn for breakfast. We were quite hungry by then so ordered scrambled eggs and bacon, orange juice and a coffee for Craig and green tea for me. We sat outside and watched the town lazily open up for Sunday trade. There were a lot of old cars driving up and down the main street so we guessed there must have been a car show in town. We didn't have a look around the town for a couple of reasons, it was still too early so not a lot was open, there wasn't enough time and l have already seen it albeit it some 20 years ago, but it didn't look like too much had changed.

After a very satisfying breakfast we continued our journey to Birdsville, home of the National Motor Museum. It's Australia's biggest motoring collection and is home to over 300 vintage, veteran, post war, classic and modern cars, commercial vehicles, and 100 motorbikes! This was very interesting and nostalgic for Craig. There were a few cars in there that he'd driven as a youngster and a few that he'd love to own now. I found it quite interesting as well and took lots of snaps. I guess we spent about 90 minutes having a look around before deciding that we'd better get a move on if we were to get back to Bendigo at a decent hour. We stopped at a pretty nondescript place for lunch which was horrible and arrived back in Bendigo around 7pm.