Cockatoo Island

The best thing about having friends visit from outside Australia is getting motivated to do things that we, as new locals, have not yet done.

5 days after arriving back from our trip to Kangaroo Island and Barossa Valley, Adam and I had two new visitors. Meghan and Sims, both coming from The U.S. for their first trip to Australia. They had quite a wild ride and after visiting Melbourne and going up to Cains, they came down to Sydney to visit us for a week.

Adam had heard about Cockatoo Island, an island pretty much people-less with the exception of a bar that only recently opened to the public. Cockatoo Island opened in the mid 1800's as an imperial prison but became Australia's largest shipyard in the 20th Century. However, all maritime activities ceased in1992 leaving it pretty desolate most of the time.  We went on a Monday evening and as it turns out its the only night the bar is not open!! Ugh! Still it was pretty cool getting to see the Island where movies like "Wolverine" with Hugh Jackman were filmed.  Check out our pictures and some of them should remind you of the movie.



A quick and beautiful ferry ride from Circular Quay will get you there in no time. Its about $13 for a return ticket but keep in mind ferry times to and from the island are limited and the Island Bar is not open on Mondays.

The Island also offers over night camping and is a great venue for outdoor concerts and parties.

Appellation-- for my foodie friends

In my last post, I mentioned the #1 restaurant that we went to while in Barossa Valley, Appellation. It was a fantastic restaurant with amazing food and staff. We all agreed that our server was the best we had see in a long time, a young lady travel through from South Africa.

Our server began the evening with complimentary champagne for the table!

Here is what was on the menu...

The Head Chef, Ryan Edwards,  prepared some tasting for us to start with. These were not on the menu.

roasted red pepper covering with avocado stuff on the inside

White and red beatroot salad with some yummy cheese

We began with a salad off the menu which turns out was everyone's favorite dish. This is so unique with an explosion of taste!

Salad of fragrant spiced roasted sweet potato, pepitas and toasted almonds and cumin

Then came the mains...

Hutton Vale Lamb with braised vegetable fruits, pearl cous cous and sherry jus

Rare fillet of Coorong Angus beef and broccoli with tarragon emulsion

Fillet of South Australian snapper with pilaf, zucchini and chervil butter sauce

We ended the meal with a beautiful selection of dessert tastings compliments of the chef!

South Australia Part Deux: Barossa Valley

The second half of our South Australian trip was spent driving up from Kangaroo Island to the Barossa Valley, Australia’s largest and most famous wine region. This being my first time to a wine region or even a winery for that matter, I was thoroughly impressed and at awe of the beautiful vistas that surrounded us.

We stayed in Lyndoch at the Abbotsford Country House, which overlooked rolling hills and vineyards. Our rooms were beautiful and we woke every morning to a fantastic home cooked breakfast.

Our first official day in the Barossa began with a hearty breakfast of our choice and then we were off to our first winery, Peter Lehmann. We arrived fairly early, thankfully beating the crowd that streamed in later. Upon arriving we were greeted by Sally. She guided us in the correct way to taste wines, moving from the lighter whites to heavier whites and then to lighter reds before finishing with the really strong reds. If you go to any winery I seriously suggest going here! Sally served us tastings for a wide variety of wines that were all free! Amazing! Bob and Holly liked some of the wines so much that they ended up buying 2 bottles. One such wine was called Stonewell, which we ended up bringing to dinner and drinking later that night.

Since this was my first time wine tasting, I was so happy to be accompanied by the lovely Holly Vagley and her exceptionally sophisticated palette.  She explained the basics and told me what to look, smell and taste for. Every wine tasting went a little something like this…

Sniff, Swirl, Sniff and Taste

Next we went to the Maggie Beers country store.  She is considered the Barefoot Contessa of Australia with her own slue of cookbooks and snacks. We did some sampling and were on our way.


The second winery of the day was Torbreck. It’s a smaller, boutique winery that was recommended to us by our lovely hosts, Dale and Quentin, from Kangaroo Island. They told us to ask for Ben Mullen, who happens to be their daughter's roommate. Ben was terrific! He helped us select some great wines to taste and told us about a wine of theirs that sold at a charity auction for over $88K. These wines were great but they are hard to find in The U.S. so he recommended buying them at the cellar door.

Last but not least we hit up the Charles Melton Winery.  Dale and Quentin also recommended this winery to us but not only because it has great wine but because their daughter Melanie Chester works there. Upon arriving we instantly found Melanie, a super bubbly and sweet young lady. Turns out she is going to school in Adelaide to get a degree in viticulture and oenology and let me tell you she knows her stuff. We started off with some sparkling rose wine that was followed by some reds. All very yummy but we were starting to get hungry so we sat outside (vineyard side) for a delicious lunch. I had a tasty cheese platter with local olives, bread and dried fruit. I sneaked a couple tastes from Adams beef pie that was pretty amazing as well.

Completely wined out by this point we decided to explore some of the surrounding towns before we heading back to Lyndoch to get changed and head to dinner. We ended up getting reservations at the NICEST restaurant in Barossa. Its called Appellation and its located at The Louise, a luxury hotel. Appellation was the perfect dinner to end a great vacation in South Australia as the next morning we ate breakfast and headed off to the airport.

We arrived at the airport and thanks to Bob and Holly, who were traveling on Qantas, we were able to accompany them to the Quantas Gold member lounge. We ate, drank and relaxed as we waited for our plane to arrive. We noticed a lot of guys that looked like they were in rock bands and right across from us was a guy that looked like Slash, from Guns 'n' Roses. Adam did a quick search on his iPhone and found out that a major rock festival had just come to Adelaide, and all the rockers were waiting to fly to Perth for the final show. It did turn out to be Slash, who kept his hat box right next to him!

Yet another great ending to a great vacation. Lots of love and thanks to Aunt Holly and Uncle Bob for including us in such a memorable vacation.

Kangaroo Island

My aunt and uncle were recently on a cruise touring New Zealand, Tasmania, and southeastern Australia that terminated in Sydney and wanted to see a bit more of the country. They generously offered to include Sharon and me in their travels, so we began looking at various places to go. They had a limited amount of time and Australia has a large number of places to go so it was a tough decision, but eventually we settled on Kangaroo Island and the Barossa Valley, both in South Australia.

Early Wednesday morning we met at the airport, still groggy from a late Tuesday night dinner, flew into Adelaide, picked up a rental car, and drove the 2 hours south to Cape Jervis where we would take a ferry over to Kangaroo Island. The drive down the coast and through the hills  was stunning. In parts you've got the ocean on your right and high, rolling hills on your left. Then you get deeper into the hills and are swallowed up on both sides as you zoom past farmsteads and quaint towns.

We boarded the ferry with our SUV and then clambered up to the top deck for the 45 minute ride over to Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island. I decided not to get a GPS, thinking I would just use my iPhone to navigate once arriving on the island. It didn't occur to me that I might not have any service…which it turns out I didn't. We resorted to using a map in a free tourist booklet from the ferry to navigate to our lodge in Cape Willoughby, on the far eastern side of the island. This led us up a deeply rutted dirt trail. As we bounced and lurched up the trail and I worried about breaking an axle we encountered a downed tree blocking the trail and decided this couldn't possibly be the right way…no one would stay at this place if this was the only way to get there. We retraced our steps and stopped at a gas station, got directions, and were on our way again.

Kangaroo Island is big, about 90 miles long and 35 miles wide at its widest point. Only a few of the roads are paved so an SUV is recommended (and for this reason I'm not even sure if a GPS would have the dirt roads programmed in). We quickly ran out of paved road en route to our lodge and rumbled the rest of the way there on hard packed mud and gravel.

As we turned up the private road to our accommodation for the next two nights, the Sea Dragon Lodge, we saw our first wild kangaroos snacking nearby. We'd all seen kangaroos, or roos as Aussies call them, in zoos before, but there was something about seeing them in the wild that made it much more exciting.

Quentin and Dale, the lodge hosts, came out to greet us and show us our rooms. The house had three large suites; two were off the main living and dining area, with a third requiring a 5 second walk out on the huge deck facing the water and down to the door. The two suites I saw were both very large (one had its own living room) and looked out onto the water. The setting was beautiful -- besides one other home a few hundred yards away there was no one else around us. The yard in the rear of the house tumbled towards a small beach and the water and Eucalypt trees filled the hills. We could see kangaroos grazing in the distance. Kangaroo Island roos are a subspecies of the Australian Western Grey that are only found on the island. They are similar in size to the Western Grey, but have a darker and thicker coat of fur, which makes them easy to spot against the golden-hued grass in clearings.

We sat on the deck, drank some wine, and ate some cheese and crackers while taking in the view before going inside for a dinner prepared by Dale. There was another couple there on their honeymoon who were very pleasant. Tired from a full day of traveling we all crashed early.

On Thursday morning we woke up and enjoyed the continental breakfast the lodge provided. Quentin helped us map out a plan of attack for the day and by 10:30 we were back in the car and rumbling towards the far western side of the island, 90 miles away. Despite the bumpy roads, the scenery was spectacular. Besides a few small towns on the island -- and I do mean small, the entire population on the island is 4,000 -- the land is mostly wild or planted with vineyards or given over to sheep for grazing. After 45 minutes we met up with a paved road and continued west.

Quentin had recommended stopping at the Koala Walk in Hanson Bay Wilderness Retreat. Dale said sometimes a lady was there with a baby kangaroo that we could see. When we arrived we were the only ones there. A box requested $2.50 per person and I dropped in a $10 for the four of us. The Koala Walk is basically a long dirt path lined with tall Eucalypts. It wasn't exactly what I expected: the koalas were indeed there, but they were so far up the trees all you could see were tufts of fur hanging over a branch. We later learned they're more active in the morning and evening and even climb down the trees, but for the time being I was ruing the wasted $10.

Then we saw a guy who worked there and asked if the  baby kangaroo, called a joey, was there and whether we could see it. The guy, Mark, said no problem. He led us to a large pen where there was not one but two joeys.

(It turned out Quentin had told us to stop at the Eucalyptus Oil Distillery, where the woman often has a joey with her. We just remembered the instructions incorrectly and lucked out that the wilderness center was raising a couple roos).

Ruby had been orphaned when her mom was hit by a car (there are tons of dead wallabies and a few roos on the side of the road in KI); she was found alive in her mom's pouch. Matty was also found abandoned at a young age, though Mark didn't know what happened to his mother. Mark had initially put the two roos in his room to make the 4:00 AM feedings less painful. Now, at 12 months old, they slept in a shed inside the pen. They were about 2 1/2 feet tall and probably weighed around 30-40 pounds.

As soon as we entered the pen they hopped over to us and lifted up their heads for a good chin scratch. Then Mark asked if we'd like to feed them. Already feeling that just getting to pet them had more than made up for the Koala Walk, we jumped at the chance. Mark went in the shed to heat up two bottles of milk while we kept Matty and Ruby entertained.

As Mark walked out with the milk his walkie-talkie buzzed and he picked it up. A tour bus driver wanted to see if it was okay to stop by even though it wasn't scheduled. Mark, who was beginning to seem like the most accommodating person on the planet, said no problem. He asked us if we wanted to help out and carry the roos down the path to the beginning of the Koala Walk where the tour bus would stop. He pulled out two fleece bags, which the joeys gladly went tumbling into head first, to use as carrying cases.

My Aunt Holly picked up Ruby, who was slightly smaller, and Sharon picked up Matty, although she passed him to me for a break mid-walk. We sat on a bench at the end of the path and bottle fed the roos while all the other tourists took photos and ooh'd and aah'd over them. The experience really set the bar for all future wildlife encounters. Mark said they'd be released back into the wild (which is pretty much the entire island) once they got older. I'm sure they'll have an affinity for human contact the rest of their lives.

After parting ways with the joeys we got back in the car and made our way to the entrance of Flinders Chase National Park, a huge conservation area encompassing the southwest and west of the island. First we stopped to see the Remarkable Rocks. These are massive rocks perched on the edge of the ocean, surrounded by scrub bushes. They are formed from granite and are ancient. Some parts of the magma that formed the granite when it cooled was weaker than others, and these parts have eroded more quickly, leaving fantastic shapes. It really is a worthwhile trip.

We then drove over to Admiral's Arch, which is a another rock formation. This one is not as remarkable for it's structure so much as the fact that it is base camp for a colony of New Zealand Fur Seals. There were hundred of seals lounging, playing, and fighting with each other. Great White Sharks inhabit the ocean and feed on these seals, and we were told sometimes sharks can be seen from the boardwalk. Unfortunately, we didn't see any.

We made the 2 hour drive back to Penneshaw for dinner at the only pub in town. I was determined to eat kangaroo (Sharon said she couldn't after holding the two joeys), which was on the menu, but the pub was out. I settled for a burger which consisted of a small piece of stake, bacon, and a fried egg on top. We drove back to the lodge in the dark, driving slowly to make sure we didn't hit any roos that might be on the road.

On Friday morning we got started early since we had to be on the ferry going back to the mainland by 5:30. We drove about an hour to Seal Bay, which ironically is home to an endangered species of Sea Lions. There is a free boardwalk that goes down to the beach where the Sea Lions lounge. There is also a tour ($27.50 per person) that goes down to the beach. We opted for the tour and were underwhelmed. The guide didn't offer much information and my uncle had to keep asking questions to learn anything. I'd recommend checking out the boardwalk first, because sometimes Sea Lions sleep right next to it, and then if you can't see anything do the tour.

We piled back in the SUV and cut through the island to Stokes Bay on the northern side. It had been a grey, gloomy morning but the sun finally started to show around noon, which made a huge difference. Stokes Bay is a beautiful beach that can only be accessed by hiking through some giant rocks. On the western side of the beach there's an enclosed rock pool perfect for swimming.

We'd been told there was a wonderful café right by the entrance to the beach, but it was closed so the owners could attend the funeral of a young man from the island killed in Afghanistan. So after the beach, we drove 30 minutes east to Kingscote, the largest town on the island (which is still pretty small).  Whereas Penneshaw had one pub and one Italian restaurant, Kingscote had several restaurants, some gift shops, and was the seat of the island's government. If you're looking for any kind of action, this is pretty much the only place to go. In fact, we saw a sign that any drunken behavior would result in a ban from all Kingscote bars for 6 months, which would effectively crater a local's social options.

We drove back to Penneshaw to board the ferry back to Cape Jervis and on to the Barossa Valley.