The day after “Australia Day” we checked out of the Alba Hotel on South TCE and headed to the Botanic Park of Adelaide for a guided walk at 10:30 am. Unbeknownst to us was that the guide may not show up since in was a hot day…. It was hot & the guide did not show up😏 That did not stop us from enjoying the park. We visited a most interesting, one of a kind, museum – “The Museum of Economic Botany”. Afterward we wandered the grounds and saw a couple new birds and gradually made our way to the car to go to a cafe for lunch. We discovered “Cotto Cafe” north of Adelaide. From there we headed to Hart of Barossa in the Barossa Valley. Our hosts, Michael & Alisa, friends of Lucia Perfetti-Clark (Michael was an exchange student at the Perfetti home in the mid-80s) we met in the early afternoon. We tasted some of their organic wine in their well appointed Cellar Door, unloaded luggage, changed into our “bathers”, and made our way to the pool for relief from a very hot day. While at the pool, a friend of the Harts, Julie, stopped by with some of her overflow ice cream (that which does not fit into the storage tubs) and chatted for a while during a lovely happy hour. Dinner was an Australian BBQ (sausages, steaks, & salad). As the mosquitoes came out, we moved indoors! We retired early to be ready for a full day – visiting the farmer’s market; touring the Barossa with Michael as our guide; lunch at a cellar door where we could create our own charcuterie; riding bikes; and a small plates/sharing dinner at a local winery.
New Zealand & Australia 