mum played chauffeur and was more than happy to give boyfriend the complete adelaide hills tour. we started at mount lofty (adelaide's highest point), where we battled the wind and rain (with me in a maxi skirt and less than ideal jacket) to get a glimpse of the city of churches, before hitting the gift shop, and hitting the road. from there, we headed 'down the road' (that phrase would get old quickly) to cleland wildlife park; we had a date with some koalas.thanks to a discount voucher mum had, we saved a packet on entry and managed to navigate our way to the koalas feeding area a mere ten minutes before they were to be taken away for their afternoon naps. we lined up with the asian tourists and children on their school holidays, and waited for our turn. when we finally had our three minutes with the furry fella, it was like all of boyfriend's christmases had come at once! he was nervous and excited, and mostly terrified of the rumoured 'poisonous piss' he was warned would kill a human...
from there, we headed to the kangaroos. armed with bags of animal feed, we coaxed a couple of smaller roos into feeding from our palms - cue the childlike excitement from my other half (again), until of course, a giant red roo came bounding over looking like he wanted a fight - then we were out of there. we walked around the park in the wind and rain for the best part of an hour, taking in the native animals that boyfriend had only ever dreamed of seeing in reality. we saw bandicoots, potaroos, kangaroos, koalas, tassy devils and a couple of different lizzards and birds. he was beyond thrilled.
it was about lunch time when we decided to head off. fuelled by hunger, we headed up to hahndorf; adelaide hills' original german settler town. there, we hit up humbugs for the obligatory sweets splurge, before making our way to the hahdorf arms for lunch. reading over the menu that boasted the best sausage in adelaide, it was hard to decide what to eat! eventually though, i settled on a chicken schnitzel burger, while boyfriend went for the giant hot dog. 'giant' being the understatement of the century - it was bloody enormous!
full and happy, we headed home through the hills. we stopped in at Gumeracha - home of the big rocking horse, and boyfriend finally got to meet a flaming galah - and a cheeky cockatoo! it was late afternoon by the time we'd reached home, and we were knackered - jet lag had well and truly caught us up. we had dinner plans with a few of my school friends later that night, so to kill some time and recharge the batteries - we hit bed for a power nap. like a couple of rock 'n' rollers. two or so hours later, we were back in the swing, and ready for the night ahead!
sarah - one of my oldest friends (since we were seven!) picked us up just after six, and we headed into north adelaide for dinner with some of my favourites. montezumas - what i remembered to be a delicious mexican restaurant was... not as i remember, but definitely still made pretty strong sangria. necessary. once there, boyfriend was the centre of attention, fielding questions left right and centre while i caught up on three years worth of info from seven different people - saving him from conversations as required. by the time the staff were kicking us out, we weren't really done. we moved 'down the road' to the lion, where we sat and drank and did more of the same. soon enough, it was later that before, and it was time to go. the hours sort of... melted into one big blur of old faces and heaps of accent mockery.
that night, we were shattered. day two was about ticking things of lists. day two was a chunk of memory lane walking. day two was exhausting.
bloody awesome to see my mates again, though. but hard to say goodbye... again.
