After a long 10 and a half hour journey we finally arrive in Adelaide; South Australia. Its strange to think that if we were to travel for the same amount of time in England we could of travelled the whole length of the UK, whats even stranger is that we had to alter our clocks, we skipped a whole time zone! Loco!

We are met at Adelaide train station by Dave who is Toms childhood friend from when he lived in a land down under. He drives us back to his flat in Brighton where he is the manager of the family bakery; Brighton Jetty Bakery ( which by the way is a temple of yeasty and pastry goodness!) We are staying with Dave in his flat above the bakery, the flat is SA-WEET! We spend the evening tucking into huge burgers and chatting on his balcony overlooking the jetty which is about 10 metres away. Ideal set up! I hit the sack early as the long journey has worn me out leaving Tom and Dave to catch up on the last 11 years.

We have an amazing first day in Adelaide, Dave has taken the day off to be our personal tour guide for the day and he has some tricks up his sleeve. The first one being the bakery downstairs that he just so happens to own meaning an amazing breakfast. We are given the choice of anything we like, all complimentary. We have been having the most outrageous breakfasts since we have arrived. One day I ate so much I was sick on the beach! I just can't resist as we have been without all these foods we love for so long. Breakfasts usually involve for me a pot of tea, and either a sausage roll, a meat and potato pie and then some kind of pastry/doughnut/cake. For Tom its all of the above but add on a few pasty ( The vegetable pasty here has won the award of best pasty in south Australia, oo err!) After breakfast Dave tells us we are going to spend the day visiting the winerys of Mclaren Vale in South Australia. This region is famous for Shiraz in particular but it is well known all over Australia for the finest wines. The autumn months make the vineyards and surroundings look so beautiful. At this time of year the vineyards are still full bodied with crunchy looking leaves with pretty colours in shades of gold, red and brown.

Our first stop of the day is Penny hill Vineyard, this was a very generous vineyard where the portions came a plenty and fast. The bar tender gave me a list to tick off all the wines I had sampled. I put stars next to my favourites.

Next stop on itinery was The Black Sheep Vineyard. The vineyard stretched for acres and acres and the cellar door was fronted by a very chatty English woman. It was here where I finally discovered a wine that I love, this wine being Muscado. I brought a bottle to try and bring back for my Diamond Jubilee picnic. Why have I only just discovered this?

Wirra Wirra Winery was next on the list, we brought another bottle of wine here to give to Daves parents who have invited us over for dinner this week. As Dave knows everyone in these parts we get a lovely discount on the wine too. To mix it up a little the man on the cellar door poured a little gin into my newly beloved Muscado. It went down a treat! We then visited a small micro brewery Goodisons. This was pretty awkward as Im not a fan of beer and the owner just wouldn't stop pouring me samples. The boys loved it here and I was happy to have a break from the vino. Its hard keeping up with Tom and the wine is constantly flowing so its very easy to loose track of how much wine you have actually drank.

One of the reasons I am so excited about travelling around in Australia is the wildlife. Not the scary sort but the indigenous sort. As we were driving through the vineyards my eyes were peeled in a desperate attempt to spot a Kangaroo. Unfortunetley for me my first Kangaroo sighting was of one slumped on the side of the road swamped with flies. Our final winery of the day was K1 Vineyard by Geoff hardy. You enter the winery down a dirt track with either side containing rows and rows of vineyards. At the bottom of the road is the cellar door overlooking a lake. The views were perfect, the sky was bright blue and the trees and clouds reflected on the lake. We sat out on the deck to appreciate the surroundings sampling more wines and tucking into a South Australian platter of meats and cheeses which dave treated us to. All the vineyards we had been taken to that day were impressive but K1 was something else. It was a great way to round off a really fun day out.

Our second day here was spent in Adelaide town centre. Everything here comes super size and in perfect condition. The buildings are so grand and bulky, everything reminds me of London. We walk down a street where above the shops are old dance halls, it is like stepping back into the19 40's. I guess theres no need to knock buildings down here and renovate theres just so much space, this is a good thing as lovely buildings like these 1940's dance halls can still be enjoyed. We spent some time in the Musuem of South Australia which was very interesting, and walked down Rundle Street which is home to fancy resturants and trendy cafes. We enjoyed walking around Central Market where you can pick up almost anything edible. We settled for some Polish kabanas, which we unfortunelty tasted all day. That evening was a lads night in, Dave invited some friends round and the boys played N64 games. 40 bottles of beer and a bottle of vodka later they finally called it a night at 5:30am.

To Toms delight he was dragged around Adelaide zoo at 10.30 the same morning. They have the only Pandas (YES PANDAS!) in the whole of the Southern Hemisphere here. Theres no way i'm missing out on this. The zoo here is great not only does it have Pandas as current residents but also a very girly male Lion. The poor thing has epilepsy, a broken tail, no manly parts and produces Estrogen. The zoo itself was lovely, it's very green, with great enclosures and original 1900's buildings from when it first opened. That evening we were invited around to The Matkovics estate for a Sunday roast! With 15 acres I think it deserves that title. We have been overwhelmed by the the familys kindness and generosity whilst we have been here and it was great to spend some time with them. They are such lovely people and I have really grown fond of them whilst we have been staying here. I just hope when they next visit the UK tom and I can match their hospitality standards.

The following day Dave puts on his tour guide hat again and takes us for another fun day out. We spend the morning in Handorf, the first German settlement in Australia. I feel the need to point out we spent St Georges day in a German town eating German Bratwurst. Possibly the most un-English way we could of spent the day. I soon felt better after diving into a Confectionary Shop and filling up on Hot chocolates and fudge bars. That evening we met up with our friends Willy and Shane who we met in Laos on the Gibbon experience. We went for a drink in Adelaide and caught up on the last month.

We have spent our final day in Adelaide tucked indoors. The rain just won't give in today and every time we step outside thinking its safe the rain starts again. We attempted to walk the 4km along the beach to Glenagle. 10 minutes later we return to the bakery wet through and defeated. We decide to actually spend some time in Brighton as it is actually a lovely town which many tourists visit. We walk down the Jetty and see a lovely rainbow and then to warm up we check out what other chocolatey delights Jetty Road has to offer. We were reccomended by Sarah to try out Copanhagens Hot Chocolate which is possibly the best hot chocolate we have ever tasted. With melted chocolate dribbled over the egde of the mug it was just delicious. That evening we went to a bonfire at the Matkovics family friends', it was our second yummy Aussie bbq and we toasted some marshmellows just to top it off. Due to my lack of warm attire I was kitted out in garms from each member of the family. Daves thuggish leather bomber jacket topped my outfit off perfectly.

The following day is ANZAC day so we're up early for the dawn service which we have the perfect viewing platform from the balcony of Daves flat before our flight to Cairns. Then its the time I've been dreading... Good byes. Its common knowledge that I hate goodbyes and Im terrible at them, I go downstairs wearing sunglasses to hide my tears and say bye to the family. I've had an amazing time here, I'm sad to be leaving Adelaide as we have had such a good time but the show must go on. But we'll be back, I just know it.