Happy New Year from Kangaroo Island!

For New Years this year, we decided to get out of town. While it might seem silly to leave Sydney on New Years Eve - one of the best places in the world to welcome in the new year - we wanted to take advantage of the long weekend and have a quiet one somewhere new. So we blew all our frequent flyer points, used a travel voucher from work, and headed out to Adelaide on Wednesday afternoon. Hooray for adventure!

Adelaide wasn’t our final destination though - we were really headed for Kangaroo Island, which is off the west coast of the city. It’s a small island - you can drive across from one end to the other in two hours. In total, one third of the island is a wildlife refuge or a national park. And as you might guess by the name, this means we will get to see lots of animals! Hooray!

Ready to embark on adventure!

We just spent a quick night in Adelaide, so there’s not much to say about it. However, we did learn upon landing there that its timezone is half an hour different from Sydney, not a full hour. I’d never heard of a timezone being a half hour different, so now all my math for calculating time back in the US is completely in disarray!

What is this!?? 

Adelaide is a small city, but one of the bigger ones in Australia. Even with just a few hours there, we did encounter a few oddities.

This button was on the wall in our hotel room. Not sure what it means or when we should use it!

At the airport - a phonetic description of the emergency alarm sounds

In the city center, we found a little organic pizza place for dinner and had a really nice evening before crashing out. 

Our hotel receptionist said we needed to be at the airport by 5 AM: 2 hours before our flight. I really thought that was a bit early since check-in for our flight closed 20 minutes before the departure time. I think I was right!

We felt like rockstars in our own private jet! It was just us and one other man. So weird!

20 minutes later, we were arriving at the island!

Time to start watching for 'roos!

The Kingscote airport was very small. The rental car guy was waiting for us at the desk, and spent about 10 minutes telling us all his favorite places to go on the island. We then saw him about 40 minutes later in Kingscote - the only place to get coffee at that hour. We felt like real locals, running into people we knew around town! =D

The Kingscote airport terminal

After we got our car, we were on our way! There aren’t many places to get food or fuel on the island, so we drove about 20 minutes up to Kingscote to get some breakky and some water & snacks for the car. Kingscote was cute, tiny, and a typical tiny Australian town, catering heavily for tourists. 

We had a "breakfast sensation"

Even though T doesn't look like it, he was having fun!

When the town ended, it ended abruptly. 

It was going to be sunny and in the 90s, so we decided that it was a good day to be at the beach and in the water! We headed east across the island to some sheltered beaches. On the way, we passed Prospect Point, which is the thinnest point on the island and you can see the water on both sides. We made the climb up the hill for the view. 

Up many, many stairs 

There were a lot of animal tracks in the sand at the top: kangaroos, wallabies, and possums!

Then we went down to check out the beautiful blue bay we’d spotted from the top of the hill. It did not disappoint! Pennington Bay had that amazing blue-green water and perfect waves coming into a big beach. 

Also, the water was really cold, but we decided to go for it! It wasn’t so bad once we were in!

But then cold again once we were out!

Our next stop was Browns beach, where we pulled out the snorkels and did some exploring. The beach is nice and protected, so there was just a little bit of wind and current to go against. 

The snorkeling was nice, but not the best. We saw a giant blue groper and a few really pretty striped fish. But even though the snorkeling wasn’t amazing, Toby was really happy. As he said it, the beach had his “perfect level of crowd.”

So we spent some time poking around the rock pools and playing in the sand. 

It was lunch time next. The island is basically nothingness with a few dots of civilization here and there. So you really have to plan your destinations, because you’re not just going to come across a McDonalds, a gas station, or a grocery store on your drive. And even when you follow the map and the signs, the fuel stops can be a big letdown. 

We decided to drive to the far east coast of the island and visit a winery for lunch. There are four wineries or so on the island, but this one had been talked up as having nice food and a great view, so we were excited! The view did not disappoint and the food was exactly what we needed after a morning in the hot sun. 

It had already been a pretty full day, so we decided to head to our little hotel and have some rest. Our room has a perfect balcony for watching the trees and the water. And keeping an eye out for koalas - just in case!

The view from our room