Farewell to the 'roos

Our last day on KI was pretty cool and windy, so we decided to spend some time indoors. Which meant going to some of the farms and checking out their little shops and displays. Basically the island is made up of farms, and some of them grow unique things and have started supplementing income by selling to the tourists. It was, as you'd expect, an adventure and an interesting peek into how some of the local people live.  

Our first stop was the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery. This one made me laugh the most because we had barely walked in the door, when the woman who runs the distillery and shop came up to us and promptly ushered us into this coach and started a DVD about eucalyptus and the distillery. Luckily she offered to take our picture to capture the moment. Definitely not what we had expected for our eucalyptus oil distillery visit!  

The eucalyptus video and shop was actually pretty interesting. The man who co-runs the distillery started it when he was out of work as a sheep shearer. He did some research about how eucalyptus oil used to be distilled (basically by boiling a bunch of eucalyptus plants and then skimming the oil off the top), and decided to try and make a living from all the eucalyptus that is basically everywhere around the island. And it worked! So now the distillery makes about 3% of the eucalyptus oil used in Australia.
 

An emu hanging around

Next we headed down the road to a honey farm. This was cool because they had an indoor hive where the bees could go in and out, so we could watch them working.

The movie area didn't have a coach to sit in though. Bummer!  

 

The honey farm was interesting because it's Ligurian bees. They were brought over from Italy in the 1880s. And because the island is too far for other kinds of bees to fly to, the hive is isolated and pure. And there are a lot of restrictions about what you can bring to the island, which helps keep the bees safe from diseases that are affecting them elsewhere.  

The bee farm and gift shop

Our final farm stop was a lavender farm. 

The lavender farm

 

Not an exaggeration - the ONLY place to get a coffee

The farm was up on the northern side of the island, so we made a stop by one of the northern bays too.   

While we were driving around on the northern edge of the island, we came across this giant white flat in the middle of nowhere. It was very curious, so we pulled off to have a look.   

Our best guess that it was a salt lake. And it was indeed. We know for sure because T tasted it. 

Past the muddy edge, it got a little bit more solid but still quite soft

It was really a pretty big lake, and from what we could tell as far as we walked out on it, it was fairly dried up. So interesting!

We spent the last part of our day chilling out at one of the wineries. We had some lunch, but mainly just sat and listened to the music and enjoyed the view. It was the perfect way to end our holiday!

The winery dining room

Not surprisingly, when we returned the rental car the next day, the Hertz man remembered us and asked us whether we'd done all the things he'd recommended. We could honestly say we'd done most of them! Then it was time to wave farewell to the 'Roos and their island, and wave hello again to lovely Sydney.


Until next time, roos!