Saturday 12th April 2025
It was another spectacularly beautiful morning. We couldn’t believe how lucky we had been with the weather. Last year we had fine weather but it was cold, windy and occasionally overcast. This year, we’ve had nothing but blue sky, sunshine hot weather and no wind. The boys again went for a ride and Colleen and I went for a walk before we all caught up for a coffee back downstairs at Coast.
We had a very relaxed day planned for today with a visit to a couple of vineyards at McLaren Vale and lunch at a Japanese venue. The boys were heading back into Adelaide to watch a nighttime game of footy and Colleen and I had a dinner planned at another restaurant that was downstairs and part of our apartment complex building.
Our first vineyard stop was at Oliver’s Taranga and we had been here a few times before. It was very pleasant but lacked the edge and polish of previous visits. As well, it was a very hot day and all of the red wines we sampled were far too warm. I think we might try a different vineyard if we come back down to McLaren Valley next year.
Our lunch stop was at the same quirky venue where we’d had lunch last year which was Hanabi Japanese Kitchen that operated out of an historic train carriage. Our meals were delicious and this is definitely somewhere I would highly recommend if you were ever wanting lunch in the McLaren Vale region.
Our second and final vineyard stop was at Inkwell and this was a lovely experience. The tasting room was air-conditioned and so the wines were all at a deliciously cool temperature for tasting. The wines here were excellent and at a very good price point and this is a vineyard that I would highly recommend to visit if you were ever in the McLaren Vale region and interested in wine tasting. They also have on-site accommodation so keep that in mind as well.
We headed back to the apartment after our visited to Inkwell and had a relaxed afternoon. There was the Electric Island ticketed beach festival on the beach that gave us a backdrop of some great music and even better people watching to while away a couple of hours before dinner. The boys were meant set off near 5.30 pm for their night time football game but had a last minute change of heart. Neither of them could be bothered with the commute into the city and so they decided to join Colleen and me for dinner. Dinner was at Sammy’s on the Marina and it was lovely. Mark and I both had Whiting and I can confidently say it was the nicest fish dinner I’ve ever had at a restaurant! Apparently Adelaide is one of the few areas in Australia where you can find Whiting on the menu. We will definitely be going back to this restaurant if we come back next year.
We headed back to the apartment after dinner and were treated to the evening spectacle of Electric Island. The boys had started watching the footy on TV but soon joined us out on the balcony watching the concert. The weather was almost what you’d expect in the tropics and still very balmy nearing 10 pm as we enjoyed our time out on the terrace. The Festival was amazing and clearly a huge hit with the very well behaved crowd; a fantastic light show with great music and, best of all, we had a birds-eye view from the comfort of our lovely apartment and didn’t have to pay the $200 a ticket. We let the kids know that it took us being in our early 60s before we’d made it to a Festival and Annabelle quipped that she’d thought we’d wandered off to Coachella! The Festival concluded at 10 pm with a short fireworks display so we weren’t kept awake with noise at all. Today had been a great day and we were all very thankful for the gift of being here 🙏.
Sunday 13th April 2025
It was another glorious morning and almost 25 degrees just before 8 am. The boys went off on a bike ride to the Adelaide Hills and Colleen and I took a beach walk before she went on to do some Pilates.
We had another fairly relaxed day planned with visits to 2 different vineyards in the Adelaide Hill: The Lane at 11:30 and Bird in Hand at 2 pm.
Or first stop was at the Lane where we had a gathering tasting experience which was excellent. We all loved it and said we’d come back again next year. Our second stop was at Bird in Hand which was a lovely setting but the wines didn’t match up to those from the Lane.
It was after 3 pm by the time we set off back to the apartment and we were all happy for the early finish. Wine tasting was hard work!
Dinner was downstairs from our apartment at Coast and was a very pleasant final evening for our Gather Round holiday. We have already asked our host, Sal, if he could block us in for this apartment for next year’s Gather Round and he has very kindly agreed to do so. So we are going to be back here doing the same things, all over again, next year. We encourage others to join us as the complex where our apartment is located also houses the Oaks hotel. You can rent either studio, one, two or three bedroom apartments and join us on this fantastic excursion. There are 2 bedroom ocean view apartments as well.
