Travelog for: KalliHH

Hello World,

Hi it's me - KalliHH the Bee. I love to fly around and talk to others. Next to me you see HelgaHH, a friendly ladybird - she is my best friend.



We both love flowers - as you can see.



I am not sure if the purple one is nicer...



...or the yellow one. What do you think?



Hey, HelgaHH called me - she found some nice grapes...



...and shared the grapes with me.



There were so many grapes - so we invited a friendly bunny - Dicker Kumpel, who walked through the garden. You know - I love to talk - so we talked a lot - and he told us about ToyVoyagers. What a great idea - I want to try it out!!!



Please help me and invite me! 

Greetings
KalliHH

Hello again,

today I will start my travel. I said good-bye to Dicker Kumpel and HelgaHH.



HelgaHH went to the envelope with me – I will miss her.



Hopefully the trip will be fast – and I will meet becka_kate soon. Australia I am coming!



Bye
KalliHH

Hi
I arrived safely about a week ago. We apologise that I didn't check in straight away, but it was the last week of the school term and just so hectic!
I spent the week hanging out in Bec's classroom, improving my English. I was surrounded by lots of great company, as most of the students at the school are learning English as a second language as well!
I am proud to say that after a week of instruction I have...

* brushed up on the alphabet,

* learned lots of  great words,

* can tell you all about action verbs

* have enjoyed reading about how plants grow!

Now, its school holidays, and I'm very excited because on Wednesday morning, we're hopping on a plane to visit Adelaide & Kangaroo Island!
Will write more then.
Bye

Up bright and early this morning, ready to make the trek to the airport and down to Adelaide, the capital of South Australia!

Adelaide is a beautiful city, the first city in Australia to be settled by free citizens and not as a penal colony.

After checking in at our hostel we raced over to the Haigh's Chocolate Factory for their free tour. If you ever come to Adelaide, this tour is highly recommended (and their chocolate is great - just ask AbbyB!) Haigh's is  the oldest family-owned chocolate manufacturing retailer in Australia and they apprenticed under Lindt, so that should tell you how yummy their chocolates are, though the chocolate is so rich that by the end of the tour we were slightly chocolated out!
KalliHH in Adelaide by becka_kate, on Flickr

After the chocolate factory we walked back into Adelaide centre at a much slower pace than when we walked out, enjoying the scenery and the beautiful gardens that surround the inner city. These beautiful flowers are a native called a bottle brush  - because they look like the brushes used to clean bottles!! Clever people these Australians!

KalliHH in Adelaide by becka_kate, on Flickr

We headed for the famous Rundle Mall, Adelaide’s main shopping area. We did a little window shopping and checked out some of the popular sculptures that line the arcade, like the silver balls and the piggies.
KalliHH in Adelaide by becka_kate, on Flickr

KalliHH in Adelaide by becka_kate, on Flickr

KalliHH in Adelaide by becka_kate, on Flickr
(Don't you love how happy this piggie looks?)

KalliHH in Adelaide by becka_kate, on Flickr
(Even the rubbish is sculpted!)

This is Bec’s (and, with its name!), I think my favourite building in Adelaide – Beehive Corner, home of a Haigh’s Chocolate shop!
KalliHH in Adelaide by becka_kate, on Flickr

KalliHH in Adelaide by becka_kate, on Flickr

Mmmmm…. Chocolate frogs, chocolate pandas, chocolate bilbies & chocolate Murray River Cod (though I’m not too sure about the idea of chocolate fish!)
KalliHH in Adelaide by becka_kate, on Flickr

KalliHH in Adelaide by becka_kate, on Flickr

On our way back to the hostel we stumbled upon these really cool murals. Aren't they great?
KalliHH in Adelaide by becka_kate, on Flickr

Today we visited the Coorong National Park, which consists of a large lagoon where the Murrary River meets the Southern Ocean. It is home to many types of birds and the destination of many migratory birds, some of whom fly here for the summer from as far away as Alaska and Siberia!

To access the Coorong, we had to pass through a lock at the Goolwa barrage, which was built to keep the fresh water of that part of the  Murray from the salt water of the ocean.
KalliHH @ Coorong National Park by becka_kate, on Flickr

KalliHH @ Coorong National Park by becka_kate, on Flickr

Can you see the sea lion sunning itself on the wharf?
KalliHH @ Coorong National Park by becka_kate, on Flickr


Time for lunch on our cruise... a typical Aussie picnic lunch - cold meat, garden salad, pasta salad & coleslaw with bread and butter. Followed with a cup of tea. Does this count towards my mission??
KalliHH @ Coorong National Park by becka_kate, on Flickr

Further along we came across the dredging operation that has been in action for last few years desperately trying to keep the mouth of the Murray River open. This has become a problem due both to the drought and over use of the water system by farms all along the Murray. Did you know that the Murray is the largest river system in Australia?
KalliHH @ Coorong National Park by becka_kate, on Flickr

And, here it is... where the Murray meets the sea, well, the Southern Ocean to be exact!
KalliHH @ Coorong National Park by becka_kate, on Flickr

The beach was covered with all these beautiful cockle shells
KalliHH @ Coorong National Park by becka_kate, on Flickr

This is just such a beautiful part of the world.
KalliHH @ Coorong National Park by becka_kate, on Flickr

And here I am on the edge of the Southern Ocean. Next stop.... Antarctica!
KalliHH @ Coorong National Park by becka_kate, on Flickr

To get here we had to cross some pretty huge sand dunes (Luckily the track was marked with a Dutch ladder, which made it a lot easier than it might look here!)
KalliHH @ Coorong National Park by becka_kate, on Flickr

Sand dunes are quite a challenge for a tiny ToyVoyager!
KalliHH @ Coorong National Park by becka_kate, on Flickr

Soon it was time to head back to Adelaide, meet up with our other travelling companion (who had passed on the Coorong trip, preferring to go wine tasting) and prepare for our next little adventure.

Day three of our South Australian adventure and we hired a car to head out into the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley where I started to really feel at home. This was because of the history of the area... it was primarily settled by German immigrants in the mid 1800s and this influences a lot of the tourist industry in the area.
KalliHH - Barossa Valley by becka_kate, on Flickr

The area is also well known (world over) for its wineries.
Nearly everyway you look you can see vineyards stretching out over the mountains.
KalliHH - Barossa Valley by becka_kate, on Flickr

Next stop, Gumeracha (pronounced Gum-er-ack-a), home of the Big Rocking Horse - the biggest rocking horse in the world. It is 18.3 metres or 60.0 feet, approximately the height of a six-storey building!
KalliHH - Barossa Valley by becka_kate, on Flickr

Just to show you roughly how far from home I was....
KalliHH - Barossa Valley by becka_kate, on Flickr

Bec was disappointed that Sydney was missing from the Australian places signpost.

Soon we headed on to Hahndorf for lunch, but on the way we got a little bit lost and while looking for somewhere to turn the car around came across Fairy Land Villiage, home to tiny cottages containing animatronic figures from many of the Grimm's Fairy Tales and other popular children's stories. Very strange we thought and of course we had to go in and check it all out!

Red Riding Hood...
KalliHH - Barossa Valley by becka_kate, on Flickr

Alice in Wonderland...
KalliHH - Barossa Valley by becka_kate, on Flickr

and a really cool playground where I got to see what it's like to ride a kangaroo!
KalliHH - Barossa Valley by becka_kate, on Flickr

KalliHH - Barossa Valley by becka_kate, on Flickr (translation please?? My German is seriously rusty. Have worked out most, but need help! Thanks  )

Finally we made it into Hahndorf, in time for a very late lunch of kransky's and saurkraut at one of the German Inns that the town is famous for.

Hahndorf is Australia's oldest surviving German settlement. The first settlement took place in 1839 when Prussian Lutheran families arrived and you can see this influence in many of the old buildings.
KalliHH - Barossa Valley by becka_kate, on Flickr

KalliHH - Barossa Valley by becka_kate, on Flickr

Yay! Kangaroo Island and our reason for heading off to South Australia!

Kangaroo Island is the third largest island in Australia (not counting mainland Australia!) It is 155 km (96 miles) from east to west, 55 km (34.5 miles) at its widest point and 1 km (.6 miles) at its narrowest point and home to most species of Australian animals, including some that have been made extinct on the mainland and can only be found here on the island.

It was named Kangaroo Island by the explorer Matthew Flinders, who circumnavigated Australia and was saved from starvation by the kangaroos he found here!

This is where the ferry docks in Penneshaw, the second largest town on the island.
KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

Our first stop on the Island was at Pennington Bay, one of the very, very many beautiful beaches you'll find here.

KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

Look at how blue the water is! Absolutely gorgeous!
KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

We climbed to the top of these very high rocks in order to take in the views.
KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

Next we climbed the 509 steps to the top of Prospect Hill. From here you can see nearly the entire island and it is where Matthew Flinders trekked to to discover that he was not, in fact, on the mainland, as he had initially thought, but on an island!
KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

The view was completely worth the climb!

On the way we kept passing signs like this. Sadly, we didn't see any of the wildlife or their tracks.
KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

Next stop was at the Emu Farm Eucalyptus Distillery where I met an emu!
KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

After lunch we went koala spotting. There is one up this tree. Can you see it?
KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

Here it is!
KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

Some gum leaves. Ever wonder why koalas sleep all day? Its because the eucalypt oil is actually poisonous and their bodies need all the energy they can get process it.
KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

and some gum nuts...
Which are actually the blossoms and seeds for the gum trees.
KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr

Along with a number of koalas we also saw kangaroos, including a joey (a baby kangaroo)
KalliHH on Kangaroo Island by becka_kate, on Flickr