Saturday 24th January
Sunday 25th January
The final day of the Tour Down Under and the start and finish were in nearby Stirling, where we had arranged to meet Matt and take in the buzz. Thousands lined the streets and there was a Sunday market on too. We managed to find ourselves at a shaded table in one of the parks, with a good view of the giant screen following the race.
Monday 26th January
Public holiday for Australia Day - or as many now call it,
Invasion Day, so not one celebrated in the Steele household. Besides which,
much had still to be done to clear out the Old Noarlunga house prior to it
being tarted up professionally prior to sale. The seemingly endless work was
bringing poor Chris to his knees. The work done so far had given a slightly eerie feeling to the house, bereft of its furniture etc:
Kelly had arranged a meet-up with one of his old school pals for Miller - over at Moana Beach, an old stomping ground for Jo and I. Unfortunately Miller's friend arrived pretty late and by then, Miller had been out in the sea and sun for a while and was beginning to show the effects on what was the hottest ever Australia Day on record. We had no option but to leave barely half an hour after Miller's friend had arrived. Asher and Miller had had a good time in the water, however - and Kelly, Jo and me had a bit of a splash too:
Tuesday 27th January
This was the day that Asher was due to start his new school
but the temperature was in the 40's and, besides which, Miller's start had been
delayed until tomorrow, so it made sense to keep Asher off today as well.
We helped out while Kelly and Chris juggled their busy home and work lives. Our almost daily walk between their rental and our Air B&B took us past the pub, behind which, and across the creek, was the "historic" Bridgewater Mill, currently closed unfortunately:
Today we did have use of the one of the cars so Jo and I decided to take a short run out to the lovely town of Hahndorf, originally formed by immigrant Germans and still maintaining a Teutonic feel about it. The town was very quiet - few tourists and the locals hiding indoors trying to escape the continuing heatwave. A walk up and down the main street and then lunch for us at the German Inn, which I think is a relatively new business that took over existing premises. Big place but very nice - and Jo got the German sausage she was craving. The slightly surprising thing about this very middle class, touristy place, was that I had to pay A$15 deposit for the glass which held my beer! Apparently they're very collectable and people were walking off with them.
Wednesday 28th January
It was still hot but it had eased sufficiently to allow the
boys to start their respective schools today. We all wondered how they would
fare but they both settled in immediately and made friends too. As they say
here - no worries.
Jo and I took a bus to Stirling - Jo wanted to go back to Matilda's and buy a book. At our bus stop there was an advert for Miller's school:
We got off the bus at Aldgate - the nearest village to where Chris' and Kelly's new house is going to be - and took a little walk around then stopped for a coffee before catching the next bus on to Stirling.
Thursday 29th January
We had one of the cars today and were doing the school pickups later on. When we got back to their rental house, Lily's anxiety had got the better of her again:
Friday 30th January
Another day when we were doing the school pick-ups - and very happy to do so. Asher's classroom is in the middle of the building just off the playground:
This was our final full day for now in the Adelaide Hills. It had been a really hot week. One night the overnight low had not dropped below 34 C - an all-time record for the area:
After a lovely evening, we Uber'd back from their temporary home - it was dark by the time we left and nobody was in a fit state to drive. We had an early flight to the Gold Coast tomorrow.
