Adelaide Holiday - Day 5 (Part 2)

 - continuation from Day 5 -

After Hahndorf Family Barn, we made a quick stop at Beerenberg Strawberry Farm

Entrance of Strawberry Farm

We didn't bother with strawberry picking since kids did it recently at Cameron Highlands.  

So we just went to the shop

Bought some jam and burger relish. (small bottle bought from Goolwa the previous day)

Next stop : The Cedars, the historic home of a noted Australian landscape artist -Sir Hans Heyson.

Artist Studio

The studio (within the house grounds) where he did his painting.  No photos allowed inside

The beautiful garden @ Cedars

We had our picnic lunch at one of the garden bench

House Entrance

House Interior

If only we have a garden like that for the kids to run around!

Back on the road again...

Something we haven't seen for some time : railway crossing on the road! The red signal went on just as we approached and the barrier automatically went down.

It was a reallly long train

Our next stop was Melba's Chocolate Factory

Interior of Melba's

I was a tad dissapointed cos there were just a couple of viewing spots of the actual factory (instead of a factory tour). Forgot to take photo of that, but here's a photo of the chocolate shop.

Ah well, since we were already there, might as well enjoy some drinks at their little cafe. Girls were so happy cos they got to pick a small pack of chocolates each.

Hot Chocolate and Chai Latte  

We then took a drive to Gumeracha, to see the Giant Rocking Horse

The World's Biggest Rocking Horse

Stands over 18 meters tall

Tickets were AUD 2 per person to climb to the top.  Hubby (who's scared of heights) said NO. I was contemplating hard whether to bring the girls up by myself. Elyssa kept saying please, please, please so I relented.

Brought the kids and had a "what the heck have I gotten myself into" moment shortly after.....

Here's the ladder we had to climb

Looks ok? But that's only the bottom of the ladder.

Looking up the ladder

*gulp*. I panicked a little cos it was only me managing both girls, and the ladder was just wide enough for one person. Just a simple ladder - No safety features.

Elyssa went up first then Erin (I followed Erin really closely behind). I kept telling them over and over again "Slowly, slowly....one at a time".  I tried hard to brush away the thoughts at the back of my mind : "What if they slip??" Also, "how on earth are we going to come down??". 

But we slowly and surely, we made it ALL the way to the top of the horse. Elyssa was absolutely ecstatic! We happily waved and waved to daddy from the top of the horse.

Then came the task to come DOWN from the ladder.

Scary!!

Elyssa bravely went down first, with me saying "slowly....slowly" all the way.   

Then I went on the ladder and got Erin to go to the rung just above me. (gosh, it was actually quite scary. From the pic below, can see need to move from the little platform to the ladder itself. We were the only ones there so once I got to the ladder and moved one rung down, there was no one to help Erin to get to the ladder). Once we were both on the ladder, it was little easier. We went down slowly rung,by rung.

Slowly and surely, we reached the bottom.  Phew!  Double Phew!!!  My legs were starting to shake a little!  Gosh! Both girls were super happy and proud of their achievement. Especially Elyssa since she was the brave one who was the first to go up and the first to go down and she did it all by herself!

Perspective of how high the rocking horse was

There were 3 sets of ladders in total. 1st ladder was inside one of the hind legs to the body. 2nd ladder was up the same hind leg to the external viewing deck. 3rd ladder was via the "horse mane" all the way to the second viewing deck at the head of the horse.  

Elyssa LOVED the climb so much that she she requested to go a second time. But no, no, no.... my heart can't take a second round!!  I've done adventurous stuff on my own, but bringing a 3.5 yo and a 6.5yo on something like this was s-c-a-r-y.

Up to today (3 weeks after the holiday), Elyssa still declares climbing up the rocking horse as her favourite part of the Adelaide holiday!  She keeps saying she wants to go back and climb the rocking horse again.

If up to scary-cat mummy, they should just stick to a rocking horse of this size  :-)

Rocking Horse Signage

Then we headed back to our apartment

Scenic drive back

Spotted a small apple orchard by the side of the road.

Apple trees!

My new thing for Day 5 - Apples on an apple tree  :-)

Never seen one b4!

Apples for sale

We asked which were freshly picked and bought some to try. They were super juicy! 

The friendly guy there also gave Elyssa and Erin an apple each

Girls had some playground fun at the apartment

They call this the "curly-wurly slide"

Our Dinner for Day 5

Instant noodles with added vegetables n eggs, leftover fries, fried bacon, strawberries, orange juice and wine

--End of Day 5--