{"id":4183,"date":"2019-12-26T21:54:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T10:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/?p=4183"},"modified":"2019-12-27T21:55:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T10:55:13","slug":"the-professionals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/26\/the-professionals\/","title":{"rendered":"The Professionals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Boxing Day and the 27th Kathleen booked a land tour and boat tour. So Boxing Day was our trip around the island with a professional guide. (K: with Kangaroo Island Wilderness Tours<\/a>.) We were picked up from the hotel after breakfast; while we waited for collection we watched the glossy black cockatoos have their breakfast. Once we’d been picked up (and the guide had admired the cockatoos – she was thrilled to see them out of the nature reserve and behaving normally with lots of people about) we drove to the airport to collect the other couple on the tour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the airport we drove down to Admirals Arch. It’s a lovely walk down a boardwalk, the walk takes you down the steep hillside and you can look down and see seals. It was a bit chilly as the wind was strong and coming straight off Antarctica. It’s not until you’re at the bottom of the walkway that you actually see the arch – it’s hidden from the top. There are also two islands just offshore (The Brothers) with seals and birds. We also saw seal pups (so cute) and watched the seals play. When we were underneath the arch the guide pointed out where they were trying different materials on the boardwalk as the wood under the arch was degrading and they weren’t sure why. The rest of the boardwalk is fine and the structure under the arch is sturdy, but the wood is going all fuzzy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also see Remarkable Rocks from the walk down to Admirals Arch and that was where we went next. We parked in the car park for the rocks and the guide talked us through the different sorts of eucalyptus and other plants that grow on the coast. So we got to smell all sorts of eucalyptus and herbs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We followed another boardwalk out to the Remarkable Rocks which were remarkable. Heavily weathered volcanic rocks which have been weathered into unusual and beautiful patterns and shapes. You can climb on them – just warning signs toward the edge not to go too far and fall off! The rocks sit on a dome of rock, which clearly shows how the magma bubbled up. We walked among the rocks, got lots of photos (we promise a photo update soon. Ish.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the rocks we drove back to the entrance of the park (the visitors’ centre) where we had a very nice lunch (barbecued steak and trimmings and pears poached in wine for pudding). We also spotted our second koala of the day (the first was on the drive down to the rocks). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the afternoon we drove to two more spots, one to see koalas and one to see kangaroos. They were both former farms, the first is Hanson Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and the second is being rewilded and is down a private road, so you need to be on a tour to get into it. (Kelly Hill and Grassdale Road I think). Hanson Bay has bunches of koalas, which aren’t native to the island. There is some thought that they shouldn’t be there as they damage the native eucalyptus. But this sanctuary keeps them and there were loads of baby koalas. The other area was interesting with lots of kangaroos. And lots of birds! Unfortunately, it was getting late so we didn’t stay too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got dropped off back at our hotel. On the drive back we saw a goanna crossing the road. It must have been the chicken’s day off (that was Joe’s joke, nothing to do with me!) I would have liked to have stopped for a closer look but we kept on! Once back at the hotel we had a lovely dinner finished off with a local Kangaroo Island walnut and honey liqueur. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Boxing Day and the 27th Kathleen booked a land tour and boat tour. So Boxing Day was our trip around the island with a professional guide. (K: with Kangaroo Island Wilderness Tours.) We were picked up from the hotel after breakfast; while we waited for collection we watched the glossy black cockatoos have their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[25],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T97-15t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4179,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/25\/happy-christmas-from-kangaroo-island\/","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":0},"title":"Happy Christmas from Kangaroo Island","date":"Wednesday, 25 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"On Christmas Eve we left Port Noarlunga. We had a coffee and danish\/toast at the nearby bakery and then stopped at the shopping centre on the way out of town where Joe got some souvenir shirts. Google then took us a bit of a winding route back to the main\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3245,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/21\/early-start\/","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":1},"title":"Early start","date":"Wednesday, 21 December 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"So the meals are very nice onboard. Though we are the last seating for dinner and also the last to be served! Still, it was worth it. After dinner, there was a talk in one of the bars, which we missed most of, but did get to try the canape\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/17\/one-wedding-and-a-holiday\/","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":2},"title":"One Wedding and a Holiday","date":"Thursday, 17 May 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Joe: The start of another trip. Kathleen: Sitting in the airport. Bored. Done shopping. That was boring. Joe: No waistcoats. Kathleen: Up far too early, at 4am, but the taxi came very early. We scheduled for 5am but he showed up at about 25 to 5! So we were off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3585,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/26\/boxing-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":3},"title":"Boxing Day","date":"Monday, 26 December 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"So we got off atVard\u00f8 last night and watched the mad people who went ice dipping. There is a little wooden box thing with steps down and you'd go down into that and then dip yourself up to your neck to get the certificate. Not for us! But I did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4151,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/14\/holidays-start-well-for-joe\/","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":4},"title":"Holidays Start (well for Joe)","date":"Saturday, 14 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Got up washed and out to the terminal. Arrived too early, as usual, but as we were already checked in we just got the bag checked onto the flight and walked around the airport, had breakfast and then on our way to Brisbane. The fight was short with a free\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/11\/finally-an-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":5},"title":"Finally an update","date":"Sunday, 11 December 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, we have been traveling and not able to get to an internet connection. No really, no electricity, no nothing. Honest. Well, ok, so we were having a great time and sort of neglected to check for internet places. The concert and dinner was fun. We had a good time,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4184,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions\/4184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}