Blue skies: A panoramic view of Adelaide from atop the Adelaide Oval.
ADELAIDE: While many Malaysians may know Australia well, due obviously to educational and business ties, perhaps not a significant percentage of these are familiar with the city of Adelaide itself.
The South Australia capital, for many justifiable reasons, pales in popularity among Malaysians if compared to its more populated and vibrant cousin cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
However, that is all changing if Adelaideans have anything to say about it, as the fifth most-populous city in the land Down Under is doing its best to keep its talents and at the same time improve its attractiveness to visitors and potential immigrants.
In an effort to showcase what the city had to offer, the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) cooperated with Malaysia Airlines Bhd in coordinating a week-long familiarisation trip for selected members of the media.
The direct trips to and from Kuala Lumpur take about seven hours each way, and they were made easier with Malaysia Airlines putting its best foot forward in ensuring passengers were well served and most importantly, fed.
The airline, notably severing ties with a catering supplier in August last year, had embarked on several turnaround strategies including a transition of its onboard food and beverage provision services, which it has done well to maintain a high standard of, coupled with its usual up-to-date onboard entertainment programmes.
The Malaysian press group were welcomed by SATC’s global marketing executive Emma Hedges as we arrived at the Crowne Plaza, which was followed by a sumptuous Italian lunch.
During lunch we met Lee Cumberlidge and Rachael Azzopardi, co-founders and creative directors of Illuminate Adelaide (IA), an annual event that was established in 2021 and will run from July 4 to July 21 this year.
IA literally lights up various interesting hotspots around Adelaide, and includes free and ticketed events presented by national and international artists as well as companies, encompassing “art, light, music, and technology”.
Cumberlidge told StarBiz that it will be IA’s aim to encompass both technology and history into its themes for this year, particularly as one of the main highlights of this year’s event will be Universal Kingdom: Prehistoric Nights presentation in collaboration with Adelaide Zoo.
“It will be a dinosaur-focused experience, as ticket holders will get to see the evolution of the first creatures and some of the largest beasts to ever walk the Earth,” he said.
Watched by lions
How about sitting in a cage to be watched and circumambulated by lions for a change compared to the usual zoo trip to look at these animals behind bars?
This scary-sounding experience was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip and it took place at the famous Monarto Safari Park.
Situated 70 km outside of Adelaide central business district, the park is the largest open-range safari experience outside of Africa and home to more than 50 species of exotic and native animals.
King of the jungle: A trainer feeding a lion. The Monarto Lions 360 experience is not for the faint-hearted.
Arriving at Monarto, we were brought to the Lions 360 experience, going down a tunnel to reemerge into a cage, followed reassuringly by two Monarto lion trainers.
The trainers shouted into the open wilderness for a couple of minutes, before a pair of two-year-old lions who are brothers came prancing and began to circle the cage, to the amusement of those “trapped” in it.
The trainers fed the young lions kangaroo meat in metal buckets with tongs through the cage, watched in earnest by the Malaysian group and a couple of local Adelaidean families who were there to enjoy the sight of the lions.
Wine-and-dine experience
From here on in, the trip turned primarily into a wine-and-dine experience, starting with The Lane Vineyard, which has been the custodian of an enviable piece of pristine Adelaide Hills terroir since the first vines were planted in 1993.
Sitting 400m high atop the rolling hills adjacent the Onkaparinga Valley, the Lane Vineyard enjoys the warm days and cool nights that the Adelaide Hills wine region is so famous for.
In addition to the vineyards and wines, the Lane Estate is home to an acclaimed contemporary restaurant and tasting room, where the tour group had the pleasure of dining and sampling some white wine with the compliments from the SATC.
Thereafter, the visitors were driven back towards Adelaide, but were stopped at an extremely picturesque town known as Hahndorf, understandably called Little Germany by the locals.
Penfolds Magill Estate winery.
The quaint settlement looks absolutely stunning during the day, apparent in the traditional fachwerk architecture of the original surviving buildings.
The next wine-and-dine stop was at the D’Arenberg Cube, a postmodern-looking building made up of glass cubes that feature food, wine and lots of art, situated in McLaren Vale.
The D’Arenberg is run by the Osborn family, who have grown grapes and made wine in the picturesque surrounds of McLaren Vale, since 1912.
After the tour, the group was brought to lunch at the Singapore Circus, one of three restaurants inside the D’Arenberg, serving a melting pot of South-East Asian inspired cuisine.
The next day saw the group visiting their last wine-and-dine stop on the trip, to Magill Estate.
Nestled in the foothills of Adelaide with views over the city, Magill Estate is one of the world’s few urban single vineyards only 15 minutes’ drive from Adelaide’s central business district.
We were led this time led by the SATC’s public relations advisor Duncan Fraser, and were shown around the estate, including the original working winery and its history.
We were given a crash course about the winemaking process, besides explaining the history of the Magill Estate from its origins to what it is today, on a walking tour that lasted about 45 minutes.
Like many Australian cities, Adelaide is welcoming and friendly to visitors, and boasts of a food and drink eatery line-up that is competitive with the more well known Australian cities.
More importantly, it is also safe, with the group noticing on their short drive to Henley Beach – Adelaide’s answer to the popular Bondi Beach – that houses in the city are seldom gated or even grilled.
With wine tasting and an African safari perhaps being its most attractive features of interest, Adelaide may appeal to a more niche segment of Malaysian society, rather than the Malaysian layman.
