A leisurely start to the day saw us reversing our route from the airport – ferry to Elizabeth Quay, train to Redcliffe (changing at Perth Central) and bus to the airport ….. An easy run which meant that we were a couple of hours early at the airport. Turns out that the flight caterers were not as a ahead of the game as us and the flight ended up leaving about 25 minutes late. Still, we hadn’t expected a meal on board, so I guess there was an up-side!
The flight to Adelaide was about 2 hours and 50 minutes and we got in about half an hour late, but it was fantastic to be met by Pat, Stephen and Caroline. They already had a car and were staying in Stirling, so they came across and met us from the airport. A 20 minute drive saw us at our hotel and then we headed straight back out to a local pub for a meal and catch-up. They had already done the Great Ocean Road in reverse from us, so we got lots of good tips.
Then back to the hotel to try and get to grips with a two and a half hour time difference! There has apparently been some discussion about whether they should move to eastern standard time and get rid of the half hour, but, as with so many things, the status quo has won up to now … The difference apparently relates to colonial times when South Australia was on a central time zone an hour behind the east. The government in 1899 was apparently under pressure to adopt Eastern Standard Time (EST), but there was some resistance, so they came up with the original (and annoying?) compromise which moved them towards EST by half an hour, but not a full hour. The compromise has lasted for over a century!