Kangaroo Island Area Guide
Kangaroo Island, off the South Australian coast, is one of Australia's best kept secrets. This magical place offers visitors the opportunity to experience a unique way of life away from the intensity of the mainland. The lack of intense farming has created a community that strives to produce the best and finest rather than the most and fastest. Set in beautiful bushland, Kangaroo Island offers a little something to everybody, this truly is an island you want to escape to rather than from.
The most recent wine region in Australia, Kangaroo Island is home to over thirty grape growers and nine cellar doors. Dotted across the island many cellar doors also have a restaurant where you can sample the best of the island's produce with its latest addition, fine wine. With several fine and causal dining options across the island, food and wine tours are available to help you find the best of what's on offer, but you can always make up your own tour with the help of the local tourism office. Islanders take great pride in their produce, and their cafes and restaurants all represent the quality of what is grown on this island.
Should you want to meet growers and producers directly, head to the Farmers and Community Markets, on the 1st Sunday of each month in Penneshaw. Here you can meet the people that grew the produce you ate the night before at one of Kangaroo Islands restaurants, there are not many places in the world that offer such an opportunity.
The amazing bushland and unique flora and fauna that share Kangaroo Island with its human population are something not to be missed. From bush-walking to kayaking and quad-biking there are several ways to experience the bushland and wildlife that call Kangaroo Island home. For a more unique experience, you can't go past the Alkirna Nocturnal Tours, at American River, for two hours after dark see the escapades of penguins, possums, wallabies and of course kangaroos. With a lack of light pollution the night skies of Kangaroo Island are like no other, see stars you could never hope to see in towns and cities.
The Penguin Centre also offers evening tours, where you can see giant cuttlefish, seahorses and of course penguins. Visit during the day for the impressive display of pelican feeding time.
For a more domestic setting visit the Rare Breeds Farm, dedicated to preserving the rarest of domesticated animal breeds, this is an interesting and unique farm where you can get hands on with farming and agricultural history.
With health spas and retreats, Kangaroo Island really is a place where you can escape the daily grind and refresh with yoga, mediation and indulgent spa treatments. Many experiences of Kanagroo Island only exist on the island, revealing the unique nature of this place from the sand dunes of the Little Sahara to the cave system and sinkholes of Kelly Hill Caves, there is something new, different and amazing to see and experience.
Stimulate the senses with a trip to a Lavender Farm or the Eucalyptus distillery. Emu Ridge Distillery is the last remaining eucalyptus distillery in South Australia, its a self-sufficient operation with some clever technology hidden in its bush surroundings.
Kangaroo Island is a place like no other, with amazing food, wine set in an impressive and unique landscape. There is plenty to see and do on Kangaroo Island that can never be repeated on the mainland.