"Oz Fest #7" – Adelaide South Australia - Memorial Day Weekend, May 28-30, 2010
There have been 6 successful
OzFests so far - in Sydney (twice) Brisbane, Melbourne, Hobart Tasmania, and Cairns Queensland a few weeks back.
They are one of the most heavily attended of any of the annual FT Doos anywhere. Indeed there are NO other annual FT Doos outside the USA that have chalked up 7 years running AFAIK.
Polling of FT'ers on the Cairns thread for the past fortnight, and via many private emails seems to have decided that the hands down winner for the 200
TEN venue should be ADELAIDE - the capital city of South Australia.
The location of which, for the benefit of our overseas members is shown below.
fozzyNUE helpfully offered a polling page where members could vote for what location they preferred –
http://www.doodle.com/rhqnzgk7x6petfr7
And as can been seen, Adelaide won hands down with 30 votes. Runner up was Darwin with 19, Canberra with 15, Perth with 14, Alice Springs with 9, and Broome with 6.
Indeed all the 32 that voted. only 2 did
NOT have Adelaide as their choice.
Democracy rules supreme with all OzFest’s, and after some emails with
Itsalongwaydownwho also agrees on ADL, I have started this thread today on our return from Patagonia, to officially kick off OzFest #7.
Hobart had 40 members signed up - pretty amazing seeing only one attending was a local, Cairns saw 59 turning up – just beating out by 1 the previous record attendance of any OzFest - number #2 in Sydney - 58 attendees.
The "OzFest #5" thread has had about
50,000 page views and attracted well over 1,000 posts, and set a view record for a FT Doo thread.
The “OzFest #6” got very near that, with about 37,000 page views as of typing this mid June 2009, with many more 1000s’ to come as history always shows, and over 1,200 posts – a record number.
MargoZ and I will certainly be the first confirmed starters to attend, and as with all the other Oz Fests, I'll be pleased to assist where I can.
Itsalongwaydown and I have been in contact, and Bill and Sue are also certain starters for ADL. Bill as always has offered to lend a hand in the planning and cat herding, that is associated with these large events.
Itsalongwaydown and Cairns locals -
platy and
turtlemichael did most of the heavy lifting for OzFest#6, and hopefully we have a few FT locals in Adelaide who might be able to assist? If so please raise your hands!
(ozstamps[at]gmail.com)
Other volunteers will I am sure add links to activities and attendees in the next few posts, and I can link to them here as usual at base of post #1 - as is traditional for “OzFest” threads.
Mwenenzi has offered really invaluable back-up to Bill and I and others helping organise all the previous Ozfests and I feel sure he’ll be able to assist again. Tracking attendees etc via his legendary and super detailed Excel spread sheets, and hopefully he can again join us in person for this one.
And just as important are
Mwenenzi’ s placefinder posts adding new attendees as they are confirmed. And linking to who was doing what, and when, etc. These are incredibly time consuming and all attendees owe him a huge vote of thanks.
Serfty looks to be the “king of airline movements” for attendees to and from, and his most useful link to that aspect for Cairns helped lots of members buddy up for Cabs etc, and book seats together, and cut costs, and I have little doubt Ross and Jenny will also be among the early sign ons.
And hopefully we can once again call on the
falconea’s to be name tag supremos, and we are well on our way!
I lived in Adelaide for much of my life, and all my family are there, so visit often and know it well.
One obvious day of the weekend would be a full day bus trip out to the legendary Barossa Valley wine area. That is a no brainer and all can assume that WILL be one full day.
The other weekend day can be one of many things ... a trip up to the beautiful and historical Hahndorf old German village, that allows a nice trip through the heavily wooded Adelaide Hills, and back via the Mount Lofty panoramic lookout etc is one option.
http://www.southaustralia.com/9003122.aspx
If we hire our own bus, doing that and adding on a custom tour of the very pretty city and elegant and leafy North Adelaide environs, and back home via the superb beaches which the city is bounded by for 20 miles is most worthwhile, with a stop in hip Glenelg or somewhere.
Actually my STRONGEST suggestion for weekend day #2 would be a full day on nearby Kangaroo Island.
There you see heaps of koalas in the wild, lots of sea lions sunning themselves and hauling themselves from the sea, lots of Kangaroos in the wild (surprise surprise!) etc.
You CAN cross by boat which is not practical for us, as it now leaves an hour or more drive south of the city. I was pretty ill last time I took it, and do not want half of FT getting seasick.
The BEST way of course for a day trip is to fly and that is VERY doable, but is not cheap:
http://www.airsouth.com.au/00626%20F...%20DL%20FA.pdf
At $A360 for a small plane with day tour and lunch we may well be able to screw them down to $A300 or so, if enough of us booked to justify our own plane. A day you’ll long remember is all I can say about that island.
That company has 18 seaters as max, and REX has 34 seat Saab’s that I reckon we could fill. I'll ask them both for a quote.
Unlike all other large Australian cities, Adelaide was from Day #1 planned and laid out in the 1830s with the clear intention and expectation it was to be a major city.
The city square is an exact 1 mile square grid, and all streets that are within it are at neat right angles. And 5 x formal city squares are in the dead centre and to each quadrant. All the main and wide arterial roads run at neat 45 degree angles off each corner.
Other than the elevated North Adelaide section, it is totally flat in the city area, so VERY easy to get around, and navigate, and walk about. Masses of parklands and nice things to see.
There are a VERY limited range of ‘major’ brand Hotels ... the Hilton is in Victoria Square which was one complete and TOTAL dead end of town at night when they built it, but the nearby Gouger Street is now absolutely vibrant at night with bars and restaurants going crazy.
Margo and I were most surprised when there a few months back, how packed it is at night.
There is a Hyatt Regency near the Casino which is a mile from the Hilton. And then a lot of brands most Americans have not heard of.
http://www.wotif.com/search/Advanced...alse®ion=13
ADL airport is REALLY close to the CBD so cost to get on and out is truly minimal – about $A15 last time I did it a few months back.
.
Having
ONE central hotel location most folks use is a
VERY large plus I always feel. Especially as the larger hotels in Adelaide are spread out over a
huge area – far more so than Cairns or Hobart etc.
And it gives the organisers some leverage to extract a great group booking deal, instead of 50 FT’ers being like Brown’s cows and all doing their own thing.
Best Hilton web rate now is $A175 a night (non refundable) for that weekend which is probably beatable on a flexible cancel group deal – I have asked them to quote me one, and let’s see what they say. (
Stop Press - see group rate I obtained today -
www.flyertalk.com/forum/11921169-post31.html )
The May
Memorial Day weekend seems very popular with USA based Flyer-talkers, and that is the weekend that was most favoured by far. We have bowed to that request and again chosen that weekend - as we have for
all other OzFests. Around half the attendees are US based each OzFest.
That public holiday in the USA is
Monday May 31, 2010. Remember if you LEAVE Sydney on the afternoon of Monday May 31, you ARRIVE back in the USA also on the morning of
Monday May 31. Tons of time to get back home, unpack, have an early night and get organised for a day at the office next day etc.
Mid afternoon is the flight time for United, who have direct daily flights from SYD to the west coast (to both LAX and SFO) leaving early afternoon ex Sydney.
Near all USA attendees fly UA to OzFests. In the last few years there have been
Double EQM deals announced for May, to the enormous joy and delight of those who had already booked!
There are It’l carriers like Air NZ, Singapore air and Malaysian that service ADL direct.
Remember that domestic flights from either SYD or BNE or MEL to ADL are
VERY cheap at selected times, on Virgin Blue (especially) and now new LCC “Tiger”. FT'ers will as always update you via this thread when the sale fares come into operation.
Everyone is welcome to OzFests. Your age, or FF status does not matter one hoot. By all means bring a partner or friends to whatever you attend - I am sure all days will be good fun, with good company, whether they are FF'ers or not.
The weather for the past 6 "Oz Fests" has been in general, superb and sunny. Despite June 1 - a few days later, being our official
Winter start date. Even in Tasmania our most southern city, we were truly blessed with unusually nice weather.
ADL normally has
slightly warmer weather than MEL, and about the same as SYD on any given day, so it
should be a very tolerable time to visit.
I get the feeling this as usual, may also turn out to be a
very long thread.
Glen
Note some of these threads below go to dead ends at present .. but as usual WILL link to real ‘placer’ posts when we get moving along a little!
Click HERE to view those signed up to attend so far. [/size]
Click HERE for: WHAT is going on, WHAT it costs, WHERE folks are staying, and flights.
Click HERE for "How To Get There" and planned activities in Adelaide area so far.
Click HERE to view typical WEATHER, and suggested things to see and do in the area.
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