Taste
For almost 140 years, Adelaide's Central Market, the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, has brought fresh produce into the city.
It's a bustling, colourful foodies' paradise and Mark Gleeson's tour really lets you taste your way around: you'll go to the Russian piroshki stall to try little pasties, to the Croatian coffee stall for a fierce espresso, to Kate's Patisserie for a pretzel, to the Tbar for a brew and to Marino's for some hand-cured prosciutto.
It's a kaleidoscope of tastes and colours - the only common elements are the passion, pride and expertise of the stall-holders. Definitely a tour for an empty stomach.
Drink
At the National Wine Centre, aspiring vintners can make a virtual bottle for "computer tasting". Mine was a disaster - "Fantastically bad - warrants a Public Health Warning. Resembles some by-product of the petrochemical industry", condemned the computer.
On Ralf's "Life is a Cabernet" tour, visit several wineries in nearby McLaren Vale - red wine country that also produces some of Australia's best chardonnay.
After a day that included pelicans, penguins, antiques, rolling hills and a delicate fillet of King George whiting, I stand looking over autumn-red vines and enjoy a Menage Trois: a fantastically good blend of three fine Hugh Hamilton wines. Verdict? It was fantastically good.
Shop
"I never know whether I'll be washing blood off an Akubra or sewing feathers on a hat for the mother of the bride," says milliner Amanda, who is happy with the variety of her work in the pretty Adelaide Hatter, set in the equally pretty Adelaide Mall of 70 shops. Nearby Regent Arcade is also elegant and charming.
Both are in Rundle Mall, a pedestrian precinct housing 800 shops of every type. The Harbour Town outlet mall gives visitors with a Tourist Card an extra 10 to 15 per cent discount. Marion Shopping Centre, the largest in South Australia, is 20 minutes away.
Look
North Terrace holds Adelaide's history and cultural riches in dignified sandstone museums, galleries, memorials and government buildings - even the casino is housed in Victorian splendour. It's grand but welcoming too.
There are trees, gardens, benches and usually no entrance fees. The museum's exhibits range from a 550 million-year-old fossil to an astronaut's suit. There is also a fine Aboriginal collection.
The Migration Museum pulls no punches telling the stories of immigrants to the city, and the Art Gallery has free tours of its wonderful colonial art. Further along at the JamFactory, grapefruit-sized lumps of molten glass are turned into huge vases.
Watch
In such an English-looking city, with its green squares, towering oaks, fine stone churches and statue of Queen Victoria, it's only proper that cricket is a passion here. For almost 150 years the Adelaide Oval - the most beautiful cricket ground in Australia - has echoed to the thwack of willow on leather.
All the cricket greats have played here, notably Sir Donald Bradman, after whom the stand is named. His statue stands outside, caught in mid-cover drive.
Aussie Rules is followed fanatically here. The fabulous Festival Centre is where Adelaide's legendary arts festivals are based.
Drive
Jan from Tourabout Adelaide takes me up into the hills where, tucked into the valleys are little old stone-built villages like Stirling and Hahndorf. The first, with its pub, cricket ground and hot-chestnut stall looks quintessentially English; the other shows its distinctly German heritage. Bridgewater has a beautiful old stone flour mill with a huge water wheel.
At The Cedars - home of the celebrated German artist Hans Heysen - I admire a still life over the mantelpiece. Anna Pavlova offered Heysen a blank cheque for the painting but he refused to sell it.
Bike
A flat city is too good a chance to pass up so I borrow a free bicycle from Bike SA. It's an easy ride to the Botanic Garden where 140-year-old fig trees shade the lawns. Flocks of bright rosellas swoop through branches and the beautiful Victorian Palm House resembles a magnified terrarium.
I pass the zoo where monkeys are hooting, excited perhaps about the arrival of two giant pandas next year. I glide along the river through Linear Park to the sea and find coffee shops, jetties and a train to take me and the bike back to the city.
Paddle
The tram to the seaside town of Glenelg passes gingerbread cottages in stone and brick, roses growing through their wrought iron lace. At the end of the line are shops, cafes and a lazy sea lion lolling in the waves under the long jetty. The people are relaxed too, sprawled on the beach where, the museum says, three men were arrested in 1933 for topless bathing.
Up the coast is Semaphore, another seaside village with a long jetty, where the fishermen are hoping for a haul of bream or whiting.
Savour
It wouldn't be a holiday without a little wicked indulgence. Helen's Chocolatte Tour starts outside Haigh's striped Beehive building. This family firm has been making fine chocolate since 1915.
It's a long process from bean to box, 72 hours of beating is needed to achieve the right degree of smoothness, but the samples we're given dissolve into pure pleasure on the tongue.
Chocolatte has 40-plus flavours of chocolate truffle.
Pamela Wade was a guest of South Australian Tourism Commission and flew courtesy of Air New Zealand.
