The food and wine state is laying on a spread and new tours are opening up unseen parts
AN extraordinary new tour of the Maralinga Bomb Site is being offered in the South Australian Outback, an area off-limits for more than half a century.
Maralinga Tours (maralingatours.com.au) is run by indigenous operators who were given access to the land in 2014. The three-day two-night tagalong tours take in several ground zeros and the British-built airstrip. Radiation levels are safe, so leave the Geiger counter at home. 
Just this month, the magnificent coastline of little-visited Yorke Peninsula was linked by a chain of walks. Walk the Yorke (yorkepeninsula.com.au/trails) was officially declared open on   December 13, opening a 500km continuous trail from the sandy havens of coastal copper town Moonta to the bottom of the boot-shaped peninsular (home to rugged Innes National Park) and up to head of gulf, Port Wakefield.
Award-winning operator Quenten Agius this year is offering five new Aboriginal Cultural Tours (aboriginalsa.com.au). Among them is Ngadjuri Country New Frontier, taking guests from Adelaide into Clare Valley and the Mid North. Expect plenty of ancient memory on megafauna as well as little-seen ancestral engravings.
Venerable operator Spirit of the Coorong (coorongcruises.com.au/) continues to cruise the region but also goes up the Murray River. The new Five Rivers Outback Safari explores remote sections and tributaries between Renmark and Tooleybuc in Victoria, with excursions to Lake Mungo.
EcoCaddy (eco-caddy.com) is a new Adelaide initiative to help with the "trip too far to walk and too short to cab". A flat fee of $5 will see you across anywhere in the CBD thanks to a fleet of bamboo-bodied Treecycles (hybrid-electric passenger tricycles).
And a "swim with the tuna" project near Granite Island, the island made famous by Victor Harbour's horse-drawn tram, could open in the near future Victor is an hour south of Adelaide.
ARTS AND CULTURE Andamooka is Coober Pedy's little brother - a little more wild, a little less visited, and enjoying a desert landscape that's every bit as alluring. It's now home to the Andamooka Yacht Club (andamookayachtclub.com), a hub featuring gallery, cafe and community space. As well as serving great coffee, it showcases the work of artists and metal-smiths using the town's desirable opal.
Tarnanthi (artgallery.sa.gov.au), the SA Gallery's "most ambitious exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in its 134-year history", was launched in   October and runs until   January 17. The festival includes an art fair attended by more than 40 art centres from across the nation.
The Adelaide Fringe (adelaidefringe.com.au) - the biggest outside Edinburgh - sold a whopping half-million tickets in 2015, up 20 per cent on its previous best. Expect more in 2016.
WHERE TO STAY South Australia is home to a nice new initiative called Maui Winery Havens (maui.com.au/winery-havens). Hire a Maui motorhome and you can overnight at an exclusive site within four participating wineries within the Adelaide Hills, Langhorne Creek, Riverlands and Coonawarra.
Still in wine country, you can now stay alongside the heritage orchard that Maggie Beer uses in her eponymous gourmet products; stunning two-bedroom Orchard House (orchardhouse.com.au) is an original Barossa farmhouse that has been similarly hand-picked by Beer.
In Coonawarra, Arches of Allendale (archesofallendale.com) is an 1866 church converted into boutique accommodation. And McLaren Vale now is able to boast its first hostel, the McLaren Vale Backpackers (mclarenvalebackpackers.com.au/).
The big news in Adelaide is the new 170-room five-star   Mayfair Hotel (mayfairhotel.com.au). Fashioned from an old deco insurance building on King William Street, its location between the attractions of North Terrace and the delights of the Leigh/Peel laneways is gold.
FOOD AND DRINK Small bar-restaurants continue to spread across Adelaide like some weird virus. Peel and Leigh streets were inoculated first, but Topham Mall, Gilbert Place and parts of Hindley Street are now showing feverish activity. Among the latest: Lady Burra Brewhouse (ladyburrabrewhouse.com.au/) establishes the city's first micro brewery and serves Portuguese food; Hains & Co (hainsco.com.au) offers 25 varieties of rum and features a 1.25 tonne anchor; and La Buvette Drinkery (labuvettedrinkery.com) is a slice of Parisian chic hidden behind a blue facade.
In the Adelaide CBD, Kang Kong and Gypsy Dragon (kangkong.com.au) have taken up residence in Waymouth St (the city's most serious eat street) an drink-eat experience that starts with cocktails and ends with Asian-fusion cuisine. Outstanding rooftop bar/restaurant 2KW (2kwbar.com.au) on King William St opened early 2015 and is still head and shoulders above everyone.
Regionally speaking, doyen of the McLaren the Salopian Inn (salopian.com.au) is back to its best under new owner Karena Armstrong. And Seed Winehouse+Kitchen (seed.kitchen) in Clare sees an old chaff mill converted to a slice of urbane excellence that wouldn't look out of place in the big smoke.
BIG TICKET EVENTS The biggest ticket in Adelaide is still "Mad   March", when Adelaide Fringe (comedy) coincides with the Adelaide Festival (arts/theatre/you-name-it), Clipsal 500 (V8 Supercars) and WOMADelaide (world music). Accommodation books out. You have been warned.
The six-stage race routes for the 2016 Santos Tour Down Under (tourdownunder.com.au) sees 70km of new road routes and the return of the dreaded Norton Summit climb. Adelaide and surrounding winelands descend into a weird Lycra hell, but it gets bigger every year.
Australia Day Cricket returns to Adelaide Oval (adelaideoval.com.au) with a T20 against India in   January. Expect rivalry, action and possibly some cricketing redemption.The food and wine state is laying on a spread and new tours are opening up unseen parts