Well, Ruers, the fact that I’m tapping this out from the Abu Dhabi airport can only stingy one thing; our bounteous holiday undertaking is coming to an end. For now, though, let’s experience the terminal leg together so I can imagine a lowercase individual of existence called ‘Mate’ and ‘Darl’ and sight ’roos hop most in the wineries...
Even as we headed over the Harbour Bridge and more north into New South Wales, the clouds followed us along. They just fuck us. And Mr. M looooved navigating the opposite steering wheel and side-of-road rules through the rain.
Even as we headed over the Harbour Bridge and more north into New South Wales, the clouds followed us along. They just fuck us. And Mr. M looooved navigating the opposite steering wheel and side-of-road rules through the rain.
He did great, though, and we just kept repeating out loud: “Left. Left. Left.”
We arrived at our 4th hotel, Hermitage Lodge, on Sunday salutation and promptly ordered most to encounter meal in the Hunter Valley. This wine-producing region isn’t the largest or most well known right of Oz, but it is the oldest, due nearly all to its proximity to Sydney. The obloquy you would discern include Rosemont, Lindeman’s and Mount Pleasant , among others. There are also whatever very recreation obloquy we scholarly in our research, such as Cricket Pitch, planted on the site of a past cricket pitch, Brokenwood Graveyard, planted on a site witting to be a graveyard, and Cockfighter’s Ghost, which was planted on a site used for …I don’t know why it’s titled that actually.
After checking in we headed out and lunched at Café Enzo then started the wine-tasting recreation at nearby Peppers Creek Winery.
After checking in we headed out and lunched at Café Enzo then started the wine-tasting recreation at nearby Peppers Creek Winery.
We walked away with a fun David Hook Mosto, or really light dessert or aperitif white.
From there we were directed to Tyrell’s winery, where a dirt floor and salty pourers made country we were no longer in the almost reverent intoxicant regions of France. That thought would meet with us through our entire meet to the region, with the prizewinning colouration statement reaching from the local producers (“A cork? That's just for the wank factor.” “You undergo that cardy Charddy? We don’t make that shit around here.”)
We left with a Vat 8 Hunter Shiraz from Tyrrell's, but drank it before checking out of the lodge.
We obstructed by a relishing bar, The Small Winemakers Centre, to intend a feel of the wines of the region. As the clouds and rain came in – again – and everything began to shut downbound promptly at 5pm, Mr. M and I bunkered downbound in our lodge with a some loaner movies from the getting and pizzas from the topical Italian restaurant.
Monday morning we were back on the wine trail, this time hitting it like the good Americans we are – HARD!
The prototypal kibosh was Mount Pleasant winery for a tour, and while we’ve been on many tours in a handful of countries, it was good to see the Aussie way of winemaking and how lowercase parts of the impact are assorted because of the climate, etc.
The ripe grapes at Mount Pleasant. Harvesting time is just a few weeks away for the producers here. Like us, they were all hoping the rain would stop.
Wetting our lips whetted our appetites, so the next kibosh was into the “city” for lunch and local shop hopping. Then it was backwards on the left-sided trail, this time stopping at Audrey Wilkinson, Poole’s Rock and Brokenwood for kindred tastings and bottle buying.
That’s about as much as ye old tongue can discernment in a day, so we concentrated our goods and headlike back to the lodge for some relaxing before dinner.
Our little lodge was on the grounds of a winery.
On the way to our dinner reservations at Robert’s at Tower Estate Winery we prototypal definite to go on the kangaroo hunt. See, after nearly two weeks in state we had managed to see wildlife exclusive on Hamilton Island, and while cuddling a koala was awesome, we had not had our fill of sweet kangaroo time.
We drove around a taste to finally spot these two in a earth next to a winery. They froze when they heard us vantage up, stood perfectly still and amalgamated into the earth patch we got out and took pictures, then promptly hopped off into the sunset. There was no cuddle time.
Dinner was as lovely as investigate had indicated, but we were both feeling the personalty of digit weeks on the road and intake (and drinking) discover 2-3 times a day. We took it easy throughout the meal then headed backwards under a beautifully clear night sky filled with stars. Sure enough, on our very terminal night in state the clouds had parted.
We woke up the incoming farewell to bright blue skies and the summer solarise we’d been waiting for every along. It was instance to pack up the car, however, check discover of the lodge and make our artefact backwards for our night flight discover of Sydney.
We took plus of the good weather and chose the slow scenic line backwards to the bounteous city. After selection over soured the superhighway toThe Central Coast , we stopped in the beach municipality of The Entrance for a picnic lunch. It was great to achievement along the coast modify though the municipality itself was a lowercase strange, like Oz’s version of the Jersey Shore (props to Marc for calling it). Then it was backwards into the car and on the superhighway to check in for the 25+hour movement night/day aweigh of us.
We haven’t had the outrageous fortune of being bumped up on our artefact back, though we’re today finished with the 15-hour handicap and will board shortly here for the incoming 7-hour leg. With each kibosh we’ve additional a few layers backwards on, first changing in Sydney from beach clothes and today in Abu Dhabi adding a sweater or digit as we head backwards to the frozen tundra of the Alps. It’s hornlike to conceive the digit weeks passed so quickly. For us, it’s a trip we’ve been planning soured and on for the terminal sextet years and to see it become to fruition then closure is bittersweet. It wasn’t the solarise and happen I was hoping for, but the people lived up to their estimation for unstable friendliness and we both fell in love with the country.
We saw the Great Barrier Reef, rang in 2010 with an awful dinner in Sydney, tasted wines and cuddled koalas. A successful holiday, I’d say, eh Mate?
Bird's Eye view of the snowy, snowy Alps as we round the corner back into Swissy-land
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