Travel Blogger: kirstnjames

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Hunter Valley

Posted on Nov. 19, 2006 at 05:03 in Oz 2006 (Subscribe)

Our tour to the Hunter Valley region took an early setback when we missed our 8:30 shuttle bus service from Sydney - raging hangovers from the previous night out with Plenders to blame.  Given the lack of transport to & from Hunter, we embarked on our own version of planes, trains & automobiles... arriving at Hunter Valley at 4pm rather than the planned 11am.

 

Anyway, accomodation was great (we treated ourselves to a 4-star lodge after slumming it in the city hostels) - and allowed us an early night for the next day's wine tour. Our lodge looked over the vineyard where the grapes were grown for the wine we drank that night - lovely!

 

The tour kicked off at 10am and lasted 6 hours, taking in 4 wineries and a cheese factory.  Most tours followed similar structure, giving us tasting of the main whites & reds of the valley - generally semillon, verdelho, chardonnay in white, shiraz & merlot red - whilst giving tips on how to taste, what to look for etc.  Although, since we don't like to waste good wine and didn't spit it out after tasting, by the end of vineyard 3 they'd all started to blur into one and we ended up staggering into the final winery!

 

We headed back to Sydney on the express bus this time and headed to Darling Harbour for another drink of wine and some fish & chips by the water......bit of a long  day!

 

Blue Mountains tomorrow..........

James & Kirst x

 

Photos :

View of restaurant from our balcony

View of vineyard from our balcony

James necking rather than tasting a glass of wine

Both of us in the Vindmens Winery

Both of us in Golden Grape Winery

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Hiya!

Posted on Nov. 21, 2006 at 03:58 by Anonymous

I'm so jealous wish i was there with you. Have a great time in the Blue Mountains love Ktxxx

Blue Mountains are great!

Posted on Nov. 21, 2006 at 06:27 by Simon

Gets quite cold at night though !

Vineyards

Posted on Nov. 21, 2006 at 07:03 by SueMike

Dear Kirsten & James
<br>Dad & I would love it there - weather looks great now - looking forward to photos of Blue Mountains.
<br>Lovely to hear from you today - sounded like you were next door.
<br>Love Mam & Dad xx

Vineyards

Posted on Nov. 21, 2006 at 07:44 by Anonymous

Please can you bring me back some cheese?

Few tips

Posted on Nov. 24, 2006 at 04:59 by Andrew Weedy

Now then. Glad to see your enjoying it. Miss it quite a bit really, especiallyn ow that we're in winter and theyre in summer. Just thought i'd give youo some advice (altho youo probly have it all planned out already), if your planning on going to the reef, youo can go from cape tribulation, which is an hour or 2 north of cairns (theres nothing there except pks jungle village, which is the best place to stop, but the cape is class.really chilled out. best to stop for 1 night and do a boat trip if you get chance). It tends to be quiter and better boats than the ones going out of cairns, but if youo get a small boat form carins it should be good. also, if youo can stop at noosa, just north of brisbane, its a nice little town and theres a free bus to steve irwins zoo, which is also good (altho you wont see him there). also, the whitsunday islands and fraser island are excellent 2/3 day trips if you get chance. couldnt pick between them, but you can do the whitsundys on a day trip and vists whitehaven beach (one of the best in the world). fraser island is awesome as well, i went twice it was that good. youo'll hear all this off of people anyway but thoguht i'd mention just in case. enjoy the rest of your trip!