Blogs from Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 2

Strewth! We are painfully aware that we've taken a rather long artistic pause since last sharing our adventures in the amazing land Down Under with you dear friends. Fear not, neither have we left you out in the cold nor have we completely indulged in idleness, latter only on a part-time basis. We have done a couple of short expeditions that we are about to tell you, have had some major festivities to celebrate and left Sydney behind us and got a new home on wheels. After ten highly enjoyable days of worldly pleasures in Sydney, it's time to take our first walk on the wild side and head to the bush. The bush, the hinterland, in the broadest Aussie sense is anywhere beyond one's backyard, more strictly speaking, anywhere outside of a town. At some ... read more

A fantastic road trip to Hunter Valley, wine country. But first a picnic stop at the beach. A super great stay at Blue Bush Estates. Room and building beautiful. Dinning Room wonderful. Lounge room Wonderful. We loved it. So quiet and not too many at the estate during our 2 night stay. The 3 of us actually lounged on the sofas, one for each of us. A walk in the vine field, a great BBQ. A beautiful sleep. Get ready for the next day wine tour.... read more

Day 33 was the one we had been looking forward to for a while...chocolate, cheese and wine tasting in the Hunter Valley!!! We joined the minibus at 7.45am and headed to our first stop....the Walkabout Wildlife Park! We had our first experiences of Australian wildlife and were walking around with kangaroos, stroking Koalas and holding yet more snakes which was very exciting!! Next stop was the chocolate factory where we sampled chilli chocolate (NOT nice) and then it was winery number 1! We were aiming for sophistication and succeeded until we decided to make our first purchase. Always looking for a bargain we didn't miss the clearance case of 12 bottles of wine for $45! Unfortunately however the wine did come at the expense of taste which was very definately not exquisite and so spritzers were ... read more

Family Outing for father's day in Hunter Valley then on the way home we stopped over in Nobby's Beach and had an gratifying seafood lunch in Newcastle. The accommodation in Crowne Plaza was a SUPERB! I paid $286.00 ( Industry rate only ) for a 2 bedroom villa. I would say its 5 star hotel with 2 sophisticated restaurants, 2 cool bars, golf coarse, spa, free gym, contemporary room and an excellent amenities. The best part of the hotel is the swimming pool. I was pretty impressed with the hotel and I highly recommend this for someone who would like to experience a sophisticated and extraordinary accommodation. I realised that where you stay can give you a first impression what kind of holiday you will be getting. After a long travel duration exploring around until your ... read more

We have begun another little trip - this time we've headed west. After three weeks of continuous rain in Sydney, we are hoping away from the coast will mean sunshiney days. We left home yesterday afternoon, and drove north to Swansea to spend the night by Lake Macquarie, which looked quite beautiful in the golden sunset. Today we headed to Pokolbin, an area we often visited when the children were young - a nice drive from Sydney with wineries, restaurants, antique shops and picnic areas. When we enquired about where the relatively new Hunter Valley Gardens were, we were very surprised to find that they were in this same area - in fact the dustbowl area transformed, not all that far from where we once picnicked. We loved it all - 60 acres containing 10 distinctive ... read more