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Published: August 5th 2014
I’m not really a winter person. When the temperatures plummet, and the days contract as sunshine hours dwindle, everything starts to feel a little gloomy and depressing. So over the last few weeks or so I’ve remedied this with some quick getaways. Coupled with good food, wine and company, winter can be fun too.
My first city break wasn’t a holiday at all, it was a work trip to Canberra. However I’ve never been one to pass up an opportunity and took the chance to explore the city a bit more while I was there. The last time I visited it was the weekend, and it felt very cold and sterile. This time it was midweek, and I stumbled across a series of interesting pieces of art in the streets. I have no idea if these are permanent artworks on display or if they are temporary, however the quirky pieces meant it definitely didn’t feel soulless this time around.
A couple of weeks later it was off to Adelaide and this time there was definitely no work, it was all about food and wine. We took full advantage of Adelaide’s burgeoning restaurant scene, enjoying some sensational meals at the
Port Melbourne
It was a very windy cold day, and we were heading off on an adventure. This summed it up perfectly. restaurant, the
Tasting Room and
Street, plus a casual pub lunch at the
Stirling Hotel. There are many pubs that could take lessons from the well run kitchen in this little country town in the Adelaide Hills. It offered delicious food, great service, and a warm atmosphere.
We had travelled to the Adelaide Hills, a well-known wine region only 30 minutes from downtown Adelaide, obviously to taste some wine. We meandered through the pretty countryside, ending up at
The Lane, a gorgeous vineyard with restaurant and cellar door not far from Hahndorf. I was instantly jealous of Adelaide folk with beautiful landscapes and picturesque vineyards on their doorsteps, not to mention that The Lane had some really great wine.
It was my third visit to Adelaide, yet despite being on the coast I had never been to the beach before (I believe it’s harder to grow grapes there!), so we remedied this with a visit to Glenelg. I was surprised at how developed it was as I had envisaged a sleepy little beach town on the coast, but as one of the most popular seaside spots in Adelaide, it was almost a little city of its own. I could completely
imagine how busy and buzzy it would be at the height of summer. I saw it instead on a typical wintry day - it was very grey, cold and blustery, and we walked along the beach with wind whipping in our faces, yet I loved it all the same.
A little side note – check in online if you can and travel with hand luggage if you have the option. I realised the benefits of both after testing the boundaries of just how late you can actually turn up to the airport….. I thought my flight left at 12.50pm, so had suggested that I be dropped off at the airport at around 12.15pm. As it turned out, we were running early and I got dropped off at the airport a little early, around 11.55am, which was fine by me. I never mind killing time in airports, there's always so much to see, and who doesn't like people watching? I wandered in, browsed in a bookstore, then viewed the board to see which gate I was at. Curiously I couldn't see a flight to Sydney at 12.50. I was a little perplexed by this and was just digging around in
The Adelaide Hills - The Lane
Gorgeous winery and views to match my handbag looking for my phone to check out the boarding time, when I heard my name being paged for the final boarding call - the flight was leaving at 12.10 pm! I panicked and ran to the gate, which was fortunately not far away. Note to self - obsessively early arrivals in the airport are completely unnecessary.
The next city break was a last minute trip to Melbourne following a call on the Tuesday, "I'm staying in Melbourne all week, want to come and join me in Melbourne for the weekend?" Well, I've never been one to turn down an opportunity for a getaway no matter how long or how far. Of course it was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends in Port Melbourne as well.
As well as the usual eating and drinking in Melbourne's spectacularly good restaurants (I can't omit the unbelievably good feast I had at
Coda), we also got a lot closer than we’d have wished to a terrible murder, which wasn’t on our agenda at all. I had suggested we visit the
National Gallery of Victoria, showing "Italian Masterpieces" on the Saturday morning. We parked a few minutes’ walk away in the
gorgeous Botanic Gardens and as we were walking through the park we were surprised to see a section of the garden cordoned off, a number of police and several reporters around. We walked a little bit further, when to my shock I saw a body in the park! The person was covered with a sheet over their torso and face, but her bare limbs and her bloody legs were still visible. We asked a policeman as we walked past who simply said, “watch the news tonight”. An hour or so later, after enjoying a different age and different environment in the NGV, we walked back through the park. This time there were more police and a lot more reporters. Over the next few days I followed the case with interest. Sadly a Chinese woman, recently arrived in Melbourne and on her way to work, had been murdered and possibly sexually assaulted. A homeless itinerant man was arrested a few days later.
After a couple of weekends at home it was time to get out of the city, so then it was off to the South Coast. I had visited there about
a year ago and been impressed with the gorgeous white
sand beaches and taken with the beautiful scenery both on the coastal drive and driving through the countryside. My memory hadn’t deceived me, it really is beautiful. We stopped off at the Fitzroy Falls in the Morton National Park and went for a bushwalk. We followed that up with a walk along the crisp white beach in Huskisson. What a beautiful spot.
This year the Sydney winter has been exceptionally mild and very dry. I think back to this time last year when we had
ten days of rain, or remember back to frosty mornings in New Zealand and I know that I shouldn’t be complaining about winter at all. So far winter has been cool crisp mornings and clear blue sunny days, and filled with food, wine and great company. Long may it last!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Good food, wine and company
The only way to deal with winter-- drink! I love wineries in off season. Sounds like you found some great places to explore.