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Published: February 2nd 2010
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Pete and I woke up early since my ring was done and the store opened at 8:30am. We paid for the ring and it looks perfect, now that it fits on the correct finger. We walked across the street to another computer store but found out the computer we wanted only had an Australian warranty. No Go #2.
All four of us then packed our bags, checked out of the apartment and took a cab to Europcar, rental car agency. We were headed on a somewhat thought out road trip up the coast to Hunter Valley, one of the many wine regions in Australia.
Dad didn’t realize he was going to be the main driver, but I told them Mom knew since Pete and I don’t have car insurance on us. Mom knew Australia drove on the left side of the road but had never been in a country that did it and didn’t realize the steering wheel was also on the other side of the car. Another minor detail, the car we rented was small and manual transmission. We were really out for an adventure: manual transmission and driving on the left side of the road. Oh yeah,
the manual gears are still in the same spot just shifting with your left hand.
We found Pancakes on the Rocks restaurant less than one block away from the rental car agency so we ordered 2 plates split between the 4 of us and we still were plenty full and spent half as much money. On the road we were with the Garmin following the directions.
I had found a dress designer that I wanted to try on and found 3 bridal stores in Australia along our proposed route to try them on. In Gosford, we found the bridal store. Once we were dropped off Pete and Dad went to an electronics store to find a net book while Mom and I shopped for 1 hour at the bridal store. I tried on about 10 dresses, got the designer name and model for 4 of them. As Mom and I walked out of the store Dad pulled up to get us not even 1 minute later. Pete was without a computer since the salesman didn’t want to bargain with Pete over the computer bad. Again No Luck on the computer attempt #3.
We made our way to
1st Winery-Ernest Hill
Love Free Wine tasting Cessnock by mid afternoon and hit up 3 wineries that afternoon: Ernest Hill Wines, Hungerford Hill and DeBortoli Wines. At De Bortoli we got to taste wine that was picked 3 hours before and also another batch that was from the day before. That was an awesome experience and it tasted great. The best thing was that all the wine tasting are FREE in Hunter Valley, but we did buy wine at 2 of the 3 wineries that day.
It was after 5pm by now and we needed to get a hotel room. First, we attempted a youth hostel but they were sold out for the weekend. We then drove back into town and stopped at Hunter Valley Motel which had rooms available but we needed 2 rooms since they were only queen sized beds in the room. It was nice cause there was a pool and the rooms were comfortable. After relaxing at the pool for over an hour with some wine we went to the pizza joint that was less than 2 blocks from the hotel and enjoyed the pizza back by the pool with some more wine. LOTS of wine drinking in Australia.
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