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Published: February 13th 2007
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Recovering on Boxing Day, Gregor went to Watson’s Bay to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. It was spectacular to see so many boats leaving the harbour as they entered the notoriously wild Tasman Sea led by some of the most beautiful and expensive boats in the world. Amazingly, the top boats complete this near 600 nautical mile trip in about 48 hours. Unfortunately, whilst this was happening Becky was working at an out of hours clinic at the Animal Referral Hospital which was pretty hectic!! Still, the money will be very handy.
To get over the Christmas hangover we headed to the Hunter Valley with Arron and Marcela. This is one of the most prominent wine growing areas in Australia and so off we went for the "hair of the dog"!
It is easy to get to but really feels as if you are in a different world. The hostel was like a little ranch, with horses grazing out back and a lot of rustic charm.
The open space gave Arron the opportunity to practice his boomerang skills, which are actually pretty good. He was also kind enough to let Gregor have a
go. He did reasonably well after a few attempts. The boomerang was definitely returning, just a little bit too much, as it caught in the wind and smacked off the roof of the hostel. To avoid smashing up our new accommodation, they moved a bit further away. Again, there was a definite improvement before … it landed in the middle of a pond. To be fair to Gregor, he did immediately strip down to his undies to retrieve it, as good friends do. The pond was a reasonable distance away, so they thought they were pretty isolated, that was until a big cheer went up. Everyone at the hostel saw it all, cheering his strip-tease. Afterwards, we found out that the pond was infested with leeches, so Gregor was lucky. The boys didn’t bother with the boomerang again.
When you go to Hunter Valley, you go for the wine. We went on a good tour; where there wasn’t too much of a sales pitch at the places we went to. In fact, at the largest and very well known vineyard, our host even said that the wines we were given were rubbish, as we were on a backpacker tour.
You can’t fault his honesty.
The first place that we went to was hosted by Tim, a guy from our hosted who we had gotten to know the night before playing volleyball. More on that later. He worked at Oakvale and was very generous with his measures. Plus the wine was excellent, especially the Verdehlo and a sparkling Shiraz. In fact, we actually asked for smaller measures and some people poured theirs out (as you are meant to do but no-one usually does). We were getting quite tipsy and this was only the first stop. It turned out to be an excellent day and the choice of vineyards was great, with the exception of the mass producer mentioned earlier.
Other vineyards that we would recommend include Iron Gate, a fantastic boutique producer with Spanish style buildings, and the idyllic Hanging Tree vineyard. Both of these had great wines, really friendly staff and great surroundings. Plus, when we were at Hanging Tree we also came across a horse whisperer in action!!
As the entire tour were staying at the hostel and comprised a group of fun young people, things carried on into the night in the nearby barn.
Most people bought wine on the tour and a lot of this was consumed that evening, potentially a waste as it was not your average plonk.
One of the most enjoyable things about our stay was the games of volleyball that we played most evenings. It was a fun way to get to know others, with teams expanding all the time from our original quartet. Becky and Marcie ended up playing against their boyfriends in one game, assisted by a couple of decent players. There is no need to say who won (the better and fairer sex, ha ha).
We also went cycling. It was a good idea to begin with and would have been great if the brakes and the gears worked on the bikes. They certainly are not going to win any health and safety awards. It did allow us to play aqua golf though. This conjures up all sorts of weird and wonderful images but basically involves driving a normal golf ball off a tee into water, aiming for various baskets. If your ball ends up in a basket then you win a prize. Sound easy? You have better think again. A bit like the
games at a fun fair, it is much harder then it looks. Hence, Mr Calder will be offended if we do not mention that he actually got a hole in one (the only kind) off his first ball. We got the impression that this may have been the first prize in rather a long time. If you were wondering, the prize was a voucher for a bottle of wine from a local vineyard - one that we hadn’t visited yet. So, guess what happened the next day? We didn’t just stop at the one place either.
On the way back we took the scenic route, very scenic as it turned out, to get a bottle of Jungle Juice (a port & brandy concoction). This was a request from the person Arron and Marcie are staying with. Apparently the last bottle lasted three years but was very good. No problem they said, as they headed off to one of the best known wine regions in the southern hemisphere. How hard can it be to find? Strange then that this rocket fuel can only be purchased in one shop, a pub actually, in a small village in the middle of nowhere.
Perhaps that is why it is special, like a rare plant found hanging off a ledge in some remote mountain. At least it was good stuff. We bought a small bottle and finished it in no time at all.
Back in Sydney, we all spent New Year on a party boat on the harbour, accompanied by Bec and Matt, two Germans that we met in the Hunter Valley. It was fantastic to watch the fireworks from the water. For those that do not know Sydney very well, the harbour is huge. It encompasses too many bays to count, with yachts everywhere you can see.
We realised that we had made the right decision when we were getting to the boat; as Circular Quay was mobbed. We were originally banned from getting through the entrance gate, as the quayside was too full but managed to sweet talk our way through. Easing through the crowd was no easy task, as people were crammed together like a tin of sardines. There were people everywhere; hanging out of balconies, camped out on the floor, every single scrap of space imaginable. Then our boat arrived, with space in abundance, no queue at the
bar, our own food, no waiting for the toilet and the best view in town.
This boat had been recommended to us by one of Gregor’s friends at work, who was also going. We were slightly taken aback to discover that the boat was full of Scots. Gregor’s friend Anj, whilst born and raised in Sydney has a Scottish background. There were Glaswegian, Edinburgh and even Aberdeen accents. We felt very much at home.
Some people say that you once you have seen one firework display that you have seen them all; those people should come here. It was great!! The Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit up like a coat hanger, in reference to it’s nickname, as it was celebrating its 75th Anniversary. There were fireworks being launched from barges, others from skyscrapers: it was superb. Add to this a decent amount of dodgy dancing to your cheesy favourites and it was a bit like being back home but better. Happy New Year !!!
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