I'm pissed, I need to lie down...

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We couldn't decide whether to go to Kangaroo Island when we get to Adelaide or Phillip Island in Melbourne - both are full of all the wildlife we want to see but Phillip Island is smaller. Unfortunately tours of Kangaroo Island are all 2 days and just getting onto and off the island in a campervan is $140 and the park rangers who are meant to do tours were really unhelpful when I rang whereas a Phillip Island tour was done by the same people who do the Neighbours tour for $85. Having decided to do this though we found out we'd have to wait till Thurs 4th to do the tour. However, since we were planning to see the wineries in the Barossa valley near Adelaide we decided we could avoid wasting a day by going to the wineries of the Yarra valley near Melbourne (this did mean no Jacob's Creek but it's not like you can't get that elsewhere!)
We didn't really know what we were doing so we drove out and stopped at Rochdale randomly which was very lucky because it was probably the best we went to! The lady at the cellar door was really helpful - taking us through the tasting and telling us a bit about each wine. We found the chardonnay from their Macdons winery and Pinot Noir from the Yarra were the best we tasted all day. The vines weren't in leaf but it was still beautiful looking out across the fields and has rekindled my dream of retiring to a vineyard. We had lunch at Domaine Chandon of 'Moet and' fame - another of our little treats - and had a glass of wine of which the Shiraz was best. Pete graciously accepted the role of designated driver (thanks Pete!). Next we went to Yering Station - this is one of the few that actually export and they did have a Shiraz - Viognier which we keep looking out for in restaurants now! Finally we went to St Huberts - one of the oldest (nice Pinot Noir) and got the 'you'll never drive all that distance in that time' talk again! (the woman at Wicked doesn't think she'll see us again because we'll have to drop the van off in Cairns. Grr) Started chucking it down on the way home in true Melbourne 'if you don't like the weather wait 5 minutes' style.
Had kangaroo steak in Maitz on Spencer Street - really really nice rare - don't know why it hasn't caught on here! Ready for bed at 9 (that's drinking at lunchtime for you) but decided that that would be lame, so went to see 'The Island' at the cinema. Quite good, especially Ewan Mcgregor, very Minority Report - esque.

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