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Published: July 22nd 2007
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Hi All!
So I know I've been a bit behind in updating my blog but by popular demand (or at least I'd like to think so) I'm back! Its been quite a busy couple of weeks so I have a lot of new adventures to share.
Last weekend, we took a tour to the Hunter Valley which is the wine region in New South Wales. After a scenic bus trip from Sydney we arrived at the Hunter Valley Gardens where we spent the day exploring the gardens and saw our first kangaroo! Quite a good experience although the people here seem to regard them as we do squirrels.
We arrived at our "dodgy" (to use a good Australian word) accommodations that evening before heading out for a fancy dinner at an amazing winery. Although the restaurant was really romantic and full of couples - Janice and I didn't mind and proceeded to dine in luxury on a fantastic three course dinner including scallops, filet mignon, and of course some local wine. However we were soon back to reality when we arrived back at our seedy hotel (following a 10 minute and $42 taxi ride which I didn't
want to mention since I swore I l would let the price go in the spirit of not letting it spoil a pleasent evening...but honesty $42?!? I probably could have bought the hotel we stayed in for that!...seriously).
So since all of you know me well, you know that I am constantly freezing cold and Janice and I must be meant for each other because she's the exact same way. And since it can be quite cool in the evening in the Hunter Valley we set the temperature tp 30 degrees, cranked up the heating pads on our beds to high and went off to sleep. A short lived sleep as it turned out when we awoke at 3:00am feeling like a McDonald's french fry under the orange light! Boy was it hot!!!
The next day we joined our tour bus at 9:30am and headed out for a wine tour. Yes, I realise 9:30am is a bit early for a wine tour and this really sunk in by the third winery around 10:30am when we were completely drunk from our free tastings...but I figured it was 9:00pm in Toronto so it must be acceptable! =) As my Aunt
says, as "It must be noon somewhere!"
By the end of the day we were completely exhaused, had drinken waaay too much wine (and had purchased 7 bottles each). We even made a name for ourselves as "those crazy Canadians" as we hauled all of our liquor off the bus with a little help from some nice passengers. Luckily we met up with another crazy couple from London who had purchased even more wine than we did and who happened to live next door to us in Sydney. We spent the walk home from the bus dragging our bags and boxes of wine down the street while laughing as people in the street gave us strange glances.
It was a great weekend all around and quite disheartening to have to work on Monday. But with a busy work week under our belts, we met up with some of Janice's friends on Friday who are at "Uni" studying medicine in Sydney . We went to a great Tapinyaki restaurant where they cooked the food right in front of us and proceeded to throw eggs and rice at all of the restaurant patrons....lots of fun! After dinner we went out
to "Cheers" for a drink.
The following day we heading out to the infamous Bondi beach near Sydney where we went for a long hike and did a bit of shopping, then it was back downtown in time to meet our friend Joshin from work to watch the big Rugby game (Australia was playing New Zealand...we lost) at the Wallaby's bar and then out for a nice Italian dinner.
On Sunday we decided to go whale watching and arrived at the boat at 9:00am only to find that the tour had been cancelled due to the rough seas. Luckily we were able to book for the 1:00pm tour so we spent the morning at the Aroma Festival which was going on in Sydney and included teas,coffees spices and chocolate...all my favourites (except maybe the spices).
We soon learned why the morning tour was cancelled when we got on the boat and I was thanking my lucky stars that I had the foresight to pop a Gravol before leaving the house in the morning. Over 60% of the people on our tour were sea sick....not us though and we had a great time watching the whales and trying
to catch them on camera while holding on with one hand as the boat tossed and turned.
This weekend we are heading out to the Blue Mountains region just outside of Syndey to do some mountain hiking and we are even going on an adventure cave tour where we get to wear hard hats and helmet lights and crawl through the mountain caves...should be a great time! Other upcoming adventures include the City to Surf run which is a 14km run from ..you guessed it...downtown Sydney to the Beach. I'm not quite sure I'm going to make it the whole way but we've been training for a few weeks now which I'm sure is not nearly enough but I'll keep you posted. At least PwC has set up a tent at the end of the race where they are providing a bbq and massages! I'm sure we'll need them.
Otherwise, I'm proud to say that I have finally settled into Aussie culture and have mastered most of the topics from my previous blog. The money issue seems to remain a bit of a tough one for me as it took me three weeks living here to realise that
there are no pennies...or as Janice says, it took me three weeks and being told that there are no pennies here to come to this realisation...I mean, I did wonder why they were always rounding the cost of my purchases but given that my wallet is filled with strange coins it never really sunk in! =) haha
Hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable summer and I can't wait to hear from all of you!
Laura
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Krysta
Krysta Banwell-Gutteridge
Wine me up bella!!!
Now THATs the Laura I was waiting to see! Drinking at 9:30am... just typical! Looks like a load of laughs hon, I wanna know if you actually ATE that huge lollipop or if you're sending it home for ME?! Keep the updates comin'! You KNOW I'm reading them! Love, Krys.