Hunter Valley: Day 2, The Valleying

A good, if a little too muggy, night’s sleep and what a lovely sight to see when walking out of the room...
Much nicer than a grubby 3rd floor corridor.

Yours for $30 a night!

After some grub Ze Germans and I took off to the ‘Smelly Cheese Shop’ at about 9am. It was Michael’s turn to drive today so the wipers went on every time we wanted to indicate right for a while.

Closed until 10am

Seems ze German efficiency had lead to us being ahead of the laid back vineyard folk. No matter, we went onward to another shop that sold... oh never mind, that didn’t open until 10 either.

So we drove up to Audrey Wilkinson’s place, as we were too late yesterday, to sample a few wines. But we were a little bit early (nothing opens until 10am in The Hunter Valley), which gave me the chance to capture some butterflies and landscape shots.

I don't want to sound like a queer or nuthin'... But I think butterflies are kick ass!

A very good year

The place was nice inside and was historic enough to have its own museum. Zoe got a Christmas present and we went on our merry way to...The Hunter Olive Centre! In which we sampled some rather interesting oils and sauces, we didn't actually buy any, but the fig jam was very nice.

Time was a factor now as we had to get back to Sydney by 3.30 as Ze Germans are the kind of students that turn up for things they’re supposed to. So we cruised on to McGuigan’s, the best wine makers of the year 2009 and best Semillon maker of 2011!

We didn’t actually try any wine, instead we went for a mini tour of next door’s cheese making facilities. A very small operation that made a fantastic cheese called ‘washed rind’ or something like that. I also learned a bit about the classification of cheese into 8 groups and the genral cheese making process as well as trying the smelliest cheese available. It basically stunk out the room with the pong of sweaty feet, but tasted surprisingly nice even if it hung on my breath for a little too long, so it was a lot like my last girlfriend! So I downed a bottle of organic ginger beer to remove the taste and hopped in the car to go to the small wine makers and food store that we tried to go to earlier but were denied by the opening times.

Again, we didn’t buy anything, but I did try a nice mustard.

Next was the very picturesque Peppers Creek Village. A small collection of shops and a wedding chapel next to David Hook wines. We took a lot of photos and I finally found some grapes...

Wee baby grapes.

 Our final stop was just down the road at the Hunter Valley Gardens. And the entrance made my blood run cold,

Which was impressive considering the 34oC heat.

Yes Christmas had arrived at The Hunter, or at least was in a state of arriving as many displays weren’t quite ready yet. We did get in for free as we only had 30 minutes before we had to leave, which isn’t worth paying $24 for, that’s almost a dollar a minute.

Spiders kick ass!

Of course no Christmas display would be complete without some fake plastic trees,

Some fake plastic polar bears

Fake plastic reindeer

Fake plastic nativity scene

And who can forget Radiohead’s ‘Fake Plastic Drunken Angels’

Even the plants hate Christmas, see them cry in anguish.

The gardens were lovely. A testament to man’s continuing harnessing of nature to make her do what we tell her to, like grow horses

Welcome to ho ho Hell!

Creepy Santas aside, I would have liked to stay longer, but alas, we had to move on and say farewell to The Hunter Valley. A wholly enjoyable experience that I would gladly do again. I like to think that although I took a lot from my visit there, but I also left a part of me there...

Namely MY BLOODY PHONE!*

Of course it wouldn't have been as good without Ze Germans, so big up yourselves!

*My phone has since been replaced by a newer, funkier, dual sim phone.