Australia Day 9 and 10

There literally hasn't been any time to write my final post so I'm doing it now as we've just arrived back in the UK. 

After our amazing Hunter Valley tour we had a lazy lie in before packing up and heading off to find some breakfast. What we did stumble across was infact the chocolate and fudge factory which of course we had to stop at! I bought a rather large slab of 'Cowboy' fudge named after the shot (Irish cream, white rum and butterscotch). I did choose to not eat this for breakfast though, as we did find a nice little cafe called Vittorio's to stop at and of course indulged in my last Eggs Benny of the trip! 

We then headed back towards Sydney and stopped about halfway home in Terrigal - a sweet little beach side town. We spent a bit of time catching some final rays on the gorgeous sandy beach (coming home still a pasty white colour was not an option!). Again we were lucky with the weather as it was about 28 degrees although a little windy but I hear that's better for the tan ;) 

We had a quick bit of lunch and a look round in the town where I came across the Designer Emporium and was very nearly convinced to buy a new pair of sunnies from Sydney brand Sunday Somewhere. However I refrained as I knew we would soon be at duty free haha! We headed home and had a simple spaghetti bolognese and reminisced about our amazing 10 days in Australia. 

Day 10 - our final day (holds back tears). Our flight didn't leave until early evening so we packed our suitcases ready to leave and headed for a final look round in the close by town of Chatswood. On our way we spotted an open home and couldn't resist taking a look around (of course after carefully fabricating our 'we're moving to Sydney' story!) it was a cute 2 bed just around the corner from Dan and Freya, though the carpets and paintwork were fresh there was certainly a lot of love needed! 

There was one thing we needed to do in Chatswood on our last day that would be sure to cheer us up! Visit Pet Town in the Westfield mall! Why are these not in the UK!! So many cute little puppies for sale and we even got to hold some of them! Tempted to bring them home was an understatement! So we bought one!!! Just kidding!! I wish that's how the trip ended!! 

A little sad that we physically couldn't take a puppy back to the UK I drowned my sorrows in Ralph Lauren! The concept of duty free had been forgotten and I ended up with these 'puppies' ;) 

It was time to go. I cannot put into words how much I enjoyed the holiday! Thanks so much to everyone who made it great and to Becks and Scott for letting us stay with them in New Zealand and Freya and Dan in Sydney! 

Until next time! 

Lexie

xxx

Australia Day 8 - Hunter Valley Wine Country

It's wine day!! 

Our car arrived at 10am, a beautifully restored 1958 Cadillac from Arizona. We hired it from Hunter Valley Cadillacs, owned by our driver Debbie and her husband. Such a great experience for a group of 4 friends and family to do - Certainly better than going on a large group tour and definitely better than having to have a designated driver! 

We ventured to 4 vineyards, 2 before lunch and 2 after and that was plenty enough for a full day. Our first Vineyard was Thomas Allen, Moon Mountain, a 40 year old vineyard that had just opened locally about a year ago. It was just as I imagined; a lovely country villa with a veranda looking over the vineyard below. 

The Gentleman John was very knowledgeable about the wines and wine tasting itself - I learnt about the different tastes and how the back of your tongue is for the tannins, the sides are for acids and the front is for sweet. I also learnt that when you are asked to taste a wine at a restaurant it isn't just to see if you like it but to check it isn't corked (if it is corked it apparently smells like wet carpet!). Freya and Dan purchased a few wines including the 6 for $60 unlabelled bottles of Shiraz, a red wine but surprisingly good chilled! 

The next Vinyard was the Gundog Estate, named after the family Gundog. By this time we were feeling a little peckish so ordered a cheese platter to go with our wines. I bought a couple of lovely sweet wines from The Gundog (I'm a big fan of the sweet!) an off dry semillion and a desert muscat that tasted just like Christmas pudding in a bottle! Turns out that the owner of the vineyard knew the famous artists Gillie and Marc Schattner who are known for their half animal half human design and had made a couple of statues for the vineyard! 

The vineyard visits take about an hour each so you may be thinking how are we not hammered by that stage? Well the vineyard wine tastings aren't aimed at getting you drunk, but simply to try different wines, discover your favourites and purchase a couple of bottles. There are also little buckets to take advantage of if you don't like a particular wine, you don't have to drink it! It's not compulsory!! 

We had a quick bite to eat at Potters Brewery where we enjoyed some sunshine on the picnic tables too. 

After lunch we headed to Iron Gate Vineyard where we enjoyed some more picturesque views. I also learnt that the grape vines were sort of colour coded by rose bushes which signified which grapes  were in the vine. Also, Roses are more susceptible to diseases that may harm the vines so may show signs of any issues before the vines are attacked.

Before I bought my 2014 Rose (named after the owner's Mother who emigrated from the UK to live with her son aged 93!) we had a quick tour of the machinery used to make the wines which was very interesting! Here we learnt the difference between French oak and American oak barrels - the French creates a more spicy cinnamon taste and the American more nutty. 

Our final stop was Ernest Hill. We were greeted by Ross who was lovely and he showed us to our seats around a barrel before introducing his equally lovely colleague Lesley. Again full of knowledge, I learnt here that apparently it takes 3 tastes to really appreciate the flavour of the wine and clear the palate. They also had a whole menu of sweet wines! My favourite! I purchased a Luna Rouge, a very nice sweet rose. 

This was certainly my favourite day of the holiday! Absolutely amazing, you HAVE to do this if you don't do anything else while you are visiting! Debbie dropped us back to where we were staying in the H Boutique Hotel. We had a 2 bed apartment which was gorgeous, very modern yet simple with 2 good size bedrooms, a large bathroom and open plan kitchen/living area leading out to a little patio overlooking a small lake. As we arrived home there were about 6 wild kangaroos just outside the back door having supper! A perfect way to end a perfect day! 

Lexie

xxx

Australia Day 6 and 7

Saturday was a very chilled day! We had a late start followed by a very large breakfast of toast, avocado, bacon, scrambled eggs and halloumi. We then headed to Chatswood which is the next town so Dan could buy some things for his Tough Mudder experience on Sunday. I took the opportunity to quickly get my nails done in the local Westfield's mall. We then set off for the long drive ahead down South to Bundanoon where we had booked to stay in a little hotel. It was a very quiet but cute little village and amazingly the hotel was actually very English! The outside was a mock Tudor design and the inside had these dark wooden beams everywhere, red carpets and vintage bedrooms, it very much had the characteristics of a little cottage. As there wasn't much to do in Bundanoon we ventured to Bowral, the next town, to grab a bite to eat where the boys could watch the rugby. We headed back for an early night ready for an early start on Sunday, after having a quick ping ping tournament in the games room of course! 

On Sunday we were up and ready to leave the hotel by 7.30am ready for the check in at Tough Mudder at 8. Even watching everyone getting pumped up by the MCs to the sound of Eminem made me want to join in!! After seeing all the obstacles the runners had to face, not too much!  

To make it clear, Tough Mudder is a worldwide event which stems over 20KMs made up of running/jogging and assault courses. By assault courses I mean HELL!! Including crawling through muddy waters unable to stand up as barbed wire is hanging above you, climbing over slippery mud hills into muddy waters, swinging through hoops and falling into dirty water below, pulling yourself through tiny muddy tunnels, jumping from a plank into waters below, sliding down a water flume (yes sounds fun!) but there's fire at the bottom that you slide through, running up a mud ridden slide to cling helplessly to the top and pull yourself and team mates over and finally run through some electric cables!! I know that sounds horrific but the team work, success and ultimate enjoyment that you see when the competitors cross the finish line made me smile from eat to ear! 

My favourite obstacle was 'Everest' - a very steep slope covered in water and mud which required the teams to sprint and run up to the top, cling on, pull up and arrive at the top ready to assist the rest of the team and pull them to the top! 

I was so surprised and moved by the help and support the mudders gave each other! It really was touching to see everyone helping one another rather than selfishly ploughing through the obstacles, it's sad that we feel this is now a rare occasion! Nice that Tough Mudder recognises team work rather than fastest times. Well done to Dan, Anisa and their team for taking part, absolutely amazing!!! 

After the prize giving we headed back to Bowral, had a bite to eat and drove to the Hunter Valley ready for our wine tasting day!! Woooo!! 

Lexie 

xxx

Australia Day 5

It only took us 5 days but today we finally climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge! Typically we had picked the hottest day (probably why we managed to book so easily less than 24 hours before!) as it was set to be 36 degrees! Luckily as we were so high up there was a nice breeze.

 

Don't be freaked out by the price of the bridge climb as it is 100% worth it. All of the staff were fantastic, very enthusiastic and knowledgeable and the professionalism, security and safety consciousness of the whole attraction was of an extremely high standard. The climb itself is amazing, to walk over one of the world's most famous bridges and take in the spectacular views from above was a surreal feeling.

 

There are also various climbs that you can participate in. The full climb to the top takes around 3 1/2 hours so you really need to put aside a day for it. However we actually opted for the express climb which takes roughly 2 hours and you still get to climb all the way to the top so I would highly recommend that if you have a busy schedule. There is also a taster climb session for those who want to simply try it out or maybe are afraid of heights as this climb is much shorter and only goes half way to the top. At the end of the climb you receive a certificate and group photo and there is the option to purchase a personal picture too!

After all the climbing we had worked up quite an appetite so headed to Pancakes on the Rocks - A great little sweet and savoury pancake house in the Rocks district, the food was delicious! 

As the weather was so nice we decided to take full advantage and headed to Bondi beach - as did the rest of the world apparently, it was packed! We didn't have much time to spare so we did about half an hour on either side and then headed home. I have to say, if you want a kick up the bum to join a gym and keep fit, head to Bondi beach as everyone is so toned and tanned that the first thing I will be doing when we set foot in the UK is join a legs, bums and tums fitness class and a session on the sun beds! Very jealous! 

We made a quick dash to dinner in Newtown at the Animal at the Newtown Hotel. Another great restaurant, very meat orientated, we ordered some BBQ ribs, chicken, beef and pork slices to share (don't worry we had some salads too, WE HAD JUST BEEN TO BONDI REMEMBER!)

Lexie

xxx