I had the week off work so I could show them the sights of the city. We went to the Zoo and saw some antipodean wildlife (including a baby koala), Watsons Bay for the views of the city and the harbour and National Park for a spot of beach action and bush (countryside) viewing.
It was a very relaxing week. And it was finished off by a weekend trip to the Hunter Valley. The Hunter Valley is, believe it or not a valley for the Hunter River. Who'd have thought. Anyway, the important thing is that due to the soils and the climate it is a very good area for growing grapes that make wine. Excellent.
After a couple of hours drive north we navigated our way through the wineries and vineyards and found our cabin for the weekend. We were staying in a little self catering place in amongst the wineries. BBQ cooking for tea every day - it was fab.
The Saturday was the wine day. Dad kindly offered to be the taxi and Rachel, mum and myself set about tasting the wines. It was good fun and interesting. One of the Vinyards exported 70% of the wine it made to Tesco in the UK. would you believe it. You come all this way and Tesco down the road could have sold you the same wine at probably half the price. Never mind. The tour of the winery was very interesting and insightful.
At the end of the day we had navigated round several vineyards, bought (Rach and I) 18 bottles of wine, tried many more and joined a wine club. Some of the wine was fantastic. Really fantastic.
The Sunday was spent at the Hunter Valley Gardens. Then it was back to the cabin for a BBQ before Rach and I headed back to Sydney. the parents stayed Sunday night then headed slightly further north to the coast for a relaxing few days and some dolphin watching.
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