Australia 3

Thursday..
Well we left the rainy blue mountains behind! First stop: Jenolan Caves.. and only one bat! This were the hugest caves ever.. and very neat.. the "walls" are all sandstone and the caves were created by water rushing in and dissolving the stone and leaving the caves behind. Some water still drips in through cracks in the caves and create these very neat formations that look sort of like masses of dripped candlewax. After about a km of stairs up and down through the caves we had lunch and then hit the road. We took a LONG and very WINDY (curly not air blowing..lol) road from there to the Hunter Valley. The Hunter Valley is wine country. Vineyards such as Lindeman's, Wyndham Estates, Tyrrell's, etc are found here. Apparently there are 100 vineyards here. We arrived in the dark and Mom wasn't feeling very good from the roadtrip so she went to bed while I went and found some nasty $20 appetizer thing (softshell crab that even I couldnt tell was any sort of crab and sooo extremelly salty I could hardly eat it.. ick..) and then off to bed for me too!

Friday..
Time to tour the wine making areas.. First stop though - grocery store! No more nasty spur of the moment $$ dinners for me.. Then off to the Tulloch vineyard for a quick stop. One of the ladies on our tour's last name is that so she was hoping for a souvenier. Next stop Mount Pleasant Vineyards. Beautiful landscape here.. older buildings built into the hill looking like a postcard (ofcourse I took some pics! haha).. Wine tasting of some of their best vintages - 3 white and 3 red. I made mom write them down in case we can find some at home.. all three whites were really good and not too dry or oaky. Just full of flavour. Two of the red's were Shiraz's (very popular grape in this area.. and also my fave so I was in luck!) and both were good but I could definately tell the difference between the two and conveniently the better one was $15 more a bottle! hmm.. Dad you would have also liked their Merlot.

After this we were supposed to tour the Hunter Valley Gardens.. but we instead got the bus driver to run us over to the Tyrrell's vineyard to check it out while everyone else was checking out flowers. The gardens had some neat shops so Mom and I just peeked in those once we got back.

Back towards our resort.. with a quick stop at a cheese shop across the road.. couple cheese tastings and some landscape photos! Mom and I bought a little chunk of brie to have with our crackers and fruit from the grocery store stop in the morning.

Mom was asleep by 7:30 and I read Jodi Picoult until 10 and then went to sleep myself.. well eventually.. had to get used to the snoring through the walls first! Not very soundproof!! :(

Saturday..
Travel day again today! Off to Port Macquarie on the coast. But not without a surprise stop at the Kurrie Kurrie Anzac Day festivities. Kurrie Kurrie is a small down just outside Hunter Valley and Anzac Day is sorta like Remembrance day but more specifically for the Australian New Zealand Army Core and their fight at Gallipoli (Winston Churchill wanted to take over Turkey.. which was a gorey loss for the Britt's who had drug the Anzac's in with them.. which I learned at the War Memorial back in Canberra). I am now feeling like I need to brush up on Canada's history! :)
Anyways.. back to Kurrie Kurrie (aboriginal name by the way) we went to the RSL (Returned Soldiers League) for lunch and then 2up. 2up was cool! Ty would have loved it.. It is a heads or tails gambling game that is illegal here except for on Anzac day between 2pm and 7pm. Mom got right into it and won $10 (doubled her money) and then promptly lost it the next round! haha.. which is exactly why my money stayed in my wallet! One lady in our group walked away $60 ahead and we only stayed to play for like 10 min.. I cannot imagine how much money was won and lost throughout the day.
We also me some guys from the army, navy, and airforce all suited up in uniform. Thats always nice! ;)

Then back on the bus and down the road to the coast. We arrived at about dark and found our rooms and got settled in. Mom and I went for a walk down to the "ocean".. I actually think it was a tidal river and that we didnt walk quite far enough for the ocean cause there were no waves. We are getting up in the morning to explore further in the daylight!

Have a good night :)