At 7am we were waiting for the bus on King Street to make it to Central by 7:25. I got a coffee to start the day and Dave got some chocolate milk and an apple. John would be our tour guide today. He was quite nice, very chatty, and actually…a bit hard to describe. I guess to start, he asked if Dave’s last name was Italian, and if he came from Italy…then proceeded to point out his Italian looking features. It was a riot. We got underway after we were joined by a girl originally from South Korea who was now living in Melbourne, a guy about our age from NY (we had bets he was from LI but we were both wrong – Manhattan), and 9 people from Ireland which included a couple on their ‘honeymoon’ and the grooms entire family…lol. I was really excited for this tour, which was my bday present, but had felt a bit bad for a while knowing that Dave does not like wine. However, now with the wine program in France, I felt way better because now we could both get something out of the experience 🙂 we began to drive north out of Sydney and it was a while before we even made it to a highway. We made a stop at McDonalds where we split 2 hashbrowns and a tiny orange juice. John had been describing the area but after stopping he showed us a quick tape that briefly explained wine tasting and also had some bits on the Hunter Valley. At about 10:30 we arrived at our first winery, Iron Gate. It looked similar to some of the wineries in both Canada and California, in that it attempted to mimic an Italian winery…that type of architecture is really beautiful and truly matches the vineyards that surround it. We all gathered around a big granite island with all of us on one side and the pourer lady and John on the other side. We tried whites first. Hunter Valley is known basically for 2 kinds of wine: semillon and shiraz. I had never had semillon before but shiraz is one my favourites (note to Dave – they call it Syrah in France 😉 ). The semillon was actually really good although I much preferred the one that wasn’t oaked. The shiraz I really enjoyed, but the sweet shiraz not so much. I’m not a huge fan of dessert wines because they are just too sweet. We did have it with chocolate cake though, so that was really nice. After that we headed into a room to see the steel tanks and the barrels storing the wine. It was pretty cool but I think we had both seen more of the ‘how wine is made’ business before so all good. We got some good pics with barrels though!
The next winery was Ernest Hill and was much smaller and looked more like a cottage than a winery. The weird thing about this place was that each of the wines were sort of named for people because…well because that particular person’s ashes were scattered on the vines. So that was a little creepy but the shiraz was really good there! After that we were driven into a planned ‘town’ to fend for ourselves for lunch. We went to the chocolate shop first, got some samples, and then went to the lone restaurant to get chicken with mushroom sauce and chips. After that we went to McGuigan to taste some more wines by ourselves and then to the attached cheese shop. They had tastings as well and I think I disgusted Dave by taking the lady up on her offer to taste all of the cheese. I had a great time!! It was really really good. After that, we went over to Tempus Two. By this point, it was getting to be a bit much…so, so much wine! One more to go! We walked back to the bus and headed over to Audrey Wilkinson. Oh! But first we stopped some kangaroos! They were bigger than the ones we saw on the golf course and Dave got some good shots of them. This winery had a great view of the entire Hunter Valley and we took pics before heading inside for our final tasting. Maybe it’s because we are considered a group, but I have never had such an extensive wine tasting list before anywhere. And, its all free, which is usually the case only about 50% of the time. This winery had a quite extensive list plus the woman added 2 more wines just in an attempt to kill us. I still finished everything and soon it was time to go. I had such a fabulous time today and it was a great birthday present 🙂
After the long ride home, during which John suggested that Japanese airlines used to fly crazy routes because they have slanty eyes, we walked back to central and got the bus back to SUV. From there I made reservations for Dave’s birthday dinner at Harry’s Singapore Chili Crab. We had 8:30 reservations but were a bit late because of the bus but all was good. We shared spicy Malaysian noodles and split a singapore chili crab. It was really good and really messy! After that I had plans to go to Max Brenner for what I told Dave would be a hot chocolate before heading to Ignatius’ parents’ house for the evening. The real story was that I had emailed Ignatius shortly after arriving in Syndey and had given him a message to email to all of Dave’s friends. I initially wanted to go to a restaurant or to the Argyle after everyone’s 9pm class but people didn’t like that idea and wanted to have time to eat after class. Mariza suggested Max Brenner later in the evening. Everyone was really great in just making themselves available for whatever I decided on. It was really hard being without internet for all of our time in Tasmania because I basically kept people hanging for days as to the specifics. Dave of course suspected something so I fake ‘confessed’ and told him that we were in fact going to have a bit of surprise at Ignatius’ parents’ so he’d better pack for a night away. I also acted really sad that he had stumbled upon the surprise and asked him to please not ask any more questions to preserve the surprise that was left (he did get mad at me later for making him feel bad though…heheh). I know I am very hard to trick and I know he would be the same way. Hopefully it was all worth it. Thankfully everyone was very helpful and understanding!!
I had told everyone 9:45, figuring we would take about and hour and 15 for dinner and then it would be a 15 minute walk. Well, it turned out to not be so close….we walked for a long while and then jumped on the bus because it was getting late. Then, we missed the stop. I guess these are the consequences of me not really knowing the city. Anyways, we were there just about 10:20 and everyone was there sitting at this huge table against the wall and yelled surprise when we walked in…it was GREAT!! The majority of people were hidden from view and he only saw them when we were inside. I was so happy that so many people were able to make it!! I’m glad I was able to initiate a surprise for him and so so many thanks to all his friends who were super super helpful. Anyways, I’m so glad that it was so special for him 😉
The plan was to go to the Argyle afterwards but people wanted to get home. So instead we all jumped in cabs and drank back at Dave’s place. Tom Green came by (what a nut….asked me my views on the Vietnam War..) and we stayed up for a while talking and drinking. We don’t have to get up early tomorrow!!
