Oz Trip – Day 8 & 9 (I think)

Hunter Valley

Australia’s equivalent to Bordeaux, the Hunter Valley. I am trying to find comparisons but I can’t, since Bordeaux’s wines are world renowned, it’s city is gigantic and with heaps of major Historical/Medieval Sights and Bordeaux has the longest shopping strip of all France. But the Hunter, it doesn’t have a city, but you’re not there for the city, you’re there for the peace & quiet. Doesn’t have Historical sights, actually it might have Aboriginal burial sights, but they probably built the vineyards over them – and if people want to go shopping they’d just go to Sydney anyway. To top it off though, the Hunter Valley has wild kangaroos bouncing every where. How’s that? (Btw above view is the Audrey Wilkinson Vineyard).

This is the view of the room from Hermitage Lodge at Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley. It is a peaceful sort of Lodge, no noise, surrounded by bush & the main views are of the fountain and the Vineyard, by which they grow their own wine (I liked it, but I like red wine in general, was never a connoisseur of wine – just drinking it to get drunk). There was also a swimming pool, but in the cold weather there is no WAY I was dipping in that, only to have everything shrivel up into sultanas.

View of the cabins. There were other cabins, that looked way too modern, and the sun shone directly on them in the morning which would have been completely frustrating. We got enough sun from our room, and it was great for Breakfast (English muffins, yoghurt, fruit etc, I am really not used to eating breakfast at hotels as I prefer maccas). The Spa inside the room was great, except I put too much soap in and the bubbles ended up overflowing into the entire bathroom.

#

We got some good photos of the vineyard, there were major danger signs going off in my head – because it had just recently rained and the sun was out, meaning there’s snakes about. But no snakes, they knew I would kick their asses.

So of course, a walkabout through Pokolbin was in order. The area itself is nice, and it’s hard not to appreciate the bush. After seeing days of rainforest, you need to see something different. For example, the wombat signs – why is it smiling? Also, it was too dangerous to look for the stupid wombats considering they live in holes and so do snakes.

I don’t think most Australians know what a meat ant’s nest is unless they’ve lived in the bush or at least visited the bush (like my family, even though we’re ethnics, up yours assholes who think they’re more Australian cos they’re bushies). Anyway, basically these ants devour everything, my cousin and I used to leave Cane Toads on their nest and they would be bone the next day. It’s also the size of them, this was an example of a small one, but they get mush bigger. My uncle and I used to destroy them because the ants used to make tracks all over his Mango orchard.

What all people fear visiting Australia – other than the snakes, shakes, crocodiles and getting raped in Auburn. It was only a Leaf Curler though, they’re completely harmless. They’re called “leaf curlers” because their webs are usually centred around a curled leaf, where the spider lives. In all my years of playing with spiders, I have never been bitten by one, I also generally leave them alone now – I used to also leave them food when I could, so I used to catch flies/ants/bees and leave them on their webs in a way of apologising.

My sister  & her fiance were shocked to find my underwear hanging around everywhere in the bathroom (there were more). I had left the heat light on the whole night, because I have had no access to laundry while travelling around – was desperate for underwear – can’t go around Oz smelling like shit.