Tuesday April 22, 2014

Today was another rest day – I needed to get the taxes done and update the blog.  Graeme offered to take us around the area again and we took him up on the offer.  We went in to the wineries area and started drinking wine at 10:30 in the morning.  I was trying the Semillon and Chardonnay wines and Ralf was trying the Shiraz.  I think both of us had a bit of a buzz on by 11:30.  Graeme took us to four wineries, two smaller ones (family-run), one medium sized and a bigger more corporate one.

Graeme knew one of the people who works at this vineyard.  We got very personalized service and a lot of information about the area wine growers. All the tastings were free!

He also took us to a massive winery which all the tour buses usually stop at.  It had gardens and gift shops, very commercialized.  We didn’t do a tasting at this winery. We bought Sue and Graeme a bottle from one of the original smaller wineries, but didn’t buy any for ourselves as it is rather difficult to carry it on the bike.  The woman who is the Cellar Sales manager at Ivanhoe Wines is also from Nottingham (the world is getting smaller).

The wineries area was very pretty, but I am glad we didn’t have to cycle through this area, as it was hilly.

After we visited the wineries, Graeme then took us to the City of Newcastle.  It is a big city and has a large port for shipping coal and grain.  There is a lot of regeneration happening with plans for large apartment buildings.  On the outskirts of the Central Business District (CBD) were two very nice beaches.

We had a great day and saw areas that we would not be seeing on our trip as we are heading up the coast tomorrow.