Day 8 - Sydney

Today as a great day.  We woke up early to get ready for our tour of the Hunter Valley.  The Hunter Valley is a world class wine region, just about 75 miles north of Sydney, known for their Semillon and Shiraz.  It is the 7th largest grape producing region in the world and houses over 105 vineyards!  Hunt was founded in the 1820s and started with a measly 400 vines! 

We left the hotel and we traveled through the historic Rocks area, where we learned that it took 21 years to break through the rocks to build housing for the soldiers/convicts that arrived from England.  This is amazing, check out the photos of the Rock on Picassa. 

We then crossed through the Rocks and went over the magnificent Sydney Harbour Bridge.  Our tour guide, Les, told us a charming story about how his grandfather was a larborer for the bridge over 50 years ago.  He had 7 children, which meant he had a lot of mouths to feed.  He had to take work when it was available, no matter what the challenge.  Unfortunately, for his grandfather, he was deadly afraid of heights and when he raised his hand for work, it was for the upcoming Harbour Bridge.  At th time, he had no idea that he would be elevated hundreds of feet in the air!  At the time, there were no assembly line or cranes, so they literally pitched/threw the hot rickets to each other (trying to catch them in the buckets) while wearing hot pads.  Obviously, many men missed, which is funny because they say it took 6 million rickets to build the bridget, but there are over 10,000 on the bottom of the sea!

We winded our way through the Northern Suburbs and then drove through the sandstone outcropes of Ku-rin-gai National Park, where we met the Hawkesbury river.  We stopped for morning tea at the top of the historic township of Wollombi.  From here we descended down into the Hunter Valley where we began our wine tasting.  We started out at Peppers, which was fantastic.  The views and the winery itself where classic Australia, and they had deep, rich Shiraz, which we loved.

From Peppers, we made our way to the Hunter Valley Inn, where we had a great Italian/Family style lunch.  Each course had a matching wine pair, which made it fun!  We munched on Bruchetta, Smoked Trout Salad, Penne Pasta, Caesar Salad, and Beef Asian Salad before we left for the next winery.

The next winery was much more modern than Peppers.  We enjoyed the Semillon very much here, which was a white and dry.

The last winery on our list was Broken Wood Winery.  While this wasn't the most scenic atmosphere, the wines and the staff made our experience here really fun! 

Our last stop before heading out of Hunter was a quick stop at the "Smelly Cheese Shop."  Jeff was in heaven - he had more blue cheese in front of him than he knew what to do with!  I must say, not being a big conisseour of blue cheese myself, that it was DELICOUS!  We also visited the Chocolate store next by to check out the Truffles...don't worry Candace, they still got nothing on you! 

After a long day, we started our trek back through the valley to Sydney.  It was a great day and our tour guide, Les, was amazing.  He not only shared knowledge of the region with us, but kept us entertained with funny family stories, as well as information on his love of opal mining and wildlife photography.  He is a wonderfly gifted individual and definitely has passion for his job.  He is visiting the States in May, we may try to catch up with him if he makes it to Chicago.  For anyone thinking about going to Australia, we highly recommend him..hey, he's a facebook friend of mine now!! LOL

Les He gave us a lot of history on the Aboriginals, which were the first native decendants of Australia.  (think American Indians).  They are amazing people, finding ways to live in the hot and dry Australian heat and bush.  Believe it or not, it was the Americans that really started the first colinization of Australia!  In 1784 the Americans denied the English and said no more convicts were allowed to enter American soil.  With no where else to take them James Cook was asked to find new land to imprison the English convicts.  After 8 months at sea, Cook found Australia and first landed in Sydney Harbor in 1788.  He had 1500 people on board, half were prisoners, the other half were soldiers and families that were asked to start this new world. 

The Aboriginals first thought that the English were ghosts and fled for the trees.  However, one small characteristic of James Cook made the introduction easier - his missing front tooth.  On the Aboriginals 18th birthday, they knock out their front teeth to claim manhood.  Coincidentally, Cook had his front tooth knocked out years before.  He was the only one of the Englishmen who had a missing tooth and therefore, the only one that the Aboriginals would talk/deal with.

Seven days after claiming land in Australia Captain Cook decided that he was not going to lock up the Criminals.  He told them that the Aboriginals really enjoyed English meat, so they stayed close and out of trouble, they did not want to risk running into an Aboriginal during those early years! 

The English had a lot to learn from the Aboriginals in order to survive.  For example, they dug up roots for protein and ate wild berries that gave them both energy and protected their skin from the sun.  The also used the spears of the lilies to fish.  Without the Aboriginals, the English would have not survived.  Many say this is is also true vice versa - the English gave the Aboriginals a way to breed and keep their culture alive. 

It was a very intesting day, with more history than I can even repeat here.  I highly recommend reading up about these people and the founding history of Australia, it is facinating.

We are off to Christchurch New Zealand very early tomorrow morning....contemplating bungy...New Zealand is the birthplace and capital of extreme sports.  We'll see if I chicken out....LOL.

XOXO