I pet a koala!

We woke up really early this morning to head into town and meet our Blue Mountains tour bus. Unfortunately, we had to sit at the bus stop by my townhouse for about 25 minutes because the bus we were supposed to be on into the city decided to not show up. There were a few other frustrated people with us at the bus stop. I managed to get message Adam on facebook from my phone and get the number for our tour company, as they didn’t provide it in their confirmation e-mail, and call them to let them know we were running behind. It turns out it didn’t matter though because our bus was completely full and skipped the last couple of stops so we still made it to the meeting point on time. We had to wait yet again though for our tour bus to show up 25 minutes later. Overall, a lot of waiting and a little too much excitement considering it was still before 8am.

Our tour today was great. We headed out into the Blue Mountains, which is the mountain range that surrounds Sydney. It was different from the area I travelled to on Saturday though. We stopped at Featherdale Wild Life Park first where we were able to pet koalas and feed kangaroos. My mom even held a snake! There were a bunch of other Australian animals there as well. We located the dingo, wombat, kookaburra, Tasmanian devil, wallaby, and a few penguins, among others. I was surprised by how friendly all of the animals were, and how free. The koalas were climbing the trees right above our heads.

My mom held a snake!

This koala was super photogenic

My new friend, Mr. Kangaroo (or mrs!)

Penguins in Australia! 

After the wildlife park, we stopped at Wentworth Falls. It was a bit of a walk down some stairs to get to the lookout point, but it was beautiful. You can see out over all of the mountains and across to the actual waterfall. We took some pictures and climbed on all the rocks before getting back on the bus and heading to our lunch stop in a quaint little town. My mom and I ended up eating at Red Door, which was a small café. I finally found a place to get an iced chocolate, which I heard is all the rage in Australia (that might be a complete lie). It was pretty good; basically just a scoop of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup decorating the glass, a little bit like a liquidy milkshake. I paired that with a ham and cheese croissant. We popped into the bookstore and bottle shop across the street to kill some time as well, but we didn’t find anything.

The mountains near Wentworth Falls

Wentworth Falls

Three Sisters was next up on our tour. It’s a rock formation located in the Blue Mountains. We stopped at a lookout point in Katoomba and took some pictures. It is really weird how the rocks just managed to end up in that formation, but at the same time, I expected them to be more off by themselves instead of just next to the side of a cliff.

Three Sisters

As we were leaving Katoomba, we stopped in the rainforest. We took a scenic railway journey down into the forest. It was actually surprisingly step considering our rail car didn’t have any seatbelts. I guess I didn’t really consider the 52 degree angle fully beforehand. We got a little bit lost wandering along the paths in the forest, but we spotted some really strange trees. There were information plaques on the mining that used to be done in the area too, so that was interesting to find out about. Luckily, a nice couple pointed us in the right direction and we made our way back uphill to ride the scenic cable car to the top. This ride went a little bit slower than the railway so we were able to take some more pictures of the mountains as we ascended.

Scenic Railway

The rainforest is pretty intense

Our final stop on tour was at the Sydney Olympic Stadium Park. It really is quite huge. It apparently cost $3 billion to build on top of the $4 billion spent in roadwork and maintenance to the city. However, they installed solar panels around the stadium to cut costs on some of the electricity used to power the lights and the nearby Olympic Village. They turned the torch circle into a fountain and put up a decorative mindfield of poles to honor the volunteers and medalists, so we took a few pictures. The stadium is used for concerts and conferences now.

Where they kept the torch

In commemoration of the volunteers and medalists

Sydney Olympic Stadium

We took a harbor cruise back to Darling Harbour from the Olympic park wharf. It was actually a pretty informative cruise given by Captain Cook Cruises. Every time we passed a major landmark, we were told something about it, which is much different than when I took the government ferry to Manly. It was interesting to learn though. My mom didn’t get seasick either, which is good.

We walked around Darling Harbour after disembarking, but neither of us were hungry so we caught the bus back to my house instead.

Hunter Valley

Today, I went on a wine tour of the Hunter Valley, which is the wine region nearest to Sydney. I went with a group of international students from Macquarie because the office who represents us organized a trip that was $30 cheaper than any others I could find. I had to get up really early, which sucked, but I was able to sleep most of the 2.5 hour drive out to the valley, so that made it slightly more okay. I felt so useless all day though because all I did was sit in a bus, drink wine, and eat cheese and chocolate.

Our first stop of the morning (we were already drinking wine at 10:30!) was McGuigan Winery where we sampled eight different bottles. My favorite was there 2012 Cellar Select Autumn Harvest Semillon because it was really sweet. Semillon is a really popular white wine in this area because the grapes are easier to grow in Sydney’s particular climate (Shiraz in the most prevalent red). I also liked the 2010 Late Picked Gewurtztraminer, which is a desert wine that we tasted. I wouldn’t let myself buy either of them though because they were priced at $20 and $30, respectively, which at the moment, is just too much for me to spend on a bottle that would last two nights at the most.

The Tasting Room :)

Aging Barrels!

Second, we went to First Creek and were taken on a tour of their bottling and aging warehouses. It was kind of cool, but I was a little bored during it because it was very similar to the tour I went on in Italy, just on a slightly larger scale. It was interesting when she talked a little bit about how the wine seasons vary in Australia though due to the opposite seasons. Apparently, the grapes that are going right now will be part of the 2013 batch because they won’t be harvested until January and February. So Australia is in the future even when they harvest the grapes for their wines!

We tried some of the wines at First Creek too, but I wasn’t a huge fan. Their 2010 Semillon has apparently won a multitude of awards in the wine world, but it wasn’t sweet enough for me. I think I would have liked the raspberry desert wine we tried if I could handle the taste of raspberry. It was sweet, but had a little bit of a kick to it because it was a 17%, which is very high for a desert wine. It was pretty too :)

More barrels!

The bottling machine

With my 2011 Raspberry Wine, I think.

Everyone was a little tipsy after the second tasting because, being college students, we were of course drinking all of the sample instead of sipping a little bit and pouring the rest into the spittoon. It might not be classy, but we wanted to get our money’s worth. Luckily, it was time for lunch at Potter’s Brewery, a small restaurant and microbrewery nearby. They already had our pre-selected meals prepared for us when we arrived. I had ordered the steak sandwich, which was really good. I found the fact that it had beets on it a little strange, especially when I took them off and the bread underneath was purple, but I still enjoyed it. Instead of ketchup, they gave us a creamy dipping sauce for our French fries that was really good too. I’m glad Sarah made me try it (at first I thought it was ranch and refused).

Amazing steak sandwich!

We were rushed to finish lunch though because we were running a little bit behind for our visit to a local chocolate shop. I didn’t enjoy this part quite as much as the other girls, but it was still nice to sample some of their Belgian chocolates. Unfortunately, since we were running behind, we didn’t get to do a tasting at the attached champagne room.

En route to our final tasting, Sarah spotted a group of wild kangaroos on the side of the road. They were just hanging out in someone’s front yard. She freaked out enough that our bus driver pulled onto the side of the road and let us get out and act like tourists creeping up on the kangaroos to take pictures. They actually let us get surprisingly close before hopping away.

They were a bit different than I expected though. I knew in theory that they moved using both their hind legs and on all fours, but it was so peculiar to watch. It was also really funny when they started hopping, which I managed to catch on film. It was cute to watch them for a little while, and we all felt better about being such tourists when a family stopped as well and brought their children out to see the kangaroos, but eventually we had to move on to our final tasting at Tempus Two, a slightly more futuristic looking winery.

Kangaroos!

Fields outside Tempus Two

I really liked the futuristic look

At Tempus, we tried an amazingly good 2011 Brioso Rosa, a pink moscato. I’ve had moscato before and liked it, but the pink was even sweeter than I’m used to. I also really liked the desert option here, a 2008 Botrytis Semillon and it was a great locally-valued wine to end on. After this tasting, we went next door to Smelly Cheese’s to try a variety of cheese. I don’t remember all of the ones we tried, but I know I really didn’t like the bleu cheese. There was one that tasted like a creamy version of feta though that was really good. I was tempted to get some gelato from their store, but I was way too full to even think about stomaching it, even though it did look really good.

The amazing-looking strawberry gelato, reminds me of Italy

Pretty much everyone slept on the drive back to campus because we were worn out from all the food. It was a great tasting. My only regret is that I didn’t buy anything, but maybe I’ll find something when I go on the wine tasting in New Zealand that is both sweet and a little closer to my price range that I like enough to ship home. I’m also really excited that I unexpectedly got to see my first wild kangaroo, so many people come to Australia and don’t even get that because they never leave the big cities.