Central Otago

I was able to sleep in a little bit this morning because my wine tour didn’t start until the afternoon, so I decided to go for a run when I woke up. The running path around the lake is beautiful and loops in and out of the trees. Unfortunately, I tripped pretty much immediately after I got to the path and scratched up my phone and cut up my hand, knee, and hip. It really hurts to walk and running in the cold air was making the bleeding worse, so I couldn’t push myself too hard. I kept going though because since I like Queenstown so much, I felt like I needed to run through it.

My wine tour in Central Otago was beautiful. All of the wineries were set at the bases of the mountains. It reminds me of the winery we went to in Italy. I was on the tour with two couples who were both honeymooning. It was kind of weird being with such a small group, but it meant that we got to know each other. We visited Gibbson Valley, Waitiri Creek, Peregrine, and Chard Farm. I didn’t really like any of the wines particularly much, except we did try a fairly sweet Riesling at Chard Farm that was nice, but it cost $38 a bottle L I found out that apparently the sweetness of Rieslings isn’t based on the climate, but instead of how much sugar the maker decides to siphon out of the grape. I must like really sweet grapes because the 7g of sugar wine still wasn’t enough for me. Apparently it can go up to 45g. Even though I didn’t like the wines, it was fun getting to know the couples.

The Central Otago region specializes in pinot noir and pinot gris because of its position on the globe. The 44^th parallel has been determined to be the optimum growing position for the grapes that go into pinot noir. That’s why the wine is so big in Oregon, Central Otago, and Burgundy, France. It’s also starting to get big in Tasmania, which sits on the 42^nd parallel, so it has somewhat similar growing conditions.

Swan Valley

For our final day in Perth, we booked a wine tour through Swan Valley, which is the second oldest wine valley in Australia, beat out only by the Hunter Valley (which I’ve already been to). My mom isn’t huge on wine, especially red, but I still managed to get her to try most of them. Our tour also included cheese and chocolate tastings. In total, we stopped by three wineries, a microbrewery, and a chocolate factory. I think my favorite tasting of the day was the Late Picked Sweet Verdehlo from Houghton Winery. It was just the right kind of sweet. Unfortunately, I couldn’t buy any bottles because I have absolutely no room in my suitcase. It’s going to be interesting if I end up wanting to buy something in New Zealand for sure, but at least that’s the last leg of my trip.

My mom and I at Jarrah Ride Winery

Outside Charlies Estate Winery

After the wine tour, we wandered around the city a bit more. There were a lot fewer people than when we had gotten picked up for the wine tour from the central bus terminal. Perth really seems to be a 9-5 city, which is kind of sad. It makes me wonder where everyone goes for nightlife.

It was getting pretty chilly out though, as the sun went down, so we hopped on the train and headed back to the hostel. We walked down by the ocean one last time before picking up our bags and catching one of two buses to the airport. The bus driver was extremely helpful in telling us where we could get off to catch our transfer and avoid the downpour outside that had started a few moments after we stepped on the bus.

We killed time in the Perth domestic airport (which is actually rather small) until my flight left at 11:45. I said goodbye to my mom. It was fun to have her visit, but now it’s time for me to venture on to Wellington.

I slept for most of my flight to Sydney and woke up just in time to see the landing, which really is quite spectacular. Since the Sydney airport sits right on the ocean, it looks like you’re about to land in the sea. It was only a four hour flight though, so I was quite tired as I bored the airport transfer bus to the international terminal (which costs $5.50!). At the check-in counter for my connection to Wellington, they requested proof of a departure ticket from New Zealand. I hadn’t realized I needed one, but, thankfully, the Qantas counter was able to look up my flight information and print it off for me in case I need it again. I rechecked my bag and then had to go through customs in order to leave the country. It was really quite peculiar. It’s like they’re keeping tabs on everyone’s movements; they even stamped my passport.

I have a three-hour layover, so I stopped at bought a ham and cheese toastie from Krispy Kremes that I found for cheap. My eating and sleeping schedule is going to be completely screwed up by the time I get back from New Zealand because I doubt that I’ll eat at regular times there.

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.

Italia: Day Thirteen

We got to sleep in today, so I went for a run around town this morning. I got sort of lost and ended up running in a lot of circles because it seems like every road runs into the town center of Novellara. It’s kind of weird.

When I got back we took a bus to the cheese consortium, which is an official office where they determine whether or not the cheese that is presented to them is of accurate quality and production methods for certification. The presentation was really boring, but it was nice to be in a high quality, air-conditioned building for once. I feel like Europe is kind of behind on the air conditioning, but I guess that’s because so many of their buildings are so old. I made sure to take some of the cheese and chocolate they had out as souveneirs before we left the consortium.

Outside the cheese consortium

We went for pizza at sort of a high class place afterward, but the food wasn’t very good. It was supposed to be a “pizza tasting” so they brought out many different kinds for us, but the ham here is kind of strange in a lot of places and they also put weird bologna-like meat on pizza, so we didn’t eat a lot of it. Then we rushed over to a local education center where they specialize in teaching teachers how to use different methods in their classrooms to approach learning with a new attitude. The woman who gave us a tour around the facilities couldn’t speak English, so I found it really boring. I’ve learned that I need someone to speak English to me without translations for me to be able to pay attention otherwise I lose interest.

Pam, Chelsea, and I entertaining ourselves at the education center

I was relieved when the tour was over, even though it meant that we had to walk around in the city to kill time before dinner. None of the places were open, for some reason, so after we bought gelato, we were forced to walk around in the heat until we found a place to sit. We couldn’t even find a bathroom to use because everything was closed! It was kind of annoying because Pam, Beckie, Chelsea, and I, “the quad”, had decided to wear dresses today in honor of the floral prints three of us bought in Florence. It was a good idea, it was just too hot to be happy in any sort of clothes.

The "Quad"

For dinner, we went out to a newly opened ranch on the top of a mountain where they produce and bottle Lambrusco wine. We received information about how the wine is bottled and chilled for sale before indulging in a short dinner, compared to the others we have experienced in Italy. There was only three courses with an appetizer, main course of lasagna, and desert of rum cake. I didn’t really like the meal or the red wine, but the ranch was beautiful.

On the mountainside before dinner