Sapphires

The largest Sapphire ever found in the world was discovered in Queensland, called the "Black Star" and the variety is called a "star sapphire" as there is a star like design inside it if you shine a light through the middle. John had found in our travel book a small town that was known for it's Sapphire-bearing soil, and there were several sites there where you could go fossicking for Sapphires for a small fee--so that's where we were headed next.

The place we stayed that night was even called Fossickers Caravan Park. The following morning, we were able to buy a bag of sapphire-bearing soil and use the parks tools and fossicking area to see if we could find anything. To fossick first you have to rise off all the dirt off the stones in a big tub of water--and diving them up by size so they are easier to sort through. After that you spread them out on a big burlap cloth situated on top of a drum, and sort through them--holding them up to the light to make sure they are sapphire. I got a video of John going through the process:

We did, indeed, find a few small sapphires from the bag we bought--but John wanted to go actual fossicking. So we headed over to the information center where they directed us to the town of Inverell, about 45 minutes west, where there was a park where you could pay $10 and go fossicking through their soil in hopes of finding something. We arrived at the park to find another older couple there as well as a very rugged looking mid-50s guy, complete with the wide brim outback hat and boots. He was a Kiwi guy, really nice, who showed us the ropes and then proceeded to tell us about all his travel and adventure stories. As he was Kiwi, he was super friendly and he had certainly traveled a lot of places. He had been fossicking at the park for 6 weeks! About a week prior, he had finally hit the jackpot--finding a sapphire that was 20 karats! As sapphires usually sell for $100 per karat, if they are clear and not cloudy, he was holding $2,000 in his hand! He was nice enough to show us the stone before we left--it was indeed quite a large blue rock--an expensive big blue rock. We stayed for about 2 hours and John was able to find a few more smaller stones, as well as some nice yellow and red Zircon as well. No mother load for us, but for John this is not the end of our Australian fossicking adventures, I'm sure. But at least we walked away from the day with a few!

Blue Mountains Again

Our first visit to the Blue Mountains, back when we first arrived in Australia, was just a quick day tour that didn't explore a lot of the walking trails. So, we wanted to revisit a second time in order to explore a bit more of the area. However, as it is indeed up in the mountains, the temperature drops significantly from Sydney, so we decided to stay two nights in a backpackers instead of trying to brave the cold in the van--though in the end I think I would have slept better in the van. The day we arrived we did a nice walk in the morning before checking in. 

We drove to an area called Govett's Leap, a nice lookout over one of the canyons. The weather was cooperating, so we did a few walks in the area to some of the lookout points. 

We also did a longer, 2 hour walk, along the cliffside to the next lookout point further down called Evan's Lookout. Lots of up and down stairs, but it was a nice walk and after that we made our way to our hostel in the main town of Katoomba.

I must admit it was nice to be indoors, sleep in a real bed, and use a real kitchen for two days. The first night John and I made a delicious spaghetti Bolognese, which we paired with the Pinot Noir we had bought back in Mornington Peninsula--it was delicious. There was a nice girl from California rooming with us, and later in the evening a random guy comes in a puts down his stuff and leaves for dinner. Of course, we was a snorer. #%!%^&@%^#&*!!!! That's how I feel about that. For two nights, John attempted to kick and shake the bed whenever his snoring got particularly bad--but it was no use. For those two nights I essentially paid to sleep on a couch--which is what I did after lying in bed for 2 hours unable to sleep and becoming exponentially violently angry. This is why I hate backpackers in Australia. 

So yes, besides the snorer for two days we had some nice jaunts in the Blue Mountains. The second day we made our way to the Jenolan Caves, first stopping int he morning at a local coffee shop that the owner of the hostel said was the best coffee in town. After highway service station coffee, it was a nice change. It was an area an extra 1.5 hours drive into the Blue Mountains, and the main road we tried to take was closed that morning--apparently they had a bad wind storm a few days before and were still clearing the road of debris. So we had to take a really roundabout way which took a bit longer, but we still made it in time for our booked cave tour. The drive into the caves, however, was quite steep and a bit treacherous in our camper van, but we made it down without incident--even spotting a lyrebird run across the road! The cave tour we booked was called the Orient, and was one of the more popular show caves--so the group was fully booked and thus a bit of a squeeze as all 25 of us wound our way through the cave. But indeed, it was very pretty and had some beautiful formations and colors. It was divided up into three sections based on the formations and all three were really cool. The cave itself was actually quite warm inside, compared to the outside air temperature, which was nice. Here are some of the pictures of the formations, including one called "The Chandelier."

There are several cave systems within the Jenolan Caves--different rooms and different tours you can take. However, some are more delicate/expensive than others, so we did one of the more basic ones. Apparently there is one called the Ribbon cave that they only open once every Saturday, and for only 8 people. The guy who discovered it told the government about it but said it was too delicate and asked that they not develop it--which is our course just what they did. Apparently the man was quite miffed about that, and when he left Jenolan after several years of exploring, he told the government he had found a cave with a lake large enough to fit a battleship, but that he would never tell them where it was. Even after all these years of searching, they still haven't found it yet and the man took the secret to his grave--kinda cool. 

Anywho, as part of the package of buying a guided tour, you also got access to their main "twilight" cave--an open air cave, so to speak, where you had one of those devices to do a self-guided audio tour. This too was nice, though not as interesting as the Orient. But when the sun came out, it made a beautiful picture.

We walked a little more around the property before making our way up and out of the cave area--stopping at the top to give our engine a rest before heading back to the hostel for the night. Enjoying another hot meal and finishing our wine. And once again--sleeping on the couch. 

Our next stop--a 6 hour drive north to the small town of Glen Innes. 

Sydney and Certified Divers!

The following morning was our last (thank goodness!) venture into Melbourne to switch over our vans and start making our way north! We arrived at our new rental van location first, so we could switch over all of our stuff and were hoping it was an automatic car so we could just follow each other to drop off our Wicked van. Unfortunately, it wasn't an automatic and it took about two hours to get the paperwork, payment, and the van itself all sorted. It would have been nice if they had been a bit more prepared, as we were hoping to make the drive to Sydney in one day. One the plus side, this was a proper camper van! It had two banquette seats with a table in the middle that would fold down into a bed. We had a proper little sink and kitchen utensils, a two-burner propane stove with a grill underneath, a microwave, and power outlets so that when we were plugged into a powered site we would have working outlets! It was great! It was also much more spacious than our last van--being a high top we could stand up in the kitchen area while we cooked. So after two hours of waiting we finally set off to return our other van--getting lost in the Melbourne suburbs along the way, of course, because the signage was terrible. After getting lost for 40 minutes we finally found our destination. It was a quick transaction luckily. We parked the van, turned in the keys, they said thanks and that our bond would be returned in  4-5 days, and off we went and dashed to catch the bus back into town!

We were finally, around 1:30, ready to hit the road! Of course we got stuck in tram traffic for another 30 minutes trying to get out of Melbourne, just so the city could make us loathe it that much more--and finally it was out onto open road! I have to tell you--we took the inland route which would be much quicker than winding around the coast--and there really isn't much. Grassland and road, with the occasional rest/service stop--that was about it. Even so, we knew we wouldn't make it into Sydney at a decent hour, so we had to find somewhere to stop along the way. Fortunately we had a "Camps Australia" map that was chock full of camper-van parks all across the country so we looked one up that was about 3 hours outside Sydney and right off of the highway in a small town called Yaas. We didn't arrive until about 9:30--but luckily we had booked ahead. Made some dinner on our nifty stove and it was an early night. The next morning when we woke--it was so cold! It hadn't been that cold the whole time we were in Victoria and now we were 8 hours north! There was frost on the ground and I was shivering as I got out of my sleeping bag. Luckily when we reached our caravan park in Sydney later that afternoon it was much warmer! We could even leave the windows open in the van to let things cool off/air out. 

Our first night in Sydney, to celebrate, the cooked up some real Aussie Bush Tucker-- Kangaroo-in our camper kitchen! It was quite yummy and John was sure to take a picture:

Now, our main purpose for being in Sydney was to finally get PADI certified! So that morning we headed over to the Dive School and collected our books that we would have to read through and complete some written activities before we began the course. Originally we were going to have to wait another 6 days until we could get our course done, but the guy was really nice and fit us in much sooner--for Thursday and Friday of that week! So, we had two days to spare which we mainly spent completing our PADI books and relaxing on our powered site after doing nothing but driving for the past week. We also met up with our friend Joel from Roundhill for dinner one night, since we were staying really close to his town of Coogee. The night before our course we took a train, and then a bus, to get to Coogee where we met up for some delicious Chinese food. It was good to catch up and we got to hear all about his Canadian ski patrol adventures, including his tale of surviving an avalanche! He ended up breaking one of his legs in half and had a metal rod put in, so when we met him he was limping along the street on one crutch. But it was great to catch up and great not to cook for one night, but then it was time to take the 2-hour public transport trip back to our holiday park and it was a bit more of a late night than we had planned--as we had to be up at 6 a.m. the next day for our 8 a.m. start!

We arrived at the center the next morning ready to go! Though I coffee would have been nice, I must admit. We had a small class for our confined water dive that day (in the pool). It was a late 20s/early 30s couple and another older English woman. We got our gear organized and headed off to the pool. Now, the two days we had been in Sydney had been beautiful and sunny--though they had said that a weather front was coming in. As we geared up that morning and hopped into the pool, the sky quickly became cloudy and it was quite drizzly by the afternoon--and stayed that way for the next two days during all of our dives--until the very end of our last dive when the sun finally came out and it was sunny for the rest of the weekend! What luck--after diving and being that cold for two days--tropical diving in Queensland would be heaven!

But yes, our first task of the day was to hop in the pool and swim 400 meters without stopping. No time limit, and we could use whatever strokes we wanted--they just had to make sure we were comfortable in the water. Sounded like a piece of cake--but goodness! Swimming 400 meters was MUCH more tiring than I thought! We all sort of struggled near the end but everyone made it. Next we got  short break then it was back in the pool to tread water for 10 minutes! The guy told us the trick to this was to relax and take even, deep breaths. Luckily during the whole duration of this task the instructor was reviewing diving hand signals with us to distract us from the fatigue--John struggled a bit but we both passed and now it was on to the fun stuff! We learned a lot of our diving knowledge through completing the PADI course book prior to starting, so now it was time to apply and practice our knowledge that morning in the water. We learned to assemble our SCUBA unit, put it on, enter the water, we practiced signals and out-of-air situations, recovering our regulators under water, breathing underwater without a mask, neutral buoyancy, disconnecting and reconnecting our BCD, weights, controlled emergency assent, partial mask clearing and complete mask clearing, and heaps of other stuff. The mask thing was the most difficult for me. As I wear contacts I can't open my eyes underwater without risking losing one. So one of the tasks was that he threw our masks across the pool, we had to swim to it, put it back on, clear it, then swim back to him--all underwater. As I could't see I had to have one of the instructors help guide me and it was a bit difficult but I managed--made me want to invest in Lasik eye surgery, though! Or a prescription snorkel mask--either one. But yes, we also did a lot of standing around and listening, which means a lot of shivering since we were wearing wetsuits in the cloudy afternoon and not expending much energy! But after about two hours in the morning in the pool, we were ready to try our first dive out in the ocean! 

It was rainy and windy when we got there, so after warming up a bit in the car, having to get out and put our wet wetsuits back on was terrible! It was SO cold! But we got everything on, got loaded up, and walked down this ramp to our entry area. We were diving in an area south of Sydney harbor, called Port Botany--Joel told us there were heaps of sharks in Port Botany so we were a bit nervous--but all the instructors had been diving there for ages, so it was alright. We got all suited up and headed into the water for a short, recreational-only 20-minute dive. It was alright at first, though the water was a bit murky--though relatively calm. We got to see a few cool things--we saw a huge grouper named "Bluey" that knows most of the instructors  as they were able to coax him out and fed him some sea urchin. He would swim right past us and let us touch him--it was really cool! We saw a few other fish as well, but after a while it was hard to enjoy anything because I was SO COLD. When the instructor was giving the "OK?" hand signal to  everyone, I responded with the "I"m cold" signal but also said I was OK. While it was a neat experience to have our first ocean dive, I was quite relieved when it was time to get out for the day! We loaded all our stuff back onto the truck and headed back to the school. Myself, John, and the other couple were to complete our classroom portion of the course at the school in about 2 hours time. Luckily the building had a hot shower upstairs, which I took advantage of so I could warm up and dry off into normal clothes! After that, on the recommendation of the instructors, the four of us staying for the course headed a few doors down to get some delicious Turkish Kebabs for dinner. Indeed, they were delicious and it was nice to have hot food!

That night, the course/exam was run by a really nice South African guy named Richard--I loved listening to his accent! Normally in the course you go over a few thing from the book and then take an exam, but Richard believed in completing the exam as a group, discussing every question to make sure everyone learned everything but also enjoyed learning--it also meant everyone passed. But it was still nice and he had a lot of diving experience and was telling us stories and giving us other tips and pointers. We were out of the course after about 2.5 hours--around 8:30 and after that it was time to head back to the  caravan park for the night! A quick snack, another shower, and we were out light a light! I swear I had not slept that soundly since leaving Melbourne--we were beat! But, it was up agin at 6 a.m. the next morning, to complete our ocean dive skills portion of the class. We had 4 extra people join us for that session, two Chinese guys--one of whom didn't really speak English, and another older couple. They were nice enough, but during the fun dive at the end of the day the woman kept swimming into me and bumping/pulling on my equipment--which I found very annoying. But yes, the next day it was time to don our not-quite-dry-yet wetsuits and head into the water! Luckily, that morning the instructors were kind enough to find me a hood and some booties to wear to keep me much warmer in the water that day--as most of your heat escapes from the top of your head and the bottom of your feet--it was so much better to wear them! Plus, he said all that in and out of the water, cooling off then warming up, doesn't help with regulating your core temperature which probably exacerbated the cold in the last dive the previous day. This morning, it was all one large dive divided up into skills. We did surface and underwater navigation with a compass, tired-diver tow, removing our BCDs and weight belts in water, weight checks, out-of-air situations again, regulator recovery, and once again my favorite--total mask clearing. Once again, I struggled a bit, as getting salt water up your nose makes you gag and it burns a bit, but I still completed the task, which is all that was required. We also did some other controlled emergency assent, and inflating our BCDs manually at the surface. It took about an hour and a half to complete all the skills--but after that--everyone had passed! Yay! As a reward, he took us to the other side of the little island (called Bare Island) where there was some nice reef we could explore in a fun dive to end the day. After suffering though the cold murky water throughout the course, this last dive was fantastic!

The water on the other side was crystal clear and the sun started to come out right at the beginning of the dive--bringing out all of the beautiful colors! We saw different sea plants and fish--we even saw a cuttlefish change colors! It was this experience that made me understand why people enjoy diving! It was nice once we finally got all of the skill requirements out of the way. It was a great and rewarding way to end the course. After that, we were PADI certified! Now it was Great Barrier Reef or bust!

But first, the following day, a nice jaunt back to the Blue Mountains!

Wilson's Promontory and the Dandenongs

As we pulled into our campsite in Wilson's Promontory that evening, it was past dark and the campsite was huge and there were very few lights--making finding a campsite slightly difficult. We managed to find a spot beneath a tree and close to the bathrooms, and hopped out to prepare dinner for the evening. I was struck by how warm the night was--not enough to forego a jacket, mind you, but considering we were in the southernmost point of continental Australia (not including Tassie), it actually wasn't super cold--which was a nice surprise. The other nice surprise we discovered as we walk around with a flashlight around the campsite--wombats! Heaps of wombats! They all came out at night to sniff out any extra food lying around, or otherwise just munched on the grass all over the place. There were so many of them and they didn't seem that bothered by humans--probably used to getting fed well even though there were signs everywhere telling people not to. Either way, it was one more animal John and I could tick off our list of ones we've seen in the wild. We had an easy meal that night--no moules mariniere, and headed to bed so we could get some nice walks done the next day. 

As we woke the next day it was sunny, though there were some clouds around and you could never be sure what the weather would do in Victoria so it was best to be prepared. However, as I was getting dressed for the walks I realized my nice periwinkle blue raincoat was missing! I looked everywhere and even reported it to the lost and found at the office, but alas--it was gone. John thinks I dropped it--though I know I didn't.  Nicked while I was in the shower/bathroom, I suspect, or the van ate it. Flipping Australians. Either way, it was gone :( Which was most unfortunate as I got it super on sale at the clearance rack at REI and it had been my handy dandy raincoat ever since NZ. Now I had nothing else waterproof. Bummer. 

We still went on our walks, though I was not in the greatest mood, and made our way down to the beach. It turned out to be a nice, sunny day--which was fortunate for me. As we walked along the beach John stumbled upon a washed-up puffer fish and was so excited about it he had to take a picture:

After the beach we decided to ascend up to a nice lookout that gave some great views over our camping area, the beach, and the surrounding area. 

Besides the wombats we didn't encounter too much wildlife in this particular area, but it still provided some nice views. 

Our last two walks of the day were though a boardwalk rainforest area (that was actually really nice but didn't take any photos) and of a popular spot called Squeaky Beach. It's a small beach area of pure quartz sand and so when you shuffle your feet along the beach it makes a squeak noise--hence the name. There was a large area of rock formations along one side of the beach that John and I found most interesting, and we DID take some photos of those:

It was one more night's stay at Wilson's Promontory, to give ourselves the whole day to do some walks. The next morning we were up and out of there for our final stop in our great Melbourne-region tour---the Dandenongs! 

Now, normally this is the part where I cut to a new blog to tell you all about it, but we really only spent a couple of hours in the Dandenongs and didn't take any pictures. It was a decent drive from Wilson's Promontory--a little over three hours--so we arrived with half the day to spend. Now the Dandenong region is actually several little mountain villages spread out over the ranges and they are rather picturesque and quaint. Little houses, inns, shops, and restaurants all had a bit of a whimsical quality to them. Unfortunately, the day was quite overcast as the sun would have really leant a hand to the prettiness of the place, but at least it was rather scenic as we wound along the curvy and steep roads.

Our first stop was suggested to me by one of my tramcar colleagues who said I just HAD to visit Sky High Dandenong--which is where we headed first. We arrived and had to pay a 5-dollar entry fee, but I had read there were walks leaving from the place and thought there was an information center as well. Nope--Sky High was a big bust. It was just a large building housing a cafe and restaurant where they were putting on an expensive buffet that day. It gave you a view over the Melbourne region all the way back to the city--but looking out over suburbs isn't that remarkable. The supposed "walks" were just loop tracks around the area and the one we took wasn't meant to be open anymore as they had done some deforestation! So yeah, bad choice and we didn't stay there long. We headed back down the mountain to a small town where there WAS an information center about the walks. The one we chose to do--the 1,000 steps--was apparently the one that every single person in the area chose to do that day as well. Apparently it had rained all weekend so this was the first day (Sunday) where people could get out. The 1,000 steps was actually more like 700, and it was pretty much uphill all the way. It wouldn't have been too bad except for the fact that A) The path was barely wide enough for 2 people to fit though, but alas the place was packed that day with swarms of people in both directions 2) Some people found it appropriate to run up and down--several times--said steps as their own personal work out--pushing past people and dripping their nasty sweat all over the place and 3)There was no lookout at the top! It was just an information panel in a small clearing in a wooded area. Lame. 

The other walk of the day we decided to do was toward a waterfall. However, the recent rain had left the track very muddy and there were families and kids running around--John was most upset because the noise would be sure to scare away all the wildlife and whatnot. Once we reached the actual waterfall it was really no more than a running creek with a small drop off of about 5 feet. Another bust. 

So while the Dandenongs was quaint, it wasn't really our cup of tea that day so we headed out early to get to our caravan park for the night where I would start planning the next leg of our trip up the East Coast!

Phillip Island

Traveling in a camper van thus far had been an interesting experience--though not as traumatic as I had expected. Staying at places that had cooking facilities and showers made the whole sleeping in a car thing a bit easier to manage. And, surprisingly, it was warmer than I expected it to be--though I probably had my nice Kathmandu sleeping bag I bought back in NZ for half price to thank for that. But yes, even sleeping and living out of our David Bowie-clad van, we managed to get by pretty well. This was even more apparent the night of our Mornington Peninsula trip. Of the many things we talked about with the cellar door hand at Tuck's Ridge was what would go well with each wine. John decided to make moules mariniere from the mussels we bought at the fresh seafood marker recommended by our Tuck's Ridge friend to have with our Chardonnay we purchased. That night, trying to cook Moules Mariniere on a small, single butane-powered cooker in the chilly evening air with a decent breeze was no easy task--but we managed! Though we didn't even end up drinking the Chardonnay as I had had more than a few glasses of wine that day all together and didn't feel up to the hair of the dog that bit me. So we had water instead. But yes, we were getting the hang out of this living in a van thing--though I will admit I had those moments when I was really missing our little Melbourne apartment.

Anywho, onto the next day when we were to tour Phillip Island! The day started out a bit cloudy and we weren't sure how it was going to go, so we decided to start the day off indoors at the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory! Only a $12 entry and free chocolate to start the day? Yes, please!?

First we needed a nice hot beverage to start the morning and plan our route for the day (a delicious hot chocolate for me, of course, and a mocha for John). 

Then it was off to tour the museum. They had a lot of interesting facts about chocolate and how chocolate is made--from the cocoa plant all the way to packaging. They even had chocolate art on display, as John is gesturing below:

They had a chocolate village, little arcade games where you could win chocolate, a machine where you could try different chocolate and combination flavors (I had strawberry and John had wasabi and cola . . . don't ask), a machine where you could make your own chocolate art, and a cool chocolate strobe illusion! I got it on camera to share:

By the time we left the chocolate factory the sun was shining and it was time to do some walks! There were several places located around the island where you could do some nature walks--we did a short boardwalk track over a swampy area, a nice circle track inland where we saw a few more wallabies, and then over to the far side of the island to a place called the Nobbies. Phillip Island is actually well known for it's colony of Little Blue Penguins (called Fairy Penguins here) but the center is much like the one we visited in Omaru--paid entry to see them come home at night, under a large viewing deck where you cannot take pictures--so we skipped it this time and just did some of the walks. The Nobbies is actually a big visitors center as well, with lots of information about the local wild and marine life and there is a boardwalk track that wraps its way around the coast a bit to give you a view of the Nobbies--which is basically two big rocks in the water--kind of like Nugget Point in NZ but more developed. It was still a nice walk that gave you some good costal views. There were signs up saying that a certain type of snake (a venomous kind) nested in that area but luckily it was too cold for us to spot any of them!

We ended our day with a visit to an area called Surf Beach--and indeed we went right around low tide and encountered many surfers on their way to catch some waves. We, however, ventured to an area a bit further down the beach called Forrest Caves. It was a big rock formation just at the edge of the shore--huge rock hollowed out by the waves crashing and it was a nice place to explore around low tide.

After hanging around the rocks for a while and getting some nice pictures, it was time to head to our next destination: Wilson's Promontory!

Mornington Peninsula

The following morning, it was time to head back through Melbourne and venture to the other side of Port Phillip to visit the Mornington Peninsula! It was only a 3 hour drive back inland via the main highway, rather than the 6 and a half hours all together we drove along the Great Ocean Road, so we were able to make it back with plenty of time to spare before we had to catch a ferry across (instead of driving all the way back through Melbourne and down the coast again--no thank you!) We tried to stop at the cellar door of a small winery called Scotchman's Hill located on the Bellarine Peninsula. We had tried some of their other wines before and they were very good, unfortunately they were closed that day as I suppose it was winter hours and didn't want to bother opening for 2 customers. A bit of a bummer, but we made our way to the small port side town of Queenscliff where we grabbed some delicious crepes for lunch before heading to board our ferry. It's a very short ferry ride, but you can take a car and it was rather cheap. Plus we got a free newspaper and espresso coffee each before getting on board! Quite nice treatment I must say. 

It was a nice ferry ride and we arrived just as the sun was starting to get low in the sky, making our way to the town of Dromana where we would be staying for the evening. It was the nicest holiday park we had stayed in thus far--they had a proper indoor kitchen with tables and stuff where we could set up our laptops (and wouldn't have to cook outdoors since it was quite chilly) and they also had a heated indoor pool! We arrived early enough to take advantage of it and it was a nice way to end three days of constant driving. 

The following day was the first day of absolutely clear weather--sunny and beautiful outside--a perfect day to go wine tasting! Though we started off the morning by heading up to a lookout point called Arthur's Seat--the highest point on the Mornington Peninsula--to get a nice look at the views. There was an actual seat located up top, Arthur's Seat to be precise, and it made a nice throne:

After that, it was time to get our day drinking on! Our first stop was a nice little winery called Ten Minutes by Tractor. A rather unusual name, but the winery is owned by a family who had three separate vineyards that are--you guessed it--ten minutes apart by tractor. But don't let the name throw you off. They had some great wines and a beautiful, small fine dining restaurant overlooking the valley below. The woman at the cellar door was very nice and was telling us a lot about the wines--as we were the only customers we got to spend a bit more time tasting. In the end we walked away with a lovely Pinot Gris--which we don't normally go for, but this one was made in a more old world style, being put through malolactic fermentation thus it wasn't as acidic as Pinot Gris usually are. Happy with our purchase it was time to head on to the next place called Tuck's Ridge. 

Once again we were the only people in the cellar door and the guy working there was really nice. We ended up staying there for over an hour! At first we were talking about the wine, of which I think we tried 10 different ones, talking in depth about most of them, but the conversation slowly turned to working in the hospitality industry, in which he had a lot of experience, and eventually the conversation wound it's way to home redecorating and turning houses--which John and I did a fair bit of in New Hampshire. We had a great time! After about an hour a half another customer trickled in and that was a good stopping point for our tasting and we walked away with a nice Chardonnay---different than the ones we usually went for in New Zealand. 

After that, it was time for some lunch! We found a small bakery associated with one of the bigger wineries that specialized in gourmet pies and salad, so we got some food in our belies to soak up some of the alcohol and headed on!

The next stop was a cellar door that both John and I were familiar with--Paringa Estate--as both of the restaurants we had worked in had sold their wines. They were quite a well known winery and had won some awards, which unfortunately means their cellar door doesn't really care about a pair of travelers that come through. The cellar door was located at the edge of their restaurant where a few older couples were dining, and when I went to taste the woman handed me the tasting notes and I just selected the ones I wanted to try. And that was the end of that interaction. It's always good to be weary of the bigger wineries that think they are too big for their britches--I paid my tasting fee and was probably in and out within 5 to 10 minutes. Not memorable at all, nor do we intend to buy any Paringa Estate wine. 

Our last stop of the day was Port Phillip Estate. Apparently there is some wine guru in Australia who publishes this book every year of his top wines by varietal and top cellar doors, both Australia-wide and by region. This year Port Phillip was "Cellar Door of the Year" in Mornington Peninsula and the architecture of the building is also apparently something special. As we approached it looked like a giant white concrete building. There were these huge wooden doors with no knob and we weren't sure how to get in. Well as we approached, the doors opened on their own--fancy! The inside was also quite large--very industrial--but a nice view over their vines as well. There was just one girl in there working the cellar door, which was fine since we were once again the only customers in. She was nice and gave us the tasting options, though I was worried that this would be like the last place and she would want to get through as quickly as possible. Well, right after the first wine two young french guys walk in and they were both viticulturists visiting Australia. Their English wasn't spectacular so John helped to translate a bit and when the girl learned that they were viticulturists and John and I knew a lot more about wine than she thought--she really brought out the bottles! We ended up going through the tasting together with the other guys and since it was the end of the day the girl even had some with us. Apparently there had been some asian journalists in during the day and the winemaker had opened some bottles for them that were't usually for tastings and even had one opened that hadn't been released yet--and we got to taste them all! We spent a good 45 min to 1 hour at this place probably tasting 10-12 wines all together--and they were some VERY good wines. We walked away very happy with a fantastic Pinot Noir. 

All in all we had a great day and drove away with some very good wines, and great weather. Next up it was time to head a but further south to Phillip Island!