A gorgeous weekend in the Hunter Valley (March 10 and 11). We stayed at fancy Tallawanta Lodge, adjacent to the Hunter Valley Gardens, a recently built botanical extravaganza. Walked and drove to a handful of wineries, including Lindemans. Pokolbin Mountain is the big hill in the background of the Lindemans photo. We drove up a long, narrow dirt road to the top of the mountain and some spectacular greenery along the way. It is about a 2.5 hour drive from Sydney to the Hunter wine region, on roads and through country towns and some rolling hills that reminded Sarah and me of the drive from New York City to the Berkshires.
I think the kids' best memory from the weekend will be the Aqua Golf, which 
was a driving range next to our lodge where you hit the balls into a small lake dotted with net baskets attached to metal signs advertising area businesses. There were probably about 20 baskets. If you hit your ball into the basket you got a reasonable prize from that business, mostly restaurants and wineries. Nick kept getting close to Swill and Grill (a chain of local steak places.) Near the end of our second visit I finally got a ball into a basket, winning a voucher for one free dinner at a nearby historic brewery/hotel. 
No comments:
Post a Comment