Newcastle - walking and tasting

I chose to stop in Newcastle as it’s near the Hunter Valley which is well known for its vineyards (why is it spelt that way and pronounced viniards?). And since we know that Australia had great wine, might as well stop and taste it!

But wine tasting was for my second day. During my first day I walked all over town. I initially followed a numbered heritage walk through the old part of the city which took me to the customs house (someone was busy rinsing out the fountain as it had been filled with soapy bubbles the night before), the frame of a former train garage where they would upkeep the cars, and to the ocean baths. As the ocean can be filled with many dangers, they built enclosed pools to keep everyone safe.

The Ocean Baths

That day, even though the weather was quite dreary, a man was doing laps and the board by the pool said the water was at 16 degrees. Brr. And many freight ships were spread out on the horizon. I also walked to King Edward Park, which has some cliffs along it. A whole section is blocked off in case rocks fall from the escarpment. Apparently, there used to be a rock at the top, and the local aborigines were always wary of it and it finally fell down just a few years ago. Looked up on the web and it’s the Yi-ran-na-li cliff where « no one should linger or speak in its vicinity because of the danger of falling rocks». Unfortunately, the cliffs have seen quite their share of deaths, accidental or not as I saw some plaques paying tribute to a 16 year old girl. After lunch, I walked through some more residential areas. The style of architecture changed a bit from one neighbourhood to another, but it was pretty much all single family homes. On one street, the boutique part would occupy the front of the main floor while the back seemed to be residential. Those were very small shops, and yes I resisted spending! Hurray!

More local architecture

That evening, a group from the hostel attended a bingo night. I won the big prize by being the first to have a full card : a $30 bar tab! Having already had a couple of schooners (something between a glass and a pint), I took advantage of the situation and changed my next drinks to the pricier vodka sodas and also got a drink for one of my roomies.

Rest assured, no hangover was had and was in tip top shape for the Hunter Valley wine tour. Our bus picked up passengers all over the area. Unfortunately, there were some pick-up issues, so it took us two hours to start tasting.  Most passengers were between their fifties and seventies except for a girl in her twenties. Throughout the day we visited five vineyards, a cheese place and a chocolate place.

Roses are near vineyards as they are they are more

sensitive to disease but according to some web research

that's a myth. Oh well, pretty anyway.

As I don’t know much about wine, I was able, thanks to the tasting and different explanations, to figure out what I like more or less. Finally, I’m not a fan of Semillon, the Hunter Valley specialty, and not entirely convinced about Chardonnay either. And some red wines are actually quite nice served cool rather than room temperature. I bought two bottles along the way, waiting for a special occasion to enjoy them. Unfortunately, they do add a bit to the weight to my backpack. Oh well, and there was also this very smooth soft blue cheese at the Smelly Cheese Factory which was really delicious. The triple Brie was pretty good too. I’m definitely going to check out more wine tours in other Australian regions!

I liked this froggy label

On that evening, we went to another local pub for the music quiz night. All the teams were pretty close, and ours was only 3 points behind the winners.