Easter Sunday in Sweet Sydney!

We loved Sydney -- it's one of the best cities in the world. It's a city built around a huge convoluted harbour with ferries to take you in every direction. I could ride those ferries all day and not get bored.

Sunday morning we walked through the city to the harbour bridge and over to north Sydney to grab some lunch there. It was a good decision -- the rain held off and the sun shone as we walked thru the city and up to the bridge. No we didn't climb the bridge (it's like climbing a ladder -- they hook you up for safety), but the walk was enough. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the other side. There was a Sunday morning market below the bridge on the north side with music from a live band -- very typical of the markets downunder.

We met the general manager of a restaurant called "Ripples" when we were at Hayman, and he recommended the restaurant. Eventually we found it on the shore side of the Olympic pool beside Luna Park -- it's right under the bridge with a great view of the harbour. Food was very good -- and if you go there, it's BYO, so take your own vino or beer for a small charge.

For our final dinner we took the ferry to Watson's Bay which is out by the harbour head and has a wonderful view of the lights of Sydney. Thank you to Chris and Toni who gave us a gift certificate to Doyles, a famous seafood restaurant right on the beach. We had glasses of Aussie bubbly with local oysters and jumbo shrimps and a huge fish with bottle of our favourite NZ pinot, Escarpement (see previous blog http://winedomaine.blogspot.com/) It was a fine finish to our three-month trip downunder!

Other Sydney stuff
John had ordered tickets for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert early in our trip, so we had good seats for this raunchy high energy play. It follows the movie very closely -- even has the bus and Ayers rock up there on stage -- and was well done. They even dragged me up on stage with a couple of other women at the beginning of the second act to dance with the cast to "Go West"!! It was good fun even tho they went so fast I thought I would end up on my face at any moment . . . !

We stayed at the Hilton (on John's points) in the downtown area, close to shopping and theatres. It was renovated recently in a very Asian style -- small rooms and glass walls in the bathroom, so if you get up in the night and turn on the bathroom light, the whole room lights up . . . not good for trying to be conscientious and reading in the bathroom during the night so you don't wake up the other person! We also had to pay room service just to get ice . . . so overall, not recommended for the price. The Hyatt has the best location -- in the harbour across from the famous Opera House. Have no idea of the price, but it would be the best location.

So, that's it. Now we have the long trip home to endure -- I think it's about 24 hours in the air plus airport downtime . . . but we have books and lots of Sudoku to drive us crazy! Looking forward to seeing you back in Toronto!
Cheers! and remember, "no worries"!
Lee and John

Hayman Island and the Great Barrier Reef

We saved a special treat for the end of our trip Downunder – a visit to Hayman Island. It is a 5 star luxury resort, close to the Great Barrier Reef in the Whitsunday chain off the Queensland coast. It is the most beautiful resort I’ve seen, offering tennis, golf, watersports, sailing, trips to the GBR and fantastic gourmet food. Our suite overlooks the pools with a balcony, tho doesn’t have the dock and swimming ladder to the lagoon of the rooms below us on the ground floor.

It’s a little pricey, but in line with other Leading hotels of the world. Unfortunately, I booked the hotel under my name so, much to John’s disgust, he has been Mr. Fullerton all week!

We took a tour to the Knuckle Reef – about 90 minutes east by fast cruiser run by Cruise Whitsundays. John fought back his fear of heights and really enjoyed the helicopter tour over the reef. Then we went underwater and viewed the reef form a semi-submersible boat and an underwater viewing platform. The best part for me was snorkeling around the reef – I’ve never seen so many kinds of coral, all in healthy condition in spite of all the news reports of damage to the reef. Unfortunately, the water was a bit murky because it had been rough for a few days and the Tsunami had run through the area two days earlier.

After this, we are on to Sydney for Easter weekend before we fly back to Toronto to join you in the last winter storm of 2007! At least, we hope it’s the last because we feel the cold now when it gets below +20C!!

Hug a koala: OZ has amazing Wildlife

We've been very fortunate to encounter koalas, kangaroos, dingoes, cockatoos, lorikeets and other birds and animals in the wild. We also went to a wildlife sanctuary in nearby Currombin to see a few more. Here are a few photos.

The Gold coast -- in search of lounge chairs!

After the cruise, we headed south of Brisbane about 1 ½ hours to the end of the Gold Coast, a place called Tugun near Coolingatta airport, south of Surfer’s Paradise, right on the border of NSW. We didn’t know much about the area when we booked, so we just lucked into a great spot! We have a two bdrm, 2 bath (John’s happy again!) 7th floor apartment with balconies right on the beach for C$550/week. The photos show our view from the liv rm and bdrm and the lorikeets who visit our balcony each morning. The beach is beautiful fine golden sand and goes for miles, reminds ome of Fort Lauderdale beach 20 years ago.

We stayed at Pelican Sands, a timeshare rental with pools, a hot tub and comfortable LOUNGE chairs, a rarity downunder. After a hard day of wine touring, we’ve come back to our various abodes to perch on hard cast-iron bistro chairs, wooden picnic tables or benches, or skinny slings. The pools have been smaller than expected, more like a plunge pool and unheated (read “refreshing”). Now, you wouldn’t think you’d need a heated pool in OZ, but I do. Even here, the ocean is 24 degrees C (75 F), a little cool, and the pools are the same saltwater cooled off by nighttime lows.

The weather is perfect – this area gets over 300 days of sunshine every year and isn’t as hot or humid as the beaches north of Brisbane. It’s a nice 28C with blue skies, perfect for beach walking. Last night, I even had to wear a jacket to dinner, so the temp was well below 20C. There’s a sense of fall in the air too, so you must be getting some spring weather at home – we hope so, because we’re in the last two weeks of our three-month trip! Doesn’t seem possible that it’s nearly over, but we’ll see you soon!

Cruising the Queensland coast

P&O Cruises, Pacilfic Star

Queensland (NE sector of OZ) is lush and green, fed by the many rivers flowing from the mountains to the sea. As we drove north along the coastal highway from Sydney to Brisbane to meet the Pacific Star for our cruise, we passed river after river flowing from the hills on the left to the sea on our right.

Not the scene you’d expect from an area that was recently awarded level 5 on the drought scale. So why is there a drought in Brisbane? “Years of government inaction resulting in virtually no water management plan,” said Mike, our companion in the gondola on the sky ride across the rainforest near Cairns. “Dam levels are down to 20%, and we’re still in the monsoon season here.”

Indeed, it rained for at least an hour each day during our cruise along the eastern shore from Brisbane to Port Douglas. The skies darkened, rain fell in a deluge, then 15 minutes later the sun would shine and the heat would turn the place into a sauna. Not my kinda place! We went as far north as Port Douglas at 15 degrees below the equator before turning south again through the much sunnier coral sea to Brisbane. Winds were strong causing the boat to bounce around a lot, sloshing the water out of the swimming pools and making several people seasick. Waves weren’t any higher than Lake Ontario on a moderate day, so not sure what made the boat sashay so much. Luckily, the motion didn’t bother us; in fact, the rocking made for great sleeping!

A week with 1,167 Aussies! No worries!
Almost everyone on the cruise was from OZ, mainly Brisbane and surrounds. There were a few Brits, but we were a curiosity as the only North Americans. Everyone was very friendly and universally welcomed us. I loved the Aussie slang and male sense of “silly bugga” humour! Good fun!

We signed up for a table of 8 thinking that we’d meet more people, but much to John’s surprise/chagrin, they were all women! There were four who had known each other since kindergarten and were on a 30-year reunion . . . giggles galore …. and a mother/daughter threesome from Adelaide rounded out the table. They were good fun and we learned a lot from them about life in OZ. I’ve been astonished at the sensitivity here to Canadians – almost everyone has said “Where in North America are you from?” or “Are you Canadian or American?” (in that order). One asked if we were Canadian and said that she always asks it that way to North Americans because Americans are flattered, whereas Canadians are insulted if it’s reversed.

The entertainment was amazing – it was the quality of the crew at Deerhurst with a different program almost every night. On their nights off, headliners took the stage, a comedian/magician and Jackie Love who sang everything from Patsy Cline’s Crazy to Edith Piaff songs en francais!

We ate too much, but didn’t drink much cause the wine list wasn’t very good and they didn’t allow you to bring alcohol aboard. We did smuggle on a bottle of port, but it didn’t last long enough! The best bottle on the list was the Brown Bros shiraz – had it for dinner most nights.

It was our first cruise, and we really enjoyed it. But we’ll know what questions to ask next time. How many nights at dock in port? What kind of tenders do you have to get ashore? How long does it take to get to port? Does the water stay in the pools when the boat’s underway? And a few others . . . !!

Hunter Valley: on to cruise the Great Barrier Reef

We've spent three days in the Hunter valley, our last wine-tasting area. We ended with a wonderful tasting at Brokenwood, and I think we've had enough!

We head to Brisbane tomorrow to board a cruise for a week through the Great BArrier Reef -- doubt we'll have access, so will keep you posted when we return.
Cheers!

The Outback: greener than expected

Yesterday,we made the mad dash through the outback from the Clare valley (Adelaide on the west coast) to Dubbo, close to Sydney, so am stiff and sore and ready for a hot tub. Lots of goats running loose beside the road which didn't slow John down from 140 km/h; however, the browsing cows gave him pause. So far the sheep have kept themselves on the other side of fences! Wish I could say the same for the kangaroos -- I was quite concerned that we'd hit a roo if we didn't stop by dark (several are hit every night), but we all made it in one piece. Left at 8:30 am and arrived 12 hours later with a short stop in Broken Hill. Straight highway all the way.

The scenery is green and red, green and red. The soils are very bright red and there's more veg than you'd expect, so just kept getting greener as we approached the Great Dividing range. We were on our way to the final wine-tasting area, the Hunter Valley.

Goodbye wine glut!

Don’t expect to see many bottles of 2007 Aussie wine on the shelves in future – the quality will be excellent, but there’s just very little wine being produced this year.

Many of the fruit growers in OZ were struggling because there was such a glut of grapes driving the price down, then a drought, followed by frost, seriously reduced the quantity in 2007.

Fruit levels for the 2007 vintage are seriously reduced in all regions we’ve visited: 80-90% in the Yarra Valley by two frosts in November, killing both the first and second buds; 80 to 100% in the Grampians/Pyrenees already hurt by 10 years of drought; 80 to 100% in the Coonawarra where there were three frosts and some were just not picking anything this year; 60 to 90% around Adelaide in McLaren vale, the hills and Barossa; further north but closer to the sea, the Clare valley wasn’t hurt as much, but still down 40 to 60%.

Red soils everywhere!
Coonawarra’s soils are quite red, as advertised, they are the famous “terra rossa” region. But they aren’t alone -- we’d come from the Grampians and Pyrenees which are also quite red. In fact, all the soil we’ve seen so far has been some shade of red, orange, sienna, gold – it’s quite beautiful.

Great visit to BVE, famous for E&E Pepper Shiraz

Barrossa Valley Estates (BVE)

In early March, we had a wonderful visit at BVE, producers of one of our favourite wines, the E&E Black Pepper Shiraz. Winemaker Stuart Bourne and his two-year old assistant Hamish were very generous with their time and tasting samples. They are avid Toronto Maple Leaf hockey fans from afar and hope to see a game when they visit our town next October.

After a tour of the modern, gravity-fed facilities, we tasted several samples from different blocks of the future 2007 vintage, some only one to four days old. Amazingly complex fruit juice! BVE is almost finished the 07 harvest, four weeks ahead of their previous best. The quality of the fruit is excellent with wonderful concentration, but the quantity is down 50% from “usual.” We tasted the 2003 Black Pepper Shiraz and, while young of course, it is a powerhouse of black fruit and pepper, its trademark. While it will be smoother and better integrated in 10 years, it was delightful and very approachable at 11:30 am on our visit in early March 2007!

Stuart explained that the best fruit that goes into the Pepper shiraz is almost entirely sourced from blocks “above the road,” referring to the regional road that runs north of most of the wineries. Most of the fruit for Grange is grown in the same small area. Even within this small mini-region, the grapes from blocks that are side-by-side can have very different characteristics. I asked if it was the soil, but he wasn’t sure what caused such big changes. He just identified the different blocks/plots, and kept them separated through the winemaking process.

The separation is also partly to accommodate the 65 different grape-growing partners. "You have to like jigsaw puzzles in this job," he laughed. That's because BVE has a unique corporate structure. It is owned 50% by Hardy’s and 50% by a co-operative of 65 local growers. Must make for some fun decision-making in the boardroom! There are three board members from each side, the winemaker and the winery manager, and “they just close the door til they get the job done.” Because the growers get a share in the final profits, the structure ensures that the fruit growers get better compensation because their profits are tied to the bottom line and it protects them when the price for the fruit is low such as during the recent drought.

They are still shy of the screw cap, much to the dismay of the winemaker, but that could change in future as most Australian wineries have embraced the screwcap for all but their most premium wines.

The best grapes go into the Black Pepper shiraz, next into the Ebenezer, then the Spires which is general list in Ontario and quite a good quaffer at $13.20. Both are delicious and excellent value for the money -- they could easily become our new house wines!

Thank you Stuart for your hospitality, and we know you'll want to chant "go Leafs!" when you come to Toronto next fall!

Winetasting for the past 12 days . . .

Please pardon the paucity of postings over the last week or so, but we've been busy tasting some wonderful red wines and haven't had internet access. There has been a lot of false advertising by hotels claiming to offer internet services -- something to watch for if you are travelling down here.

The weather has been very pleasant with sunshine and perfect summer days. There's no humidity so you get to say "It's hot, but it's a DRY heat . . ." which will no doubt sound familiar to anyone who's lived in the North!

After we left the Grampians, we stayed three days in each of the Coonawarra, Barossa and Clare Valley wine regions and two nights in Glenelg, a beach suburb of Adelaide. We visited McLaren Vale (20 minutes from Glenelg) and Adelaide Hills on our way to the Barossa. I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I (and my liver!) need some time off!

Most impressive wines
The good news is we get most of the good Australian wine in Canada, and the prices are very comparable to what we are siing here. There are some excellent small producers, but overall we are lucky to have such good selection and variety. I will have to post tasting notes later as internet time is running out.