beach bums and winos

We had more free time this weekend to do what we pleased. Saturday we went to Bondi again. I still can't get over the fact that I can lay on a beach in January. Pretty much our whole group went and we had a fun day laying in the sun and telling stories. Sarah and I went in the ocean for a bit that day but it was SO rough we could only stay in for like 5 minutes. After almost losing my "bather" from a huge wave and being pulled out farther than we wanted, we body-surfed back in. I got water in my ear that never came out from the crazy waves so now I'm in pain. I will soon be on the search for some of those swimmer's ear drops.

Today a small group of us booked a wine tasting tour of the Hunter Valley. This region is two hours north of Sydney. The ride up was gorgeous. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic and loved telling us all we needed to know about wine. We watched a video on the way so we learned the proper etiquette of tasting wine. We toured three wineries: Tallavera, Irongate and Ernst Hill. All three wineries were very different, but very cool. At Irongate, they process the wine there, so we were able to get a tour and see all of the different equipment used. At Ernst Hill, they let us taste some of the grapes used to make their wines. Between the vineyards, we had a nice picnic lunch in the Hunter Valley Gardens followed by a cheese tasting at the Smelly Cheese Shop. Everything was delicious. I was surprised at how much I liked the white wines today. It was pretty hot out so I guess I liked how refreshing they were. My favorite wine today was at Irongate. It was a mix between Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. The tours were really fun and also educational. An added bonus to our trip: we saw kangaroos!!! It was so cool to see them in their natural environment. Overall, it was an awesome day and I'm so glad I decided to go on this tour :)