Hunter Valley

A visit to New South Wales wine region, Hunter Valley, has been on my "Things to do in Australia" list for a long time - almost since we arrived. I didn't think we'd get to visit for a while, but our dear friends Andres and Esther were taking visiting family there for a weekend and invited us to join them. So we said "Thanks, mate!" and packed a suitcase!

Andres' sister, brother-in-law, and niece have been visiting from Spain, so we rented a van for our 2 hour trip out of the city and left on Friday after work. The niece is 2 and cute as a button. I think she and I know about the same number of words in Spanish, so we got along well. =)
We arrived around 9, and in true Spanish style, that meant it was time to start thinking about dinner. After a trip into the town and cooking, we sat down to eat around 10:30. Of course, we had some wine - that's why we were there, after all! So needless to say, we got started a little bit late on Saturday.
Our day Saturday consisted of a nice big breakfast at our cottage and exploring the vineyards at the place we were staying.

Then we headed out to drive through the countryside and make some tasting stops. It was beautiful.

After a few hours, we visited a cheese shop and bought food for a nice picnic lunch in the sun.

Then a few more wineries.

And one last stop to watch the sunset over the vineyards.

This stop turned out to have a bonus: while we were there, we spotted a field full of kangaroos coming out for their dinner. So we drove down closer and got out for a look.

We closed out the fabulous day with another group-made dinner at the cabin, drinking wine from the day, and playing games.

The next day we got up late, made breakfast, and then made our way back to the city. You can't ask for a better weekend than that!

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