Day 7 (Hunter Valley)

Everyone from GSK was heading back to the airport to catch their flights home, however Tina and I elected to stay two extra days to go up to Hunter Valley, which is two hours north of Sydney. It’s basically the Napa Valley region near Sydney with over 140 vineyards in the area. So we rented a car and took to the highway. What’s the hardest part about driving in another country? Well, besides EVERYTHING, it’s the fact that you have to fight every natural instinct you have of driving on the wrong side of the road. One of the hardest things for me was getting used to the blinker. Since the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, everything is reversed. Every time I pulled the left lever to turn on my blinker, I actually turned on the windshield wiper. This quickly became infuriating….and funny.

It definitely takes some getting used to driving on the left hand side of the street. But since they delivered the car to the hotel, I didn’t have the luxury of starting off practicing in a parking lot. I was baptized by fire pulling out of the hotel into downtown Sydney traffic and driving over the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It was a bit nerve-wracking to say the least, but fortunately we survived. I’m just glad we elected to pay a little more to get an automatic transmission instead of trying to drive stick. I think that would have been TOO much to take on my first time driving in another country.

About two hours later we arrived in Hunter Valley at our Bed & Breakfast (http://www.wildernessgrove.com/huntervalley) Wilderness Grove. The place was perfect! It’s a little B&B just off the beaten path, but still close to all the vineyards. We enjoyed walking through the olive groves on the property grounds and sitting in the Adirondack chairs on our balcony and enjoying the views of the surrounding olive groves, vineyards and mountains in the distance. An absolutely gorgeous sight to behold.

That evening we went to dinner at this quaint little restaurant not too far from where we were staying. The place was called Amanda’s, and the food was fantastic. Our tomato, basil and mozzarella salad was definitely the best either of us has ever had. We split the prawn (shrimp) pasta dish and it was delicious. It was a perfect evening to end a perfect first day in Hunter Valley.


The vineyards as we pulled into town.
The view as we drove up the gravel driveway to our B&B (Wilderness Grove)


The view back down the driveway. You can see the olive trees on the left.


Sitting on our balcony enjoying a glass of wine.