Hey everyone

Today was Wine Tour day!

As it seemed really popular at the hostel, we decided to go on the wine tour of the Hunter Valley, featuring wine, cheese, and olive tasting. We boarded a minivan at 9am and began the one hour journey to the Hunter Valley, famous for its wines.

Our first stop was Lindemans, which was the biggest (and most successful) vineyard of the day. After being told that all the worst grapes go to Europe, we tried some of their special cellar door wine. As with most of the vineyards we went to in the day, we tried a few whites, a few reds, and a few 'interesting' dessert wines. The wines at Lindermans were really nice (even at 10am), especially the Semillon we tried (which is the grape the Hunter Valley is most famous for). After asking a few questions it was time to move on to the next vineyard of the day.

At the next winery we had a selection of the wines on offer, followed by some nice olive oils with different flavours. We liked the garlic olive oil, but regretted trying a spicy olive oil which sent a wave of heat up our noses.

By this point after 20 glasses (albeit small glasses) we were feeling a little tipsey and welcomed the stop at a cheese tasting shop. It had been a while since we had eaten nice cheese, so we did our best to try everything we could... twice. Christina found the olives and did her best to eat as many as possible before it was time to jump back in the minivan.

After one more winery it was time for lunch at the Hunter Valley Gardens. We had time here to explore the shops and found a British Sweet Shop, where a very keen shop assistant let us try absolutely loads of sweets. 15 minutes later we were full of sweets and bought some strawberry bon bons - it was the least we could do considering how much we tried.

In the afternoon we had a few more wineries and another cheese tasting, and by the end of the day we could barely manage another sip of wine. At one of the cheese tastings there was also an ice cream (or gelato) shop. We'd seen these around often and the ice cream looked delicious, so we decided to finally get some. We got a strawberry scoop and a chocolate scoop, and though they were both nice, the strawberry was amazing!

Our last stop was a place specialising in interesting liquers. After trying something similar to Baileys, it was time for there famous Chili liquer. We braced ourselves as we were given literally a few drops of the drink, and it was hot! We were given a piece of chocolate straight afterwards but it didn't help as much as we would have liked it to have done.

Back in the minivan it was time to head back to the hostel after a long day. It had been a fun day and we'd learnt lots about wine, and needless to say, we didn't find it hard to fall asleep that night... Xxx