Thursday, December 30, 2010
And back...
Sadly... he he he.
A week before Christmas, Kathy and I were invited to go to Hunter Valley for her company’s Christmas party. We had heard about the beauty of the valley, the good food, awesome balloon rides and the spectacular wine; but with almost none point of reference but Italy I was finding hard to believe how wicked it really is.
The 17th of December a co-worker and friend of Kathy picked us from home and started our journey to these lands that is just one hour and thirty minutes away from our home (yes, we live in the north shore... really, really north).
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| Would you take us to Hunter Valley? |
I must confess (and really home that she doesn’t read this...) I felt a bit uncomfortable because the night before we had very little sleep and I was fighting my eyes to keep them open.
I don’t know if we were rude or something, but we travelled really quite, up to a stop for lunch where life seemed to come back to our bodies to share a nice moment.
After another 40 minutes in the road we start seeing the vineyards and the wineries but everything pales in comparison to the resort hosting the event.
The resort is called ‘The Vintage’ which gives you an outstanding view of golf courses, vineyards, prime properties (I really want one... do you think people will send me money if I launch a website ‘a dollar for Rod’s home in the valley’?), spa, excellent restaurant and the list goes on and on and on.
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| Welcome to the Vintage |
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| Our room was a mirror of this one |
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| It was cold, but we really wanted to jump in the pool |
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| And this is why we wanted to jump in the pool... The view |
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| From the restaurant |
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| Another picture of the restaurant... from the outside |
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| Our chef |
We headed to our room with expectation what was on the other side of the door, Kathy’s friends asked to us if we wanted to do anything, but I wanted to crash in the bed for at least one hour.
Our room had this disgusting view...
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| (Quoting Matt Preston...) Disgustingly GOOOOD! The image is huge... It also contains stitching issues... |
The room was beautiful as well... I blinked twice before realising Kathy was already in the bathtub getting relaxed and the bed was all for me.
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| Ooooooh YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!! |
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| Our bed... before I took possession of it. |
After a well deserved nap and Kathy’s relaxation process completed we dressed up and head towards the Christmas dinner to find these gorgeous dishes with good wine.
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| Decorations... |
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| First dish, Salmon pastrami with Pyengana crisp, pickled cucumber, salad burnet and herbs jus |
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| More wine... |
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| Second dish, Four spiced bbq quail with a salad of green mango, toasted coconut, asian herbs and line caramel |
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| I swear in gods name that I did rotate this image... Google keeps rotating it 90 degrees... Anyway, third dish was Double lamb cutlet with roast lamb loin with dried tomato tapenade, braised spring onion and black garlic |
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| Dessert, Blue cheese mousse with spiced pear puree and fruit toast |
And then the Kris Kringle (Secret Santa) with funny presents
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| Well yes... someone got a rubber chicken! |
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| Kathy got Aussie-Slangs! Woohoo! |
The next day our friends took us to visit some of the vineyards and buy wine...
Long story short... Hunter Valley is a must know place if you ever come close to Sydney (or New South Wales). Spend a couple of days, eat a bit and enjoy it.
Cya!
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2 Comments:
What a beautiful place!!
I see you had a great time there =)
Yup! It was wicked and we would like to come back soon... There are so many things to do in Australia...
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