Tasmania

Tasmania is like the love child of Australia and New Zealand. You have amazing countryside, surrounded by lakes and seas, with no people about, but still great restaurants and wineries serving very good cheap wine and food. Instead of doing the obvious touristy stuff, we just jumped in the car and went for a drive. Then only afterwards do we stumble by one of the top ten wineries in Tassy, and then a few hours later the best bar/restaurant in the country. Wherever its beautiful, you find great cheap places. After another gluttonous weekend, eating tons of great seafood and drinking tons of lovely white wine, there just enough time to watch the rugby league final before the last flight home.


The big saturday street market in Hobart

Jude next to Richmond bridge, the oldest town in Tas

A great winery with great food... Jude even liked the oysters!

A gorgeous girl by the Hudson river

Wineglass Bay, voted in the top 10 best beaches in the world

The view looking back over Coles bay

Freycinet National Park

Jude getting blown about by the rocky coastline

Jervis bay

Suddenly we realise that the last 4 months have flown by, as no sooner have i spoken to my parents about coming out to Oz, that they're landing for their big trip. After showing them around Sydney, and there trip to Melbourne and the blue mountains, we all jump in a huge jeep to hot foot it down to Jervis bay for the weekend. Our cabin was overlooking the lake at sanctuary point, close to the bay. After a day trip of seeing amazing beaches, beautiful countryside, what better way to finish it off than watching the Ossy Rules footy final down the pub!


The view from the balcony of our cottage

Apparently the whitest beach in the world

Me and my parents looking a bit dazzled

A lovely little bay we found next to an aboriginal settlement

The view at the top of kangaroo valley

It was very close, especially as my mum's opening line was 'i dont think much of the beer here!' and the game wasn't too bad either!

Hunter Valley

After jumping in the car at 6pm on the Friday, (me getting us a little lost with the ridiculous high-way) but eventually getting us to Hunter valley 3 hours later, we were miles away from city life, with a wildwest style hillbilly town greeting us in Cessnock. We started the Saturday as we meant to go on, so after the well known Peterson's champagne house, we hot footed it to the award winning Bimbadgen winery. This was the point when the Hunter valley first made sense to us. Everybody we spoke to always had a wicked glint in there eye on the mention of the hunter valley, and there seemed to be so many tours for such a small area. After asking for a tasting we go to look at the offered list to taste. Instead of the usual 2-5 wines, we had a full 2 page paper, all in order of taste, with a price range of £13-25 a bottle, which you were expected to go entirely through. Then the size of the tasting was a third of a glass. Oh dear god, what have we got ourselves into! I have never thrown away so much good wine in my life. Whilst Jude was tucking into every sparkling available, i had to do with sniffing and spitting the lot!

Thankfully I had my revenge, after seeing vest wearing blokes absolutely hammered by 3-4pm, I knew that at least I'd be enjoying and remembering my evening. After being recommended a little restaurant out on wilderness road, and seeing the great reviews, we thought we should give it a go. But there is a reason that they call it wilderness rd. After driving for about 5 mins along a bumpy dirt track, with no lights on for miles, thoughts of all the cheap horror movies start entering your brain and I'm noticing the whites of Jude's eyes getting bigger and bigger. But thank Christ, finally a little haven at the end of the road, Mojo's on wilderness. Not only was the food gorgeous, but the portions. My starter was 3 lamb chops on one another! Jude could have cut her steak with a spoon is was so soft.

After running around a few last little vineyards on the Sunday, what better way to finish the weekend than to have lunch at the 2 hat award restaurant Rock, overlooking there vines and lakes. Not only are we given an amuse-bouche of a oyster (jude's ever first!) but the lunch is only $20 each, incredible!

Jude and I fell in love with such a lovely countryside area, so close to the city, with such high quality restaurants and vineyards. We must return, though after I've hit the gym for a few weeks!


Nothing like a champagne breakfast to get you going!

A moody morning which didnt last long

Jude overlooking the Bimbadgen estate

The hen-do central, there was karaoke going on inside!

Our lunchtime stop in the tiny town of Broke

A nice looking 'factory' vineyard, with its own smelly cheese shop!

A bit of kangaroo spotting after our best meal since Tetsuya's

A beautiful little gem of a vineyard we stumbled across

The view the other way

Me knackered after a very long gluttonous weekend!

East Coast Sailing Trip

So after twiddling my fingers for only so long, i felt it was about time to do something interesting rather than sit on my arse. I'd wanted to learn to sail international yachts for some time, and i couldn't think of a better place to do it than Sydney. The best course was a 5 day trip leaving on the Saturday, so after buying half my gear and borrowing the rest, and getting the green light from the misses, off i trekked down to the nearby rushcutters bay to meet my crew. After meeting 5 burly men it became quickly apparent that my nicknames were going to be 'Kid', 'Junior' etc as they were all in there 40's and 50's. there were 2 of us doing the competent crew course, and 2 others doing the skipper course, which worked out well as we could pare up throughout the course. So after leaving on a beautiful sunny calm day, i thought this was going to be a lovely little trip. We were going to slowly work our way up north to Port Maquarie then do an overnighter to get back for the Wednesday afternoon.... or so we thought! After about 4 hours, we were out to sea, and the weather started to change. It slowly became choppier and choppier, with the wind picking up. And after a late lunch with the wind picking up, my sea sickness picked up. I hadn't expected to suffer, as i haven't in the pass, but this was slightly rougher weather than I'd expected. So whilst enjoying great moments such me on the front deck with dolphins swimming along, jumping out of the water, I was also trying to stop myself feeding the little buggers my lunch!
Then the sky became dark and we saw the clouds coming in quickly. After hearing the weather warning on the radio, we knew we were going to have some interesting time ahead. So here i was, with no experience and my first time on a yacht, with gale force winds blowing against us (thats 70-80 km/h) with the boat almost at an angel of 45 degree, me clipped by a harness onto the rail of the boat with my legs dangling over the side, huge waves crashing against us, flooding the deck, and throwing the boat up and down, up and down, up and down. My sea sickness was really loving it! After an hour of this we hadn't made any distance as we were being thrown back and forth, until finally we were able to sneak into a little cove and rest up for the night, Phew! As i spent most of the time either throwing up, or just holding on for dear life, I felt i owed it to the guys to cook dinner. And from that point on my new nickname became 'cook'. The next day was bad weather again, so we just cruised through the river and waterways behind palm beach. On the Monday we zoomed up to Newcastle Yacht Club with perfect sailing weather. After we all got our first shower of the trip, we felt slightly human again, though it didn't last long.
On the way home we we went up the Hawksbury river to the most difficult sailing area in NSW. We had to go through rocks on one side and breaking surf on the other, checking the depth monitor the whole way. By the last day I'd pretty much cooked everything in the boat, which only helped our speed a little as there was no wind, so we slowly snaked back to Sydney.
So after starting with nothing, I have all my qualifications and I'm now on a crew list trying to get some racing experience!

Tri-Nations Wallabies V All Blacks

One of the games i've always wanted to see was the southern hemisphere two big giants taking on each other. After a typical winter day of walking through the botanical gardens to get the ferry for manly for some pre-drinks, we left the ladies watching breakfast at tiffanies whilst we zoomed over to the ANZ stadium. What i didnt realise was that it was miles away from central Sydney, and after 2 hours of traffic, then running full pelt for 15 mins from the only availble parking about 2 miles away, we got to the game with 5 mins gone. Thankfully no points were on the board, so we wet our dry mouths and watched the action unfold. I'll let a real reporter tell the action, but the last 5-10 mins the stadium was going bonkers!


All Blacks coach Graham Henry may be requesting “More boring please” after a thrilling, pulsating, nail biting Bundaberg Rum Tri-Nations Test in Sydney tonight that was eventually won 19-18 by New Zealand to see them retain the Bledisloe Cup for another year.
It was a full blooded Test match played in front of a near capacity crowd of 80,228 contested between two teams desperate to win and willing to give every inch of mind and body to achieve the victory.
The injury count was high both during and after the match, which was not surprising considering the explosive nature of the collisions.
The match started at high intensity with Rocky Elsom taking out Richie McCaw as he leapt high for the ball from the kick off.
The result was a penalty from South African referee Jonathan Kaplan but Elsom was fortunate not to see yellow.
The All Blacks were hurtling in to tackles in the early stages but the Wallabies were determined to keep the ball in hand with scrumhalf Luke Burgess prominent with some strong runs from the scrumbase.
All Blacks inside centre Luke McAlister then hit Burgess in a big tackle and ended up coming off second best, being escorted to the blood bin, which brought Ma’a Nonu off the bench early.
Dan Carter then put the All Blacks in front after three minutes with a well taken penalty goal from forty metres in front after Matt Giteau was adjudged to be picking the ball up in an offside position.
Giteau then evened things up with a penalty goal right in front twenty metres out after the All Blacks were penalized for going over at the ruck.
He put the Wallabies in front on nine minutes when the All Blacks were penalized for a similar offence, the Brumbies flyhalf landing the penalty from thirty metres out just to the right of the upright. Wallabies in the lead 6-3.
The intensity around the rucks and mauls was ferocious with the Wallabies determined not to be shaded physically.
It was already clear Elsom’s return had given the Men of Gold pack some much needed “mongrel” that had perhaps been missing in recent Tests.
Both teams were determined to run the ball but the All Blacks execution let them down in promising positions with first Carter being pulled up for a forward pass and then Sitiveni Sivivatu dropping Conrad Smith’s inside ball on the Wallabies 22.
The All Blacks were go on to make a startling 9 handling errors in the Test while the Wallabies made 5 as both teams at times were guilty of over-playing their hands.
This was developing into a full blooded Test with both teams running full pelt and then being hammered back by just as committed defence.
On twenty minutes Wallabies No.8 Richard Brown hit Conrad Smith in a bone jarring tackle.
At the same time it was Wallabies hooker Stephen Moore and prop Benn Robinson’s turn to show the affects of the spirited clash both going to the blood bin with Tatafu Polota-Nau and Ben Alexander coming on.
Both teams were a definite step up from their performances previously in the Tri-Nations with the must-win nature of the match clearly coming to the fore.
The All Blacks were looking threatening using inside balls at the end of backline movements to break the Wallabies open.
McAlister found himself in space on the left touchline and chipped ahead but Giteau got back to save for the Wallabies.
The urgent physical Wallabies defence continued to force the All Blacks into errors.
The Wallabies scrum issues with South African referees continued and minutes later Alexander returned this time as a full replacement for Baxter and Moore returned for Polota-Nau.
The All Blacks continued to have most of the attack but fierce Wallabies defence repelled every New Zealand advance.
The counter-rucking from Australia was also impressive and on 34 minutes the Wallabies lead was extended after the Men of Gold forced another ruck penalty on half-way.
The All Blacks protested and Kaplan marched them ten metres which led to Giteau coolly slotting over to put the Wallabies out 9-3.
New Zealand re-gathered the kick off and surged deep into Wallabies territory but again they were penalized at the breakdown.
Try as they might the All Blacks sharpness and execution was not up to their usual standards with Carter taking some time to adapt to the speed of Test Rugby after so long out of the game.
Another All Blacks error saw Adam Ashley-Cooper make a long run before kicking ahead but New Zealand covered.
The half time siren sounded as the All Blacks took the 22 but the Wallabies continued to attack long after the siren.
After several phases and a strong burst down the right touchline by Lachie Turner, the ball came wide to Berrick Barnes who broke through an All Blacks tackle and passed inside to Nathan Sharpe who seemed certain to score but he was hauled down in a try saving tackle by New Zealand scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan.
From the ensuing ruck the All Blacks were again penalized for slowing the ball down leading to a stern talking to from Kaplan to McCaw and another penalty shot to Giteau.
The Wallabies flyhalf made no mistake and the Men of Gold well deserved their 12-3 lead at the break.
During the break Barnes went off with a neck injury to be replaced by Ryan Cross.
And for the All Blacks Conrad Smith was replaced by Nonu.
The second half started just as the first with the All Blacks throwing themselves at the Wallabies line and the Men of Gold turning them back with tough defence.
But suddenly the Wallabies were down to 14 men with Brown questionably yellow carded for the second time in two Tests for a marginal dangerous tackle on young All Blacks prop Owen Franks.
Carter missed the ensuing penalty goal but landed one soon after as the Wallabies gave away a ruck penalty after a dangerous All Blacks attack.
But on forty nine minutes the Wallabies restored their lead to nine points with Giteau landing a penalty from another ruck penalty. Australia up 15-6.
The physical nature of the contest was taking its toll with now James O’Connor going off with a suspected corked thigh. Peter Hynes came on on the wing with Turner dropping back to fullback.
McAlister also succumbed with what turned out to be to a fractured cheekbone to be replaced by back up flyhalf Stephen Donald.
And Moore returned to the blood bin with Polota-Nau back into the fray.
Carter thought he was over on 52 minutes after finishing off an All Blacks attack from close range in the left hand corner but he was pulled back by Kaplan for a forward pass.
Then just a minute later Cowan thought he had scored when he dove over from close to the line but Jerome Kaino was penalized for obstructing Sharpe.
When the All Blacks were pulled up for a negligible knock on just a moment later after a promising run from fullback Mils Muliaina, New Zealand supporters might have begun to suspect it wasn’t their night.
Still the All Blacks piled forward and Carter had another chance from a penalty to bring them closer which he did from an acute angle, 30 metres out. Wallabies 15-9 with 22 minutes remaining.
The All Blacks sent on new blood with Rodney So'oialo making an impact after replacing Kaino.
There were chances for both teams from kicks with first a wicked bounce eluding Hynes that sent opposing winger Joe Rokocoko on a dangerous break.
Hynes again made a long surge moments later down the left touchline, the Reds winger adding much spark to the Wallabies outside backs.
Then on 55 minutes the Wallabies defence finally broke.
A clever wrap around by Nonu saw McCaw and Keiran Read handle before Sivivatu broke through on the left. Nonu looped again to take the return pass and dive over wide out for the game’s opening try.
Carter converted from wide out and the All Blacks were in front for the first time in the match – 16-15.
But the Wallabies hit back straight away, re-claiming the kick off and James Horwill charged at the All Blacks line.
He was pulled down on the 22 but from the ensuing rucks the Wallabies won a penalty. Giteau was successful and the Wallabies were back in front 18-16 with the clock ticking down.
The All Blacks worked down field for a drop goal but with Carter perfectly placed on the 35 metre line he badly scuffed a kick he usually would have potted with ease.
Deep in to the last five minutes the Wallabies continued to cling to their two point lead but then the Wallabies failed to clear a kick on their own line and Turner was penalized for holding on.
This time Carter made no mistake from wide out and the All Blacks were back in front 19-18 with just two minutes remaining.
The Wallabies launched frenetic attack after attack, spurning numerous drop goal opportunities, and just when it seemed the All Blacks line would break Ben Alexander spilled the ball on the New Zealand tryline and the All Blacks had retained the Bledisoe Cup for the seventh straight year.


Botanical gardens

The ferry to manly

manly warf (on the opposite side of the beach)

Some local fishermen at work

The lads (can you guess which is the english one!)

The winning kick about to be taken

Melbourne

Our first proper airplane trip out of Sydney, to the arty funky grungy moody city of Melbourne. As we were there only for the weekend, as soon as we landed it was one long bar/restaurant crawl. So after checking out the city centre, then lunch by the river, we jumped on one of the many trams over to the local beach to get some rays whilst sipping draft pinot gris (they get through that much of it!). Then we hit China town, and onto the many hidden little bars through-out the city. The following day was spent in the suburb of Fitzroy, especially as we couldn't move far after breakfast. This area is lined with cafes, restaurants, clothes shops and a few old style pubs. Everything you need for a lazy Sunday. On the plane back we could definitely say we 'saw' the city, and brought a few pounds of it back!


One of the many old shopping centres in the city

The city has lots of little alleyways where bars, cafes, and restaurants are hidden

One of the arty bridges going over the river

St Kilda beach.... the bondi of Melbourne

I cool little bar we found, with an old style opium den kind of feel, with chaise lounges and little lighting abound.

A well known vodka bar with a very hospital feel to it

Me drunk in a dodgy alleyway with superman poise.... as you do!

Jude very happily smiley drunk in a more graceful setting!

One of the currently 'in' restaurants that we tried though wasn't massively impressed, but the place was nice, and had good vino

The morning after... The largest fry up in the history of the world. I was able to finish it, though feel queasy every time i see this pic!

An Ozzy pub food great, the Parma. Its a bastardisation of an Italian dish, this one being 3 chicken breasts flattened and fried in breadcrumbs, then a tomato, Parma ham and cheese topping which is then grilled. This came with a separate bowl of chips and salad. Oh, and this is a one person portion!

Sydney Swans V St Kilda

So Jude and thought be should fully embrace the Australian way of life, and there's no better way than to see an Ozzy footy game. Even after i explained to Jude the game for a week, still on the day she thought she was going to a football (soccer) game. But, all you need to know is that we happen to go to one of the best games of the season, a real nail biter, and I'm now officially a Swanny. A link to the rules and the match report are:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/sport/afl/story/0,26547,25867570-5016212,00.html


The game is placed on a cricket pitch, with 18 a side, so they're knackered by the end of it, running roughly 14k each match.

A little excited Jude!

Cowra wine festival

My old school friend Toby's fiance Jenice is from the little rural town of Cowra, which is 4 hours west of Sydney, over the blue mountains. Apart from being a lush green agricultural centre, it also holds the 3rd largest wine festival in Australia. Strangely Jude and I have never been to a wine festival, so had no idea what to expect. We ended up leaving on Friday evening, and stopped of in the little village of Leura in the blue mountains for a lovely fireside dinner, which ended with Christmas pudding ice cream, which was awesome, and not surprising Jude fell in love with.

After waking to clear blue ski's we drove over the mountains and into rural Oz (where Jude saw her first ever kangaroo). Apart from the wine festival, Cowra is also know for the Second World War prison escape by Japanese prisoners, where 231 of them died after they tried to storm the prison as would rather die than live with the shame of being captured. Even the ones that did make it out committed suicide by throwing themselves under trains!

Anyway, back to nice lovely wine. Now what better way to get ready for a wine festival than go to 2 different wineries for tastings. So after about 13-15 tastings, we were ready to hit the festival. Inside we had 3 hours where we could drink as much as we liked, and serve ourselves, apart from champagne and some top top wines. Thankfully the organiser lives next to Jenice, so we had the inside scoop on the best wines. Going through the doors suddenly the excitement and pure manic of everybody hit us. It was like being at a music festival, where everyone runs around trying to see all the best acts. Our reserved approach was thrown out the window, and be decided to just dive in with everyone else, with elbows flying!

All i really remember is eating huge slabs of brie, guzzling every type of wine within the first hour, being very impresses with the grape Durif (slightly more fruity and powerful Pinot Noir, or softer Syrah).Then with only 20 mins till the end we all hit the port, and hit it hard. After being herded out, and then into the only pub in town, Jude and I thought best to call it an end as we had an earlyish start. After waiting in the freezing cold with an 18 year old girl dressed like a local in Newcastle, still no taxi appeared. Thankfully a little spotty fella comes out and says he's about to be picked up by his mum, and she'll give us all a lift home. Our neighbors would have seen a very bemused and drunk couple staggering from a strangers car, whooping that they'd found there flat. The journey home the following day was not a pleasant one!


Local flaming galahs (they have red bellies, and are worth $1k each in China)

The view from our apartment

Where do we start

Jenice and her twin Rose looking for the wine that got away!

So much wine, so little time

Helpers on hand