Monkeying Around the World

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of the Friendly Hostel on September 1, 2009.  The friendly guy who runs the friendly hostel drove us in the van to the bus station.

We boarded the Oz Experience bus at 9:30 am.  Our bus driver was named Keno.  We were headed to the Town of 1770.

We stopped for lunch at Bundaberg.  Ivan and Jennifer wanted to try out Fruit 2 Juice for lunch.  Ivan and Jen each had a lovely chicken and avocado wrap.  My wrap was a nice banana and chicken wrap with teriyaki sauce.  Ivan ordered a shake but before he could request no sugar, the lady put a bunch of ice cream.  It didn’t taste too good.

We arrived in the town of 1770 around 1:45 pm.  We checked in to 1770 Backpackers.  There were no private rooms available.  The lady who checked us in was really nice.  She let us have a ten bed dorm to ourselves. 

Ivan had set up to do the scooteroos.  Scooteroos are miniature Harley Davidsons.  Jennifer was scared to drive it and wanted to ride behind Ivan.  I thought I could catch a ride and squeeze myself in between Ivan and Jen. 

We were picked up at 2:30 pm at the hostel.  We were driven to Scooteroos.  They told us that we should grab a helmet and pick out a leather jacket.  There were no monkey-sized helmets so I had to make do without one. 

Ivan hopped onto a scooteroo and then we got in behind him.  It was a really tight fit.  There’s a bar behind the second seat that holds the license plate number.  There would have been plenty of room if it wasn’t there. 

We drove around the town of 1770 on the Scooteroos.  Since we had a lot of weight, we were usually the last of the group.  I know Ivan wanted to go a lot faster.  He loves driving fast.  It was a scenic drive around the town.  It would have been nice to drive right near the sea.

We stopped for a break to have potato wedges.  I got banana wedges, but it was just a fancy name for banana slices.  We sat on the rocks and watched the sun set.

We rode back to the Scooteroos place.  The ride was alright. 

I guess it’s because we’ve ridden lots of motorbikes and seen lots of countryside – so the ride was nothing special for us.  A van took us back to the hostel.

We chilled and used the internet.

We walked around to find a restaurant for dinner.  We decided on Agnes Tavern.  I had a nice dish with chicken stuffed with bananas.  Ivan and Jennifer shared a smoked salmon salad and a trout with a great buttery sauce with prawns. 

We walked back to the hostel after having a drink.   We went to bed early since we had another early start.

September 9th, 2009 | Category: 1770, Australia | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of Dingo’s on August 31, 2009. 

Ivan and Jennifer each had a cajun chicken wrap.  It was way too spicy so you couldn’t really taste the other ingredients.  I had an okay banana wrap.

We got the Greyhound bus at 12:30 pm headed towards Hervey Bay.  We arrived there at 2:20 pm. 

Ivan called the hostel so we could get picked up.  We got picked up by a van.

We checked in to Friendly Hostel.  We had a private double room.  The room was nice.  The bed was comfortable and a had a nice duvet.

We each took a shower.  We walked around town.  The town is pretty quiet.

We wanted to try out a French restaurant.  We kept walking trying to find it.  But, it was farther than Google Maps said it was.  Ivan and Jen started checked out the restaurants.

Ivan and Jen each had a glass of red wine at a pub.  I had a banana juice. 

We walked next door to the Black Dog Cafe.  Ivan and Jen started off with a tasty bruschetta.  I got a banana and chicken noodle dish. 

Ivan got the spicy chicken with noodles.  Jennifer ordered the chicken teriyaki with noodles.  Ivan and Jennifer had some wine with their dinner.  The meal was really good.

We walked back to the hostel.  We were all so tired that we fell asleep without brushing our teeth (Ivan and Jennifer) or our fur (me).

September 9th, 2009 | Category: Australia, Hervey Bay | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I woke up really early on August 28, 2009. We stored our backpackers in the luggage storage at the hostel, and then met in the car park for our briefing. Our alcohol that we had ordered was nicely stacked for us behind our van, and we noticed that we had the least alcohol out of all the groups – one group was just stupid though, with a ridiculous amount of alcohol that was just way too much.

Although our group had the least alcohol, I would say that it definitely had the most bananas. Probably too many to be honest – but better safe than sorry that’s what I always say!

Everyone helped out with loading the van up, then I volunteered to take a group picture of everyone.

The people who were going to be doing some driving (Ivan but not Jennifer) also got a briefing. Then, we all jumped into the van, with Tony, this French guy driving, and we drove off.

It was a short drive down to the beach where we had to wait for a little while for the ferry to arrive, to take us to Fraser Island. Once we were on the ferry, we were lucky to see dolphins swimming in the water.

The journey was about 20 minutes, and once we arrived the adventure started, with us getting stuck in the sand almost immediately! Still, one of the other teams were also stuck and so we didn’t feel too embarrassed. I offered to get out and push, but that comment was just met with laughs, so instead we waited until Tony the driver skillfully got us out of the sand and on the way.

Due to the high tide we had to drive along an inland road for a while, but then after a while we hit the beach, and the road was just the beach itself.

The weather was perfect and the views were beautiful – we were driving right next to the waters edge! After a while we turned off and started driving through the jungle towards a place called Lake McKenzie. When we arrived we were going to have lunch, but nobody could be bothered to carry all the food down to the lake – so  they said they would skip lunch. However myself, Jennifer and Ivan were hungry so we grabbed some bread, bananas, and a tin of tuna and took it down to the lake with us.

The lake was a fresh water lake right in the middle of the Island and the views were stunning. After eating our lunch we all got in the water, which was freezing cold so we didn’t get too much of our bodies wet – just enough to get a nice photo!

We all sat around for a while and admired the view, and then it was back in the van, with Ivan driving this time.

The driving was quite tough as it was really sandy, and Ivan got stuck a few times, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. We got a lost a couple of times, and lost track of where the other trucks got too – but luckily once we arrived at the central station to buy some ice, the other trucks also turned up.

After some more driving, we all decided to set up camp, so we found a suitable spot, and started unloading all the stuff from the van. Jennifer and I helped Ivan build the tent.

Jennifer’s tent building experience was not too much, so she wasn’t sure what exactly went where – but everyone helped everyone else and so eventually the tents were up.

We then started to cook the dinner for the evening. Jennifer and Ivan helped chop the potatoes up for the potato salad. We only had one small table to cook on – and most of that was taken up by the cooking stove, so it wasn’t long before everything was full of sand, and we were having to improvise quite a bit with the cooking.

Still, the potato salad was a success – and some steak was cooked for the meat eaters, some veggie burgers were done nicely for Ivan and Jen, and some bananas were sautéed in some banana sauce for me.

After dinner the drinking started. Some people were drinking beer, some were drinking this stuff called Goon (really cheap Australian strong wine) and some were drinking banana juice (me).

We were playing drinking games, and everyone was getting very very drunk. It was all a lot of fun, until some people got a bit too drunk……still at least the night was really fun. The less said about what Jennifer does when she is drunk, the better.

The next day on August 29th,2009 Ivan woke up early and made everyone some scrambled eggs. It wasn’t too much of a success though..he thinks he used too much pepper. Still nobody was really complaining as everyone was so hung over.

We all helped clear up the mess, and then pack the van back up again so we could continue our journey along the beach.

After a while driving we stopped at the Maheno wreck. It was an old boat that was washed ashore years and years ago.

We had a look around it and took some pics, then continued our driving.

After a while we came to a point called India Head. The rest of the group went for a walk to the look-out point, but Ivan and Jennifer were too tired to do that, so just sat on the rocks admiring the great view. It was really relaxing. After a while the group came back and we grabbed some lunch in the van – then Jen stayed in the van to get some sleep, while Ivan and I ran after the rest of the group who were heading to a place called the Champagne pools.

It was a long walk to get there. The walk was nice, but once we were there the actual champagne pools weren’t that impressive…just a couple of natural lagoons in the water.

After we walked back to the van, we then drove back down the beach to get a camp site for that night.

Ivan and a French girl helped cooked the chicken stir fry…and this Idiot French dude decided that it would be a smart idea to cook the rice using ocean water..as we need to add salt to the water anywhere, so he figured to just use salty ocean water. Naturally, the rice was totally ruined…and there wasn’t much stir fry, so after eating it, Ivan cooked some more veggie burgers for everyone to eat.

That night Jennifer didn’t really drink much as she drank so much the night before. She went to bed early, but Ivan got really drunk and stayed up quite late chatting with some people on the beach.

The next day 30th August,2009, we all woke up to a bit of a mess. You see, there are lots of Dingo’s on Fraser Island which are wild dogs – and so we were told not to leave any food out overnight….Well we got up and there was food EVERYWHERE…a lot of it due to the rice fight we had had the previous night. All of our food had sand in it – loads of plates and cutlery was missing…and by the time we had all got up, most of the other groups were already on their way.

Ivan made an omelets for us and we also had some cereal to eat.

Once we had packed up, we drove down the beach, and somehow missed our turn off for the road we had driven down at the start of our trip. We were convinced we were going to miss the ferry back, but luckily we arrived in time and so did all the other teams.

Once back at the hostel we had to wash all our dishes- we were apparently the only group to lose any plates and cutlery. We then had to clean the van and throw all the rubbish away.

Back at the hostel it was nice to have a powerful hot shower waiting for us, as nobody had had a shower for days..I was finding sand in the fur on my body in places that I didn’t know sand could go!

That evening we went to a nice restaurant called Hotel Rainbow Beach. We started off with some really tasty bruschette with fresh garlic, herbs, and oil. It was really really delicious as the garlic was fresh and easily spreadable on the bread.

For main course we ordered a chicken dish and a salmon dish.

A really really tasty meal.

It was early to bed for everyone that night as we were all so tired.

September 7th, 2009 | Category: Australia, Fraser Island | Comments (1)

Ivan, Jennifer and I got up early on August 27, 2009.  We checked out of X Base Central.

We got on the bus at 6:30 am headed to Rainbow Beach.  Ivan and Jen had cereal on the bus for breakfast.  I had bananas and yoghurt.

We stopped at Noosa.  It was a long stop for an hour and a half.  We walked around the town.  There’s lots of posh restaurants and retail shops. 

Ivan and Jennifer each had a breakfast smoothie.  I had a banana.

We checked out the shops more.  Ivan sent out a postcard.  We grabbed lunch.  Ivan and Jen each had a chicken and avocado wrap on the bus.  I had a banana and honey wrap.

We drove for a couple more hours.   We finally reached Rainbow Beach at 2 pm.

We checked in to Dingo’s Backpackers.  Ivan and Jennifer were in the mixed dorm.  I was going to sleep on Jennifer’s bed. 

We met up in the dining area for our Fraser Island briefing.  Tomorrow, we’d be doing a self-guided tour of Fraser Island.  We were told about the island.  We had to watch a video that warned us about dingoes and told us other rules.  There are waste stations where we have to place our garbage. 

We met our group.  It consisted of 11 people and 1 monkey.  Everybody seemed to be kind of quiet in our group.  We thought we might have a boring group.  The group consisted of French, German, Irish, England and American. 

People signed up to drive.  Ivan wanted to drive.  Jennifer has never driven 4WD so she decided not to drive. 

Ivan and Jen each packed a backpack for the upcoming trip.  We bought some cup of noodles and snacks in case.  We would be getting food to cook – but we weren’t sure if it would be any good.

We walked around Rainbow Beach for dinner.  The town is really small with only a few shops and restaurants.  We couldn’t find a good restaurant.  It was either bad food or closed.  Ivan and Jennifer decided to have the vegetable lasagna at the hostel.  They thought it was really good.  I had a banana sandwich. 

We went to bed since we had an early start again in the morning.

September 4th, 2009 | Category: Australia, Food, Rainbow Beach | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I got a bus to Warner Brothers Movie World on the morning of August 25, 2009. 

We saw the Stunt Show.  It was really good.  There were cars going very fast and doing cool stunts. 

It was time for lunch.  Ivan had an egg sandwich with lettuce.  I had a banana and chicken sandwich.  Jennifer had a tasty chicken and avocado sandwich.

We rode a few rides.  It was cool.  The park isn’t that big so Ivan and Jennifer didn’t have to walk around much. 

There’s a Harry Potter store.  There was figures, broomsticks and stuffed animals available for sale.

We went on a wet ride.  Unfortunately, it stopped working right before the end of the ride (where the big drop happens and you get wet).  We were stuck in the dark for a few minutes.  We had to exit our cars and out of the ride.

We really wanted to ride the Scooby Doo ride but it got shut down a few times during the day.

Ivan rode the Superman ride.  He though it was super fast.  He loves riding roller coasters.

We got to meet Shrek!

There was a parade going on.  It had different characters like Scooby Doo and the gang, Bugs Bunny, Austin Powers, Shrek and Batman.  We had a good time at the theme park.

We took a bus back to the hostel.

We walked around to find a nice restaurant for dinner.  Ivan remembered a place he read about on the internet.  We went to Chiang Mai Thai for dinner.  The menu actually has a section called Bugs where you can Ginger Bugs or Sweet and Sour Bugs.  Ivan and Jennifer shared the really tasty Tom Yum chicken soup.  Ivan got the pad thai.  I got a noodle dish with bananas. 

Jennifer got bbq chicken which came with a nice chili sauce. 

We walked back to the hostel to get some rest.

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of Surf n’ Sun on August 26, 2009.  We stored our backpacks at the hostel.

We got a bus to the water park Wet n’ Wild.  I went to chill near the wave pool.  The waves actually get really big. 

Ivan and Jen rode a lot of rides.  It was a hot day out.  The park was pretty empty.  It only took a maximum of 2 minutes wait for all the rides. 

We got the bus back to the hostel.  We grabbed our luggage. 

The hostel drove us to the bus station.  We left on the Oz Experience bus at 5 pm headed to Brisbane.  We got there a few minutes after 6 pm. 

We checked in to X Base Central.  Ivan went for a walk to get some exercise.  I worked on the blog with Jennifer.

We tried to have dinner at Wagamama.  But, it seems restaurants close really early in Brisbane.  A lot of the restaurants were too expensive.  So, we went to the convenience store to buy dinner. 

We ate dinner at the hostel.  Ivan and Jen had cup of noodles.  I had banana and crackers. 

Our room was really hot.  Ivan complained about it and the staff was rude about it.  The room is very brown and boring. 

We went to sleep early since we had a very early start in the morning.

September 4th, 2009 | Category: Australia, Brisbane, Surfers Paradise | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of Nomads Odyssey on August 23, 2009.  We placed our backpacks into luggage storage at the hostel.

We walked around Byron Bay.  Ivan and Jennifer had muesli and yoghurt.  I had bananas with milk and honey.

We stopped by the beach for a few minutes.

We got chicken wraps for lunch.  I added bananas to mine.

Ivan and Jennifer went to watch Inglorious Basterds.  I watched episodes of My Gym Partner is a Monkey on Jen’s iPod.  They enjoyed the movie.

We grabbed our backpacks.  We got on the Oz Experience bus at 3:30 pm headed towards Surfers Paradise.  We arrived at 5 pm.

We checked in to Surf n’ Sun.  Ivan got a private room.  It was nice because it was an apartment.  So, there are two bedrooms and a kitchen.  We settled into our room.

We walked to the store to get some food.  Jen had a chicken linguine Lean Cuisine meal.  Ivan had baked beans.  They both shared crackers and hummus as well.  I had two bananas on bread. 

The hostel provides a dvd in the room and dvds with movies or tv shows.  We watched a few episodes of Little Britain. 

Ivan, Jennifer and I had lunch at Subway on August 24, 2009. 

We walked around Surfers Paradise.  Ivan got a haircut.  We stopped by Condom Kingdom. 

Jen had a go on a didgeridoo.

We went to Dracula’s Haunted House.  It’s the same company who runs Dracula’s Cabaret.  We all walked through.  All the props were very well made. 

There are certain things to make you scream like the ground shaking or a skeleton flying at you. 

It took us 45 minutes to go through the entire haunted house.  We all enjoyed it.  It was really scary for me.

We walked around some more.  We stopped by Pancakes on Paradise.  I had two banana pancakes.  Ivan and Jen shared a tasty marinated chicken crepe. 

We went to Infinity next.  We had to wear gloves and shoe covers to enter.  They didn’t have monkey-sized gloves or shoe covers so I just hung on to Jennifer.  Infinity is a series of rooms.  Each one is different with mirrors, special effects and lights.  It was interesting and trippy. 

We had the same thing for dinner as the previous night.  We watched more episodes of Little Britain before heading off to bed. 

September 4th, 2009 | Category: Australia, Food, Surfers Paradise | Leave a comment

Ivan, Jennifer and I woke up around 6 am on August 21, 2009.  We had a nice breakfast. 

It was time for surfing lessons.  Ivan decided to go.  Jennifer was so tired since she was up late last night reading her book. 

Jennifer and I slept on a couch while Ivan went surfing.  He couldn’t stand up on the board.  He didn’t like surfing at all.  He sat down and watched the rest of the group try to surf.

We left on the Oz Experience bus at 10:30 am headed to Byron Bay.  We arrived at 2 pm.

Ivan and Jen checked in to Nomads Odyssey.  It’s a new hostel that opened up in March 2009.  It was very clean inside and quite trendy compared to most hostels we have been

We were in a 6 bed dorm.  It turned out we had it all to ourselves.  It had a really great bathroom that was more like the kind you would find in a hotel rather than a hostel.

We had dinner at a restaurant called Chameleon.  Ivan and Jennifer got the $30 deal that included a three course meal with a glass of wine. 

Ivan got the trout sashimi with salad and soba noodles for a starter.  Jen had lentil and curry soup.  Ivan got the chicken breast for the main course.  Jennifer had the linguine with smoked chicken.  I ordered spaghetti with bananas.  Ivan and Jennifer got the waffles with ice cream. 

Ivan got chocolate ice-cream while Jennifer had mango.  The meal was real tasty.

We walked back to the hostel.  I watched Ivan and Jennifer play ping pong in the hostel lounge.  They’re both very competitive.  Ivan won.

Ivan, Jennifer and I had to switch to a different 6 bed dorm on August 22, 2009, as the room we were allready in was full up.

Ivan got wraps for us to eat.  Ivan and Jen had their chicken and avocado wrap.  I had a nice banana salad wrap.

We got picked up at 10:05 am for our trip to Nimbin.  Nimbin is a town where most of the people are in favor of legalizing marijuana.  Ivan read on the internet that Nimbin is filled with hippies doing it and trying to sell it on the streets.

We got to Nimbin.  It wasn’t exactly as we thought it would be.  The hippies weren’t really there anymore.  It seemed that Nimbin got cleaned up by the police.  We did see the Nimbin museum which was filled with quotes about marijuana. 

It was quite a colorful museum.  It was free admission, but you could make a donation. 

There were ladies on the street asking if we wanted pot cookies. 

We went back on the bus.  Some people had bought the pot cookies. 
We drove to a pub for lunch.  Our driver got busy right away on the bbq lunch. 

Nobody seemed to be stoned.  Everybody just chatted in their groups on the grass.  Ivan and Jennifer had veggie burgers for lunch.  Jen didn’t think they tasted so good.  I had a banana sandwich.  The pub was ordinary.  Our group wasn’t very lively.  The guide didn’t really talk much. 

We drove to a waterfall after lunch.  The guide was trying to get people to jump into the water.  Only about 10 people actually did. 

The people who jumped said the water was freezing cold.  We just watched.  Ivan and Jennifer drank some cider while they watched the jumpers.

The bus drove the group back into Byron Bay.  We arrived at the hostel at 5:30 pm.

We chilled for awhile.

We walked around to find a place for dinner.  Ivan thought Asia Joe’s looked good.  It was BYO (bring your own alcohol).  Ivan ordered pad thai.  Jennifer got the salt and pepper shrimp with two kinds of noodles.  I got Singapore noodles with chicken and bananas.  Ivan ran back to the hostel to get a bottle of wine.  It was the wine they bought on the Hunter Valley wine tour.  The food turned out really great.

We walked around to get some exercise.  We used the internet at the hostel.  Then it was time for bed.

September 3rd, 2009 | Category: Australia, Byron Bay, Food | Comments (1)

Ivan, Jennifer and I woke up really early on August 20, 2009.  We checked out of the Mount Batten Hotel.

We walked to the Oz Experience office.  We boarded the bus and left at 6:30 am.  Our destination for today would be the Surf Camp.  Our guide’s name was Squatter.  All the Oz Experience drivers have nicknames, but they are not allowed to tell us how they got them.  There was only 8 people and 1 monkey on the bus.

Squatter drove the bus for awhile.  Our first stop was at the Koala Hospital and Study Centre.  There were only two koalas on site. 

We took some pictures and went back on the bus.

Squatter thought we’d do something different since we were ahead of schedule.  We stopped at Port Macquarie for lunch.  This was a really nice village with beautifull views over the ocean.  It was Subway for lunch.  Ivan got a veggie patty while Jennifer got a roasted chicken sandwich.  I got a banana and chicken sandwich.  We had a nice view while we ate our lunch.

We got back on the bus.  We drove for a long time.  Squatter talked a lot about the areas we were passing.  It was quite interesting. 

Squatter stopped the bus by a field filled with kangaroos.  There was about 10 of them eating a snack.  We had to walk very slowly for about 10 steps and then stop.  If they looked at us, we had to look down at the ground.  We got really close to them about 30 meters.  It was cool to see a mama with a baby in her pouch. 

We arrived at the Surf Camp at 5:10 pm.  Ivan and Jen put their backpacks in their room. 

There were 3 bunk beds in the room.  There was another couple in the room as well.

Dinner was served at 6 pm.  It was buffet style.  There was veggie pasta, salad, bean and corn salad, pumpkin soup, potato wedges and nachos.  I added some bananas to the pasta.  The pasta wasn’t too good though.  I did have plenty of salad though. 

Ivan and Jennifer really enjoyed the pumpkin soup.

We chilled for awhile.  It was really cold outside tonight.  Ivan and Jen took a walk.  We all used the internet. We were going to watch a movie in the movie room, but the sound was so so so low that you could barely hear what was being said. We left a couple of minute in, wondering why on earth other people were bothering to stay when the only lines you could hear was when the actors were shouting!

It was time for bed.  It was so very cold in our room.  There was no heater available.  Thank goodness for the blankets that weren’t in use on the other bed.  Jennifer used two blankets to keep warm.  I went under one blanket and slept like a monkey baby.

September 3rd, 2009 | Category: Australia, Food | Comments (2)

Ivan, Jennifer and I checked out of the Funk House on August 18, 2009.  The hostel was nice and the staff was friendly.

We got a bus to Central.  We checked in to the Mount Batten Hotel.  We wanted to be near the Oz Experience office since we were doing the wine tour with them on Wednesday and leaving for the Surf Camp on the bus on Thursday.  So, it was better being close since we had  two early mornings.

We bought cereal for breakfast and ate it at the hostel. 

We got a bus to Circular Quay.  We had lunch at Starbucks.  Ivan and Jennifer each had a roasted vegetable wrap.  I had a nice banana and chicken wrap. 

Ivan picked up tickets for the Umbilical Brothers from the Sydney Opera House. It was a show we were going to see that evening. We walked around The Rocks area for the day.  It’s such a great place, with lots of old buildings 

At 5 pm, we made our way to meetup point for The Rocks Pub Tour.  We met the group and the guide.  The guide was an Australian guy.  He told us all about the history of Sydney.  I cant remember too much of what he said – but it was something about a guy named Captain Cook (wasn’t he in Peter Pan), some convicts, and a big muddy party in the harbor.

The guide led us around the Rocks. As were we walking he spoke to us about the things we were passing – he was actually really interesting and was fun to listen to.

The first pub we stopped at was the Harbor view hotel. Everyone else on the tour got beers in, but Ivan and Jennifer got some Red wine, (they are on a diet) and I got some diet banana juice (I’m on a diet too!).

We then continued walking around the Rocks, learning lots about its history. The second pub was called the Lord Nelson, where some more wine was given to Ivan and Jennifer.

By now they were starting to feel the wine a bit…

Then some more walking took us to a place called the Australian Hotel, which had a really cool menu featuring pizzas that had things like crocodiles, emus, and kangaroo meat on them.

Yet more wine was given to Ivan and Jennifer. I declined the offer of some more banana juice, because unlike those two, I know when I’ve had enough!

By now they were really starting to feel the wine!…but we couldn’t stay and chat with the rest of the group as we had to leave to get to the Sydney Opera House for our show we had tickets for.

We walked quickly down to the Opera House and took our seats just as the show was starting.

I sat on Jennifer’s lap for the show – while Ivan and Jennifer got student discounts for their tickets, there was no monkey discount unfortunately.

The show was kinda strange..it was basically two guys doing a mime act – and while one would be doing the miming, the other would be doing sound effects from off the stage.

Ivan and Jennifer DID enjoy it….it just wasn’t that great really….like the sort of thing you would see maybe as a street show or an amateur night. But, at least we can all say that we have seen a show at the Sydney Opera House!

The next day, the 19th of August, we got up nice and early and made our way to the Oz Experience bus for the start of our wine tour. There was meant to be a group of 13 of us on the tour, but only 4 of us turned up.

The bus drove out of Sydney and into the countryside. We first stopped at a national park where we got out and had a walk. The views around us were amazing.

We walked around while the guide told us about the history of the area. There were a few aboriginal drawings that he showed us on the rocks.

Then we were back on the bus and started to enter the Hunter Valley. We drove to our first winery. It was a small boutique place set in the middle of some fields with incredible views over the vines.

It was owned by a husband and wife team from New Zealand, and the wife invited us into the cellar door (wine shop) to sample the wines they had.

We tried many wines – both red and white and different types of each one. There was also some really tasty cheese and crackers to eat.

We got to sample quite a lot of wine..and understood now why our guide had told us that some people get really drunk on the tour. He said that once some people were so drunk they were naked running around a field chasing a cow!

After the tastings we went outside to the garden where some lunch had been prepared for us. Apparently nobody had told them that a monkey would be present so there was none of me, but that’s no problem as I don’t go anywhere with a couple of bananas in me bag anyway. The views we had while eating our lunch were incredible.

After our lunch, we jumped back in the van and drove to the second vinery.

We were met by this friendly chap, who sounded Australia but was actaully French.

Again we sampled lots of different wines from different years while the chap above told us all about them.

Heres a pic of everyone in the group. I’m not in the picture as I was the one who was taking the picture.

After sampling all the wines, it was back in the van to drive to the third place.

This one was much larger than the other two – they even exported some of their wines to Asia which the other two didn’t.

We sampled many more wines and we even brought one bottle as it was very tasty and only cost 10 dollars.

All of us were slightly drunk as we got into the van for the drive back to Sydney.

August 27th, 2009 | Tags: comedy, pub tour, wine, wine tour | Category: Australia, Food, Sydney | Leave a comment