Day 16- The Hunter Valley

May 11, 2011- Day 16

Where: The Hunter Valley to Newcastle, NSW

Dinner: Indian food

Need a night out of the van

        This morning we decided that since we were still in the valley we should hit up a few more of the wineries before we leave. Pat did the driving today so I got the full tasting experience. I would say this is not a sustainable way to travel, starting wine tasting at 11 am and continuing until 4. Had a lot of great wine, but then I spent the evening with a headache, so that's not as cool. After stopping for a fancy pizza lunch (pork belly, shredded cabbage and pureed peach) at one of the winery restaurants we went to the next door cellar shop for our last tasting. The guy working there was 20 (but seemed much older) and we ended up talking with him for around an hour. He told us stories about some of the different wineries he had worked at and we talked about traveling and general life things, like paying bills and living with partners and such. He was really energetic and interesting and our time there was really enjoyable. He would occasionally stop to pour us some wine samples and give us the facts on it, then continue talking about whatever else we were talking about. At the end Patrick picked out a couple of bottles of reds that we had liked, because they were good but also because we felt like we really should buy something from him after hanging out there so long. He gave us the bag and then told us they were on him. I tried insisting that we pay for at least one of them, but he insisted that we just take them. It was really nice of him, especially when we obviously don't have large excess wine funds. I left there feeling really good about our time in the valley, and especially good about our hour talking to the guy. How nice of him!

        It was cold and windy all day which was a bummer and it also really turned me off to the idea of sleeping in a cold car again. Inevitably we're going to have cold nights in the van, but tonight I just wasn't really feeling it. In fact, after leaving Hunter Valley as we drove west towards Newcastle, I decided that I would rather just pay to stay in a hostel. Didn't quite do the full hotel splurge, but a hostel is a definite step up. I thought I would last longer than 2 weeks before needing to stay out of the van, but oh well. The one we're at even had a nice big bathtub, and while using a public bathtub is kindof a nasty idea, I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a hot bath. Turns out we didn't pick the warmest hostel on the planet, but I'm pretty sure the van is colder at the moment. So now I'm off to bed which will hopefully be more comfortable than the van bed.