of first trip in 2012 Sydney Day 3 ( Part 1) - Hunter Valley Scenic Wine Tasting Day with Australian Eco Adventures

well, the title says it all! we took a package with Australian Eco Adventures for a 1 day tour to Hunter Valley. We were deciding between Blue mountains and Hunter Valley, we are glad that we choose the latter cos it is really fun. We met alot of friends during the trip and Max, our tour guide, is a very fun and jovious man!

So we paid about AUD 165 per pax and it comes with a gourmet lunch + wine pairing! very good deal! recommended by the concerige staff at Westin! Thanks so much and we really enjoy ourselves that day! We even bought wines bk to Singapore lol.

Enough said. Here is the rough itinerary

Hightlights

Morning tea at a wildlife park
Touring through the scenic regions to the Hunter Valley
Wine tasting at boutique wineries
Cheese and chocolate tasting

Your informative and knowledgeable guide will collect you from your Sydney hotel as we commence our small group tour into the Hunter Valley Region. We head out of the city and reach our morning tea stop, a unique wildlife park where we’ll meet native Australian animals. We then head away from the main road and travel through the National Parks to the historic town of Wollombi. Continuing over Mount View, we head into the Hunter Valley to a boutique winery for the first wine tasting experience.

The next winery we visit is our lunch destination, where you can choose to purchase our gourmet wine and food appreciation meal or select from options at the café (all own expense). After lunch there is an informal time for wine tasting at Hermitage Cellars who stock a wide range of wines from around 12 Hunter boutique wineries. We then continue to our last winery, followed by cheese and chocolate tasting with some unique flavours of the Hunter Valley. We commence our return journey to Sydney after a full day of experiences.

Children: Infant 0-2 inclusive, Child 3-12 inclusive.

Inclusions: Hotel pickup and drop off, touring as per itinerary, morning tea & wildlife park entry, wine, cheese and chocolate tastings.

Exclusions: Lunch

Departures: Daily from Sydney City Hotels from 7:00am and returns to hotels at approximately 5:30pm. Tour runs with a minimum of 2 and maximum of 16.

~ extract from http://www.ozeco.com.au/Tours-Packages.html#ecwid:category=143239&mode=product&product=2856654

If you are interested in booking a trip before u go or plan for a day trip, do visit their website @ http://www.ozeco.com.au/ ! they are really good!

Ok. here goes our adventure! it started off at the pick up outside Westin Hotel, the tour guide actually came to pick us up at 730am in the morning ( AUSSIE time) which means we have to wake up at about 3am (SG time) lol. At 7:30am, the sun is already quite bright and we are blessed with a gd weather for the whole day too!

so we hop on to the bus to pick the rest (about 12 of us) up before heading down to the wildlife park!

this is where we come really up and close with the Koalas cos they actually carry one of the Koalas to welcome us!

baby crocodile

our breakfast for the day.

animals here are quite diff..some animals like kangaroos, ducks are able to roam freely. u are also given some food to feed the kangaroos..so cute!

wombat

nt sure if you can see, the taz devil is running in circles..so cute. din bring my zoom lens..17-50mm is the max i can go..sorry..lol

giant turtle

next we drove to Hunter Valley for some Hunter juice! it taste really fantastic! with Red wine + brandy + coke...the taste is really something very unique! i would really want to mix it in future if there is a chance!

check out the good weather!

glaring sun!

next..........we headed down to the Smelly cheese shop for some cheesified experience! i got to taste alot of cheese and bought 2 bottles back! yum. never knew there are so many types of cheese and is so yummy

inside the shop...u get to lotsa cheese

some cheese tasting session

next we proceed to the brokenwood vineyard for some wine tasting! this is what i waiting for lol...

ok..this is how grapes in vine yard looks like lor..i always thought grapes grow on trees..lol

next we went to San Martino for our gourmet lunch + wine pairing.

our lunch...is a four course meal together with a mixture of red + white for pairing. the food is fantastic! they actually tell you which type of wine goes well with with course!