48 Hours in Sydney

I'm almost caught up on my blogs!! I spent last weekend in Sydney with a few people from work...another bout of fun!! I was lucky to arrive in time for a really nice (if overrated) sushi dinner at sushi e, which was club meets lounge meets food establishment. (My flight was delayed and didn't get in until after 9pm....we were about to take off but had to go back to the gate because of an engine problem....amazing we got out at all considering the engineers were on strike....not sure who fixed the problem!)

On Saturday D&L and I drove out to Manly, which is sort of a suburb of Sydney that gave us great views of the skyline. There was a nice walking path along the coast providing many photo ops. 

We drove across the Sydney Harbour Bridge...

...And set up D's tripod and timer to get a snap of all of us

This gives you an idea of the caliber of people I get to spend time with

Here we are again...

...And again!

And here is just the view

We then met another colleague, N, who had taken the ferry over from Sydney and had drinks at the Manly Wharf. Nothing like a 1pm bottle of prosecco.

N&L at Manly Wharf

We ran to get to this fountain so we could run through it...but it was off by the time we got there. Very sad faces.

Our master plan for the day was to go the zoo for the afternoon to see kangaroos and check out a food festival. We figured since the food festival was on until 7 the zoo would be open at least that late. Right? Wrong. The zoo closed at 5. We had about 20 minutes to literally run in (at least we didn't have to pay), find a few Australian animals, snap some photos, and run back out. But I got my up-close view of kangaroos and wallabies, and some other animals I had never seen before and will have to revisit to properly observe.

L&N at the food festival 

A red kangaroo!

An unknown but very cool Australian critter

Wallabies! They are in an area where you can just walk around with them. No fence between you! 

Saturday night was dinner at The Winery which was a great scene, lovely wine, and decent food. We were joined by more friends for dinner. Then we headed out to check out the nightlife scene. Shocked when last call was 1am at the first club, we hopped in a cab and headed to Kings Cross for the real party. Mitch would be proud of my 3am night at Kit n Kaboodle (not recommended).

Sunday I took advantage of D's offer to go hiking in the Blue Mountains, about a 1.5 hour beautiful drive. He found a path for us that went down a "Giant Stairway" (which was actually pretty painful), across the valley, and then we were able to take a cable car up and walk back across the top of the mountain. It was beautiful.

"The Three Sisters" rock formation we drove to see and hiked from

Wasn't this happy by the end of the Giant Stairway 

Another view of the Three Sisters

Rather than take the cable car up we had an option to take this railway up. I got a picture in the model car before we headed to the more boring but safer looking cable car

One of several waterfalls we came across 

This one's for grandpa. A koala!! 

By the time we got back to the city we were pretty tired. The Rugby World Cup semifinals were on and Australia was playing. Too tired to head out to a bar, we just went to the airport and watched from the Quantus lounge (where the beer was free). Unfortunately by the time we got there Australia was way behind and it wasn't a very cheery scene.

And that's how I spent a relatively un-touristy 48 hours in Sydney!

One last photo - me and the Three Sisters!!

Yarra Valley, Victoria

Two weekends ago I took the train out to the southern edge of the Yarra Valley to meet KM and her partner (also KM, let's call him KM2) for Shedfest, an annual wine festival. The public transport system in Melbourne is great, especially on weekends. I can ride all day on weekends for $3.00, including the train that I took an hour out to wine country. Toronto needs to wake up!! 

Shedfest was a lot of fun. It's called Shedfest because of something to do with the sheds that all wineries have to keep their tools in (KM2 explained it twice to me, but it just doesn't seem to stick), and is a festival put on by about a dozen wineries located very close together. Each winery had a selection of food, tons of wines to taste for free or buy by the glass, and most had live entertainment or lawn games you could play. We sampled wines at Paynes Rise, Seville Hill, Seville Estate, Whispering Hills, and one other I can't remember! The day and scenery were beautiful and luckily for me we were in prime pinot noir region. 

We didn't plan the afternoon as well as we could have. We had hoped to take a hop-on-hop-off shuttle around to the various wineries...but turns out you had to pre-book that and it was full. So, we looked at the map and decided we could walk to four or five wineries. Bad idea. Up and down hills, not as close as they seemed.....we really earned our wine! One lady took pity on us and we piled into her truck with her dog and she drove us up to the top. 

On our way to winery #5 KM looked at her blackberry map and decided we could cut across the back of winery #4 and cut our distance in half. Three or four glasses of wine in, my spirit for adventure was high so I said sure! Let me tell you about this fiasco. 

First, we walked down this hill (some kind of orchard). It didn't seem so steep when we were descending, but I guess it was. 

Then we spotted the road up ahead we were supposed to connect to. I said "Oh no problem, we're almost there." KM said "Yeah we just have to cross this river that has suddenly appeared on my blackberry." Here's a picture of her crossing. 

Although KM2 tried his best to help, I don't think I would have made it through unscathed sober, let alone in that state. I definitely tested the depth of the water (just over my right ankle). No big deal, I'm a trooper, right? 

But THEN, we had to cross a bog. I don't know how KM and KM2 stayed clean, but I was sinking in and kicking up mud at every step!!  Here they are, clean and continuing to navigate. Note we were all carrying our tasting glasses around in our hands the entire time.

As if this wasn't enough, we got to the edge of the field, right by the road, and found a barbed wire fence. Was nothing going to be easy? KM suggested jumping over it....KM2 looked at me and said he didn't think that would happen. But we're problem solvers by profession.....so we found a spot where the ground was a bit sunken and slithered under. Here I am after crossing a river, a bog, and crawling under a barbed wire fence: 

We still had to hike about a kilometer uphill....a party bus of people all dressed up passed us....and proceeded to stare at me like I had just crossed a river, a bog, and crawled under a barbed wire fence when we all got to the winery together. But the wine tasted fantastic!! Luckily KM had an extra pair of dry socks to lend me so I didn't freeze on the train home, and the Hyatt was able to clean my jeans and shoes overnight. 

And that's my Yarra Valley story! A beautiful place so close to the city with fantastic wine!!!!

Geelong: My Home Away From Melbourne

I can't believe how long it's been since my last post. I'm so busy doing things that I don't have time to write about them! I have to tell you about my adventures at a wine festival in the Yarra Valley, and all about traipsing (aka partying / hiking / dining) around Sydney last weekend...but those are longer stories for another time.

Instead, let me tell you about Geelong, my home away from Melbourne for three nights / four days each week. Most people in the Melbourne office pity us for being staffed here - the nicest hotel is standard compared to the Westin or Park Hyatt, the food is nothing like Melbourne, and there isn't much to do for fun. I even started pitying myself! But how silly. Geelong is a beautiful town with a fantastic waterfront, a few good seafood restaurants, lovely running trails, and incredibly friendly hotel staff.

Today was the Geelong Cup, which is their big horse race and a public holiday for the city. We didn't get the holiday off (I'll take Melbourne Cup off instead the week after next) but I did get to work from my hotel which was a nice change. It was really fun seeing all of the ladies dressed up and wearing hats. I took a walk at lunch to get a few pictures of what is right at the doorstep of my hotel. You'll notice they feature wooden people statues. These things are all over the waterfront, as far as you can go in either direction from my hotel. They pop up when you least expect them and have given me whiplash more than once on my runs. (Okay, maybe an exaggeration...I don't run that fast!)

So, for your viewing pleasure, I present the best of Geelong, Victoria:

 And finally, this was the view from my balcony one morning when I got up early to go for a run:

Mornington Peninsula

Last week was a fantastic week at work - we spent Thursday and Friday working from the Mornington Peninsula in between bouts of fantastic food and drink. We rented a car and took the Queenscliff - Sorrento car ferry across to Mornington, which was a very cool trip in itself. My first car ferry! These pictures are of (1) the ferry (!!); (2) my team working on the ferry (somehow I didn't have to work and was nominated the photographer); (3) the view from the ferry

Our first stop was lunch at the beautiful La Pentanque on Main Ridge, located right in the middle of the vines. I had a fantastic lunch tasting menu of Hervey Bay scallops followed by Lamb sweetbreads and a snapper fillet. This is also where my obsession with local Pinot Noirs began. Oh, before I forget, beets are really, really popular here. In sandwiches, on hamburgers, in salads. Everything. And you can't call them beets or they don't know what you're talking about. It must be beetroot. I have tried to engage Aussies in a debate as to why they don’t call carrots “carrotroot” or potatoes “potatoeroot” but they don’t take the bait. Anyways, VN ordered beetroot sorbet for dessert. It tasted like....beets.


From here we made our way to the Peninsula Hot Springs, which were super relaxing. They are a series of about 15 outdoor pools, all different temperatures, and all natural springs. I wish I had brought my camera in; the highest pool had 360 views of the countryside all around. Not bad while soaking in a natural 38 degree pool!! 


At this point things just got a little silly. We went from the hot springs to Ten Minutes By Tractor, possibly the best restaurant on the Peninsula. Another beautiful location, but this time we had the six course degustation menu. Fantastic. But we were feeling a bit full! The highlight for me was the scallops, served with broth heated up in a bunson burner type implement (to properly infuse it), and also the goat cheese I had for dessert. 
 
After all of this myself and the other two ladies headed to our accommodation for the night - the old cottage of the Head Lightkeeper of the Capeschanck Lighthouse. It was so cute, quiet, and beautiful. KM and I went for a run in the morning, following a footpath along the coast. It was a bit hilly for my liking, but she was a great sport and slowed way down for me. As if the scenery wasn't enough, we were super lucky and saw three kangaroos! They were just sitting along the side of the path watching us, and then they hopped away. Very cute! Very furry! I must see more of them! Much cooler than squirrels. After a hearty breakfast in town we headed back to the office to round out our Friday.
 





Definitely can't complain about that week!
(PS Good thing I found my camera cord!)

Footy and Penguins

It's been a busy couple of weeks!! Where to start.....First of all, the bad news is I can't find my camera cable to upload pictures. Big headache. (I also can't find my ipod charger, which is very upsetting from a running perspective. Bigger headache.) So, once again I pulled a few pics from the internet to give you a flavour of what I've been up to.

Onto the good news.

Last weekend was a total blast. So much fun that I never had time to unpack or write anything here. Saturday was the Australian Football League's version of the Superbowl. I'd watched a massive parade of the players from the office window on Friday; it was clear this was a very popular pastime here. I was out shopping and exploring the city during the game but I stopped by an amazing penthouse party right after for the evening and night. It was a friend of a guy at work, and over 200 people showed up, they had a DJ, three bouncers, a BBQ, and tons of beer. A fantastic time. By 10pm I was done with the drinking and dancing and headed to Mamasita, a highly recommended Mexican restaurant. It did not disappoint, from the cerviche to the quesadellas. But I do not recommend the guac.

On Sunday I met work friends for a late brunch at Grigons & Orr in North Melbourne where I discovered I am not a big fan of coddled eggs. But they had a nice patio and it was set up like a very cute old corner store. Recommend for a lazy midday brunch. 

It was a beautiful day and D. and I had decided to drive to see the ocean after brunch...which turned into a trip to Phillip Island to go see the penguins. It was a beautiful hour and a half drive south...pretty much as far south as you can get in Australia without going to Tasmania. We didn't do our research (I assumed you could just roll up to the beach, look at the penguins and go home...) but got lucky. The penguins only come out of the water at sunset (which thanks to daylight savings time was around 7:45pm) and then they parade up the beach about 2km to their nesting spots. I had thought we were just going to drive around for a bit, and was wearing a summer dress. Not okay! I had to buy a sweatshirt and wrap myself in a fleece blanket. My fashion statement doesn't seem to have caught on.

The penguins were cute - it was a bit touristy because you had to buy tickets and sit on platforms to see them, but there were hundreds of them that waddled on by you. The species is called Little Penguins, and they are definitely quite little and funny...but it was very cold and very late by the time we got home. 

Of course I then zipped off to work for the week....and I'll tell you all about the fun I had there in my next post! (Hopefully with my own pictures!!)