Hunter Valley

It's well and truly winter here so it's not the weather for sitting on the beach and as we've pretty much seen the sites of Sydney we're finding ourselves seeking places further afield on the weekends. A case in point - we did a short impromptu trip to Hunter Valley this last week. The Hunter, as it's referred to, is a celebrated wine growing region two hours north of Sydney. We threw the bikes in the back of the car and having booked a room for the night set off. After a wet start to the day the sun came through just as we got there - as if on cue. We spent the rest of the day cycling from the cellar door of one vineyard to the next. Each had several wines on offer so it would only have been rude not to partake of each. A glance at our bank account reveals that as the afternoon went on we bought an increasing number of bottles at each vineyard. I suspect this is how the economy of the region works! The wineries and the abundant number of restaurants makes it all very pleasant and civilised.

Niall is now in Tasmania doing a couple of months unpaid work at a Hotel/ Eco Village. He's been working reception so I guess it's a pleasant contrast to spending his days in fields picking one fruit or another. This is in aid of getting his second year working visa, a government scheme to encourage backpackers to work in the more rural areas of Australia. And rural it is, he's an hour from the nearest town and is out of mobile phone coverage. So we've only had the one update from him so far - no doubt we'll get more details on his experiences as time goes on.

Canberra

We were away for a long weekend in Canberra last week. It's a three hour + drive from Sydney so a relatively easy trip to make. We had mixed feelings about the place even before we got there - you tend to get a tepid response from Aussies when you mention the city. One colleague in particular advised us to see everything we could on our first visit as he predicted it would be our only visit! We'd also been advised to take our bikes with us as that's the best way to get around the city. And they were right, it's a place blessed with wide open boulevards, a large sculpted lake, lots of green, and lots of bike tracks. And all of this devoid of people! It was eerily empty for a capital city. Our first visit of the weekend was to the National Gallery - we arrived on bikes and so went in via a side entrance. We didn't see another punter until we'd been through at least five large galleries, it was just us and the omnipresent security staff. This is a gallery with a massive budget and priceless art on display. It just goes to show that 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink' - or whatever the saying is. Canberra, as you may know, was only conceived a century ago and despite all the money, excellent town planners and the best architects money can buy can't guarantee a buzzing capital city. It's people that do that (and perhaps the gravity of history). That said, we had a very pleasant break drinking in culture between leisurely bike rides and learning a little Australian history along the way. An interesting place, but no, we won't be rushing back.

It was a good five degrees cooler than Sydney so the drop in temperature and a good number of deciduous trees dropping their leaves gave us a real autumnal feel - just in the nick of time as winter officially starts this week. The nights are drawing in so the working weeks are rather routine at the moment. We're already debating about where our next trip should be. Watch this space.