Wine Tasting then Home

 Wednesday 21st February

After vacating our bnb by 9, we stored our bags and went walking.  Rick in the township and Wendy along the coast to a headland and back.  What a magical healer the human body is.  Almost no pain in the ankle.

No, I didn't have an epiphany!





Oneroa bay

Headland view

Ruthy picked us up and gave us a tour of more parts of the inland and we finished up at Casita Miro, one of the many wineries for a guided tasting of 4 wines with tiny matching food to nibble.  A wonderful way to end our stay on the island.   While the wines were all interesting and great quality it was a few of the nibbles that were particularly special, not only because they were almost all sourced on the property.  A smoked paprika and chilli infused olive oil, fabulous focaccia bread, wine marinated olives, manchego cheese and walnuts soaked in port and roasted with butter and sugar.

Impressive Malbec


Mosaic bar

Illustrated poem


 We left Waiheke on the 1pm ferry and found the local bus that took us to Vanessa and Andries'.  Thanks to Vanessa’s instructions we managed to find the bus stop that would take us quite close to their house.  Extracting the spare key from its hiding place we were most surprised to find Andreis at home.  He’d developed a nasty cold and had taken the day off. 

We did some washing, repacked ready for an early getaway in the morning and helped prepare dinner.  Vanessa brought out a couple of unfinished projects - knitting and sewing. We hope Wendy’s advice will help her finish them!  This hasn’t previously been mentioned, but Wendy and Vanessa have been comparing hand therapist exercises, advice and splints!  Vanessa, a very accomplished violinist broke a finger about 6 weeks ago when playing netball.  She, like Wendy is very frustrated by the slowness of healing and movement returning to normal.

Thursday 22nd February

After a quick farewell we were out on the footpath and piling into an Uber before 6.30am.   Our exit from Auckland was perfectly smooth with time for a coffee and snack at the airport before departure. 

The only complaint we have with Air NZ is that their earbuds are dreadful quality and it was impossible to hear the dialog of Oppenheimer!  We found a TV series hosted by a top chef who travelled around the country visiting suppliers and learning all about growing / catching the produce for his restaurant.  It was 09incredibly interesting learning about vanilla production, truffles, wallaby shooting, salami making…

Arrival in Melbourne was another story.   We stood staring hopefully at a stationery conveyer belt for about 15 minutes, then at a moving, empty one for another 10.  Finally bags came out at a pace that suggested only one person was working at the other end!! 

Now for the Skybus.   Tickets bought, we lined up, only to miss a bus as it filled up, leaving us behind.  Bus after bus passed us as the line got longer and longer.  The time was speeding by as our hopes of getting to the 1.20pm train began to fade.  The official had already taken our tickets, so getting a refund and moving to an Uber wasn’t going to be easy.  Finally a bus stopped and the last person to officially get on was Rick…not Wendy.  They tried to make us both stay behind.  That was NOT going to happen.  Wendy insisted she had a train to catch.  The frustrated official snapped “You’ll have to stand up!”.  No problem there!  Another woman also insisted in getting on.  She and Wendy both set on the steps to upstairs and had a great chat!

A quick dash through Southern Cross station gathering some lunch on the way saw us make it to the train.  Phew!!  We are now approaching Traralgon, so all is looking good for arrival in Bairnsdale at a reasonable hour!!


An excellent finale!

So it's goodbye till next time.   We're looking forward to catching up with all the NE Vic friends next month.

Comments

  1. Hakuna Matata22 February 2024 at 02:52

    Oh welcome home! Hope there isn't too much post storm damage!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Auckland base

Image
 Wednesday 16 th February Heading south back to Auckland we had a few stops along the way. The first was the “World Famous Public Toilets” at Kawakawa.     Why so famous?   Judge for yourselves: Next stop was Whangarei Falls.   Very beautiful and offered a great short walk down to the bottom and back.   Escaping the main highway we headed off on another Tourist route which was delightful.   A few fabulous beaches and great views of off shore islands.   We found a wonderful café with a beach view.   Rick had brunch, Wendy ordered a coffee and cake.   Breakfast at the bar  While enjoying the coffee she chatted to a cyclist who rolled in.  He was from Newfoundland and surprised to meet people who’d been there!  Wendy’s cake never arrived, so when paying she said “Don’t worry, just take it off the bill”.  The response – they gave her the same cake in a takeaway box…on the house.  Impressive service. Waipu...
Read more

Getting to Twizel and the Start of the Ride

Image
Thursday 1st February Bairnsdale to Melbourne Chris Egan, Sandie Evans, Kerry Knights, Rick Sinclair and Wendy Batey took the lunchtime train to Melbourne where they met up with Denise Lamble. A drink in a pub followed by a delicious Vietnamese meal got us in the spirit of the upcoming adventure Friday 2nd February Melbourne to Southbridge Our overnight stay at the Atlantis Hotel was great, our Maxi-Uber arrived early, there were no dramas on check-in and we met Sue Peirce at the gate. Even the half hour delay didn't dampen the spirits. The flight was incredibly smooth. We're just waiting for a drama...but none emerged! We picked up our hire van..trusty rather battered Toyota. Is this it? Thankfully no!! Here we are In the CBD we picked up Catherine and Tim Shepperd who'd arrived a couple of days earlier. We headed south for 50km to a tiny village, Southbridge. We'd booked out the local hotel - "school camp" type accommodation! The best b...
Read more

Drama in Duntroon.

Image
Saturday 10th February With only 27km to go, we had a more relaxed departure this morning. What a delightfully cruisy ride we had. Mostly flat and with only the occasional brief sections of very loose gravel and rocky dry creek crossings. The trail actually took us right through a vineyard/winery. Pity it was only 9am! We meandered through a “forested” area along a river. Shame that it was all introduced weed trees and shrubs. Willows, pines, gorse, broom… At the 23km mark we checked out a Maori rock art site. Random “Speeding cyclist” rock The final few hundred metres was through a revegetated wetlands. There was lots of signage, so we made a promise to return in the afternoon. Arriving in Duntroon we found Rick at a picnic table which he thought we’d use for lunch. A couple of reasons why that didn’t happen. Firstly, the riders were all attracted to a café with great date scones, carrot cake and coffee. We then made a plan to visit “Elephant Rocks” by car bef...
Read more