The Blue Mountains Part II

Emperess Falls, 15 minuet hike down 45 minuet hike out. Worth every minuet and every stair.

Simon getting ready to jump into the pool at the base of the water fall.

Simon and Hookie haveing a grand old time .

We loved the scenery and the company!

Blue Mountains Part I

After Simon and I hung around the hunter valley for a few days we drove down to the Blue Mountains for a weekend with Simon's best mate from school and his family. He took us to some of the best places and made sure that we saw some great views and had a wonderful time. The above pic is of some Aboriginal carvings.

I took this shot just below a look out called The Rock.

This one was taken from the verry top of The Rock.

Wine Tasting in the Hunter Valley Part II

The next day Simon joined me out in the country side to take in the views, watch me taste wine, and have a winery tour at Tyrrell's.

Here is a shot of the front of the winery, they had a lovely Semillion, the first of the trip that I enjoyed and they also had a nice shiraz. One thing I did try and we brought back for Simon's dad was the 25 year old Tawny Port. Very yummy. We spent most of the afternoon at this winery tasting and taking the tour. The tour started out in the Vineyard talking about viticulture and moved into the cellars where we got to see all the barrels. My favorite part of the winery tour was the bit out in the vineyard.

I love this shot and learned later that this was the original shack built and lived in for two years by the founder till the homestead was ready to live in.

Because Simon was such a good sport we then went to two brewerys for tastings. This one was the Potters Brewery. This one is built on the land where the pottery factory once stood and these are the giant kilns that still stand today. We also went to the Blue Tounge Brewery Cafe and tasted their beers as well. All in all a great day and a great couple of days in Cessnock.

Wine Tasting in the Hunter Valley

About two weeks ago Simon and I went to the Hunter Valley. Mostly because I wanted to go wine tasting. We had two days in and around Cessnock and I went on a wine tour the first day around the county side. Here are a few photos of the first day out in NSW's wine county. The above photo was taken on the balcony of Ivanhoe Winery.

We visited about four winerys that day, along with another place that had liqours for tasting. I don't think I've ever tasted that much wine in one day. We started at 10am with our first winery. I learned too that there are over 100 wineries in the Hunter Valley and they make up for 1% of Australia's wine production. They are best know for there Semillions which is a crisp white wine that becomes golden in color as it ages.

This is my favorite winery that we visited, Audrey Wilkinson. It had amazing wine and amazing views. I loved their Chardony, their traminer, and they had a wonderful cab sav that came home with me and might even make it's way back to the states.

This is just one of the views from the hill top that Audrey Wilinson sits atops. The small house on the hill is the original homestead.

Flying Foxes

Simon's mom took me to the nature reserve in Wingham and we walked through the bush to see the flying foxes. They are the biggest bats I have ever seen. The above picture is of the massive fig tree that greets you as you walk into the reserve.

Here are three full grown bats sleeping in the fig trees. The older ones perch higher up and are much less noisy than the young bats.

Tons of juvinile bats perched in the trees. These guys were so close to us you can hear their wings flap and they nock down leaves they are moving so much. There were hundreds in the trees around us. A bit creepy as you walk through the bush and relize that you are surrounded by bats. They're above you, next to you and some are even flying infront of you.

The Tide Pool

Simon took me to the beach a few weeks aga, Balck Head Beach to be exact, and we went exploring on the rocks just around the head land. There were tons for tidal pools made in the rocks with lost of life teaming in these and I saw live starfish, giant sea snail as big as my fist and sea urchins.

I even got a little too close to the sea life when I fell into the tide pool while trying to get a picture of two live starfish under a rock ledge. I got soaked, but I saved my camera and got a pretty good shot of said starfish.

Said starfish in one of the many tide pools on Blackhead Beach. This is the shot I got right before I fell into the tide pool and had to walk around for the next hour with a wet bum.

First Post from Down Under

I made it and have been having a blast here in Oz for the last month. I was trying to think of the best way of sharing my trip and thought that everyday I would post a new pic or two as weel as a blurb, and any exiting info that I may have to share.

So far, Simon and I have spent time in Sydney, the Hunter Valley and Cessnock, and the Blue Mountains (which other than the beach might be my favorite so farm. So here begins the beginig of my experiment in my Aussie Photo Blog. The above photo of me was taken on my first day in Australia just minuets after stumbling across the opera house while walking though the botanical gardens, you can just see the harbor bridge in the back ground. A bit of a busy picture, but nessicary to the tourist on their trip to Australia.

As well as taking a ton of photos and meeting Simons family I've been working on a new hat design which I plan to submit to Knitty for the First fall & holiday head start issue. My deadline for submission is March 15th. The hat is finished, the pattern typed up now all I need is to take the photos or said garment. What better back drop than the Australian Coast, or maybe a bit of the Bush. I haven't really decided, but I am going to take a bunch of pics, tomorrow is my schedualed photo shoot with Simon on the beach.