Day 94 - Warnambool to Nuriootpa

  Nuriootpa, Australia
Wednesday, December 5, 2007

We were up fairly early, and headed straight to Port Fairy.

Port Fairy is a charming little fishing town at the end of the Great Ocean Road, before it cuts inland and turns into the main highway to Adelaide.

The weather was great this morning, what a shame we couldn't have had this yesterday!





We had a really enjoyable 15 mins strolling up along the boats and admiring the many beautiful houses next to the water, and then jumped back in the car and headed off towards South Australia.

 

I spent the next 5 minutes going through the photos on our camera, deleting all the photos that have (HOPEFULLY!) been copied onto discs.

In those 5 minutes, Katie managed to get pulled over by a traffic policeman for doing 128 kph! The speed limit was 100 kph.

Normally I keep a very close eye on her speed as she has a bit of a heavy foot, so I think she saw her opportunity with me absorbed in the photos for a few minutes, and took full advantage!

We were pulled over in a blaze of flashing lights (outside) and swear words (inside), so I watched in the mirrors as Katie sheepishly walked over to the police car. I could hear her apologising within seconds of leaving the car!

Of course, Katie waited to see what he said, and then burst into hysterical tears (which normally seems to work), before realising that - unlike when she does it at home - this doesn't work in macho Australia!

However, after talking to each other for a short while they had a right little friendly chat for about 10 minutes! I could only hear the odd snatched sentence from the car, so I was thoroughly confused... I was sure he was writing her out a ticket, so why was Katie so happy?!

Katie got back in the car eulogising about how nice the policeman was, and how he had told her how to cut 30 minutes off the journey, told her to make sure she put the clock back 30 mins when she crossed the border, blah blah... whatever!

All I really cared about was what speed she was doing, and how much it was going to cost.

She told me the speed, explained that normally that would incur a A$500 fine, but the "nice policeman" had kindly taken a few kph off, so it would "only" be A$250! Ouch.

She then explained that he'd advised her that if she ticked a box on the back of the ticket (to say she wanted the matter heard in a local court), they would have no way of sending her a summons in the UK, so she would apparently get away without paying the fine!

Unbelievable. That would NEVER happen back home, can you imagine?!

So off we set again, with my eyes firmly locked on the speedometer.

We crossed the border at Mount Gambier, and then took possibly one of the world's most boring and uneventful roads towards Adelaide.

 

It was long and flat, without much in the way of scenery.

 

In fact the only thing of note on this whole journey was that we passed another 'Big' thing, this time "The Big Lobster"!



Apart from that it was just hundreds of miles of plain, straight roads, zzzzzzzzzzz....



A couple of hours later we cut north, away from Adelaide.

A few hours after that we arrived in the Barossa Valley, an area that I'd never heard of until my friend Marie went to live their with her husband Daniel a few years ago.

Since then we'd read up on it, and learnt that it was one of, if not the best wine area(s) in Australia, and with Marie & Daniel living there it was well worth a visit.

I love Marie, she's one of the happiest, funniest, warmest people you could ever wish to meet.

We'd clicked quickly when we worked together on Regent Street when she was living in the UK for a few years, as so many Aussies & Kiwis do these days...

We managed to stay close despite living at opposite ends of the earth, and every time we made contact with each other laughed our asses off and wished we saw each other more regularly.

I met her husband Daniel last time I was in Oz, when they'd just started dating, and coincidentally I'd just started dating Katie.

Unfortunately we couldn't make their wedding because we were saving for this big trip, but I was very flattered and happy when they were able to come to our wedding in the UK in June.

Katie met them for the first time at the wedding and really liked them both, so again we knew it would be a relaxed and fun couple of days.

We're very lucky to have had so many good friends over here, it's been wonderful to hang out and catch up with them, and to have some company in the evenings.

As we got into the town of Nuriootpa, we could tell we were really getting into wine country, with vines cropping up on both sides of the road. 





Marie & Daniel lived in the town somewhere but I didn't have their address, so I called Marie for directions to their house.

She told me to take a left in a few minutes onto "Chardonay Drive" so like the smart-ass I am, I asked her if we should then take a right onto "Merlot Avenue"?

She laughed and said "no, not there, go straight on, and take the left onto....", as I smugly congratulated myself on my quick wit and sense of humour.

A few minutes later we took that left onto Chardonay Drive, and on our right immediately passed... MERLOT AVENUE!

We couldn't believe it, we just looked at each other as if we'd seen a ghost, how weird is that? 

We pulled into the drive, had a fruity beer (blended with shiraz grapes!) in our hands within seconds, and could start to relax after our long drive.

Marie has a lovely house, with swimming pool, for the price of an average garage in central Sydney, and maybe a wheelie bin in London ;)

I'd totally forgotten that Marie had videoed some of our wedding, so we sat down and really enjoyed watching some of our special day, including the service, the reception, the first dance, and some of the speeches.

It was fantastic to see our wedding from the perspective of a guest, and I was really struck by how beautiful Katie looked on the day. Of course she always looks gorgeous, but particularly so on that day! (Phew) 

Shortly afterwards Daniel arrived with Marie's friend Trish, who he'd just collected from the airport.

I'd met Trish before last time in Sydney, and knew she was a riot.

That night out with friends in 2002 had ended with Trish trying to carry my packed 90 litre backpack down the road, before buckling, collapsing and lying on the road, like a drunk snail, before we could pull her up to her feet! She's a top bird, always full of energy & good for a laugh.

That night Marie cooked us a delicious dinner of steak & salmon, washed down with a delicious red. I should probably mention at this stage that like a lot of people in this area Marie works for a drinks company, in her case Orlando/Jacobs Creek, who are themselves owned by Pernod Ricard. 

This means that Marie has access to some amazing wines, beers and spirits, and even has a montly allowance of free alcohol included in her salary!

I like, is nice...



So we had a lovely dinner, some great wine, then a couple of cold beers, and eventually went to bed rather later than planned, but with a stomach straining from laughing too much!

We 're really look forward to tomorrow's wine tour, and a couple of surprises that Marie has planned for us!


Lots of love,


Al & Katie xx