Sipping Success

Morning came and we had all slept well. When we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed both Harry and Liam were up and about, making breakfast and looking after the dog. He was still jumping around like a lunatic, as would be expected from a young puppy still getting to know his owners and surroundings. The plan for the day was to hit some wineries and head south of Melbourne to complete a walk that our hosts had never done before. Apparently the Australian Prime Minister, Harold Holt, had gone missing in 1967 after going for a swim, by himself. You wouldn’t get that these days, and his body was never found. Obviously we weren’t trying to find him, but it was supposed to be a good walk, and would no doubt go down a treat after a bit of boozing at the local wineries.

We all clambered into Liam and Harry’s mini cooper and sped off from their home in Sandringham to get out into the countryside and the wineries. It seemed like the ultimate dream, to have the beaches so close they could go jogging or walk the dog on, but then James advised that we lived very close to the beach in Southport. But it just doesn’t have the same gravitas as a golden Melbourne beach in the sun, for some reason.

In the mini cooper

 It was clearly the spring season for the grapes as the vines were bare and had few leaves on them, but it was still a cracking sight to see the rows and rows of vines across the fields. As we entered the winery we paid our $5 to do the tasting and grabbed a glass each. Well, not exactly, as Liam was driving so it was just me, James, Harry and the grapes. We had about 12 wines to taste and went through the whites, the roses and the reds before the sparkling Moscato to finish. We were advised that there was a spittoon to use if we so desired, but he obviously didn’t know us that well! It was great to have the tasting notes to check what flavours we should be getting through, and by and large they were all bob-on. We don’t pretend to be wine buffs but we certainly know what we like and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Mmmm, it has a long finish

With the wine still fresh in our bellies we headed further south towards the mouth of the bay. We briefly stopped off at Arthur’s Seat as it looked out across Melbourne and the bay. We did also try and stop in at another winery and a local brewery, but they were both closed, so we carried on our journey to try and “find” Harold Holt. It wasn’t long before we arrived at the start of the walk and we got out of the mini, stretched our legs and set off along the gravelly path. There were no real signs along the way (apart from the ones advising of unexploded bombs in the bushes) and it seemed like everyone was driving there, so after half an hour we turned back and jumped in the car. It was a good move as it would have taken us ages to get to the actual start-point of the walk. That said, we didn’t even get to there either, but to the start of a smaller walk, far away from the peninsula where HH went missing. But we wandered around the area and got down to the beach and a small cemetery. It was pretty bracing on the shore with a stiff breeze coming straight off the Antarctic. The shadows were lengthening by that point so we headed back to Sandringham for dinner.

Unexploded bombs

Harry, James and I said hello to the cats and Otis while Liam nipped to the shops to grab some stuff for dinner. They had suggested that we have a proper Aussie barbeque, and who were we to say “no” to that! The first part of the meal was an oyster shot – something that I had tried in New Orleans, but that one was in a shot-glass with vodka and Tabasco sauce. They were very nice, although a very strange sensation as they slipped down our throats. Perfect with a bit of lemon juice. After the oysters we were treated to a cracking spread of food right off the barbecue. We even had kangaroo steak and big prawns, just the ticket! We had a few more glasses of wine and talked the night away, even getting a little bit “freaked-out” when searching for ourselves on the internet – long story.

"Where's Harold then?"

 The plan had been to watch a movie later in the evening, and Prometheus had been mentioned, but we plumped for The Inbetweeners Movie instead. Unfortunately, the Gray jinx on Liam’s technology struck again and this time the iTunes movie stream was not happening, so we never got to see it. We got an early(ish) night after the disappointment of the non-stream as we would have a long day coming up the next day.