Hunter Valley Trip – Semester Abroad Australia

Hunter Valley Trip – Semester Abroad Australia

Hunter Valley Trip

A Report by Laura B.

It was a rainy day in November when we went to Hunter Valley. All of us had several assignments to finish for the upcoming week and were under stress. Despite these circumstances it has been one of the best days of my study in Australia so far.

How to get to Hunter Valley?

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Hunter Valley is an area in New South Wales and it takes a 2.5 hours’ drive from Sydney to get there.  It is one of Australia’s most popular wine regions and attracts a lot of tourist to its wineries. ICMS organises a Hunter Valley trip as well as other touristic events during the term. For students there are two possibilities of visiting Hunter Valley. You can go as a member of a larger group, guided by a tourist organisation or you can join Paul Collins, who works for the college where he also lectures on wine. Pauls’ group is always limited to a number of 11 students. Unfortunately, both trips were already booked out but luckily Paul proposed to do an extra excursion with us if enough students joined the group.

Vineyards

We left early in the morning to visit five wineries. Our first wine tasting woke us up entirely and with every further wine our mood was getting better and better. Every vineyard had its own character and atmosphere: one place was full of tourists and the other one was not crowded at all and needed to be booked in advance. One gave us an old fashioned impression and the other a very modern one. Nevertheless, the procedure was always very similar: first you try about 4 white wines, then about 4 red wines and you finish with a desert wine. One of the wineries offered a chocolate and wine tasting. We had to try to mix the chocolate with the wine in our mouth in order to create a new and softer taste. Some of the wineries also run cheese or chocolate shops besides their wine sales.

Food and Fun

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In the middle of our tour Paul took us to a barbecue area and prepared an extraordinary lunch for us, with lots of fruits and vegetables, sea foods, sausages and bread. Invigorated, we set off to the first winery which had been established in Australia. In the course of our wine tasting we also got some background information on the history of the winery and afterwards we had the chance to explore an abandoned house where one of the former owners of the vineyard had once lived.

All tired from wine and fun, we had a very sleepy return trip to our college in the evening.
I can only recommend the Hunter Valley Trip and I am convinced that the best way to do it  is to organise your own small group and to contact Paul in advance.