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hunter valley road trip

Now more so than ever, it’s getting harder and harder to catch up with my favourite people. It’s inevitable, really – in between school, work and life in general, days off are becoming all the more precious for everyone around me. It’s even rarer when the stars do align, and my friends and I are actually able to coordinate schedules for once.

Anyway, some weekends ago we decided to take advantage of the public holiday and go on a little road trip. None of us are that big on drinking, but we drove to the Hunter Valley (aka wine country) because why the heck not? There are so many other worthwhile things to do in the area, and we managed to pack in heaps of activities during our short stay. Besides, everyone knows that when a road trip’s involved, getting to your destination is just half the fun!

      

I was lucky enough to go hot air ballooning for the first time, and didn’t leave disappointed! Not many things are worth the 4am wakeup call, but those views made the lack of sleep totally worthwhile. There was actually a festival happening that weekend, so a bunch of other hot air balloons were visible in the distance. Not to mention, watching the sun rise over all that greenery was a dream come true. We even got to see the Hunter Valley Gardens from above, which we actually visited later that day.

Look how ecstatic I am to be on solid ground again! Surprisingly, floating 2000 feet in the air was way less scary than anticipated. In fact, I found the experience quite relaxing, more than anything! Even if only for an hour, you can’t help but feel at peace when there’s nothing to do but enjoy the view. Anyway, I even made a little video of the flight, so excuse my rusty video editing skills!


      

Later on we dropped by the aforementioned Hunter Valley Gardens, which was packed due to the long weekend crowds. I’ve never visited before, but was surprised to discover exactly how big it is! Just when my friends and I thought we were done exploring, the path led us down yet another garden to explore. Of course, plenty of selfie taking was also involved…

      

It’s a flower bed, geddit?! Sadly (for me at least) my travel companions didn’t seem to appreciate the pun as much as I did…

      

Aaand some bonus snaps from our tipsy bike ride through the wineries. In all honesty I didn’t get many other pictures from the trip, so a lot of things will have to be ingrained in my memory. Things like our short-lived Saddle Club moment, when someone had the brilliant idea of going on a horse riding trail. Or the amazing dinner we had at Botanica, or the hours spent doing karaoke to our favourite throwback songs in the car. As much as I love taking photos, sometimes it’s nice to ditch the camera and focus on what’s right in front of you instead.

Anyway! Right now I’m still in recovery mode, despite getting back from Laos and Thailand a week ago haha. While I’m happy to be back, I’m definitely missing the warmer weather I left behind! For some reason Sydney has been pretty chilly lately, despite summer being just around the corner. I’m yet to tackle the photos I took, but expect travel posts coming your way soon!