Update!! Work, Cuddlee Creek and Adelaide

Work seemed like all I had done for the past 6 weeks. 60 hrs a week was a lot to handle, especially starting at 5... work, eat, sleep was the routine. The big harvest part of vintage is virtually over, so we are now working 7 hr days and have the weekends off!! It seems like I have so much free time I dont know what to do with my self sometimes.

One of the full time cellar hands has a really nice camera and he sets it up and has it take a picture every second and then makes it in to a video. So here is one of the videos he made of what happens in the cellar during harvest.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhk-4IUBsX8

Last weekend was the first weekend we had off since my birthday, so a group of us decided to get out of town and see what Adelaide night life had to offer.

Because we are in Australia, holding a koala and feeding a kangaroo seemed like a 'must do.' Some of my friends at work are locals and were able to tell us a place where we could do this, and it was on the way down to Adelaide, perfect! It was called Cuddlee Creek. What a perfect name! It was kind of hard to find, and with some detours in the beautiful Adelaide Hills, we finally found it.

The place was like a zoo, but sectioned off where kangaroos and wallabies could run around freely and people could pet them, like a petting zoo. It was really bazaar and intimidating at first. The kangaroos were so soft and friendly once I let down my guard.  Seeing so many movies and TV shows where the kangaroo kicks a person always stays with you...






There were also monkeys, dingos,  emus, bats, camels, panthers... (others that I cant remember).  Holding the koala was really special and something that I wasn't expecting to do. I've seen people take pictures with them while they are sitting on a tree right next to them, but holding it was pretty cool. It latches on to you like a child and then just sits there and eats the eucalypti leaves as you hold it and smile at the camera. Cute and cuddly thing.

Paul (English), Brooke (Australian), ME, Kaitlyn (Californian) and Kim (Danish)

That was pretty much the highlight of the weekend adventure. In Adelaide, we did a lot of walking around and some shopping. It is just like any other city with lots of people out and about.

This last Friday, Paul left us to start another harvest in New Zealand. The first of many good byes to come. They are still horrible, and this is the worst part of traveling. Everyone who knows me, knows that I am the worst at saying good bye. AHHH!!!

Adventures in the Braossa

Nuriootpa is the city I live in and Tanunda is a city that is about 8k away. Most of the time, Nuri closes down early so we head to Tanunda for exciting nights out.

A few weeks ago, we discovered the brewery there. There have an awesome cider for me and some good beer for the others. Anyways we had a good night out over there on a night that started out as, 'lets get a couple beers at the brewery and call it a night.'

At the end of the night Quentin (my roommate) and I were ready to go home. We had gotten a ride to Tanunda from Paul (he had to work the next day so he went home early) but needed to get a ride home. We thought about getting a taxi, but then remembered that it is pretty expensive for such a short ride. Quentin then had an idea, "lets hitch hike!" I told him, "no we cant my mom will kill me!" .... long story short, we ended up attempting to hitch hike in this small tourist town but no one picked us up and we ended up walking the whole way home, in flip flops. Our dogs were barkin!!!

We have come to the conclusion that we weren't picked up because we looked like hippies. It was a Friday, so I had by tie-dye Friday Modesto shirt on, and Quentin was wearing some flowy Aladdin pants with his crazy curly hair and bandanna on.



Last night, Andrea and I wanted to go out in Tanunda (Kaitlyn the other American girl lives there,and like I said before its a more lively place). Again we didn't want to have to pay for a taxi both ways so we decided to ride bikes there and cab it home! The bike laws in Australia are very strict (Robert Pattinson (Twilight) got a ticket for biking with out a helmet back in Jan, and you know they mean business when a celebrity cant get out of a ticket).

Andrea wanted to be an "Italian Stallion" and put gel in his hair, so he didn't want to wear his helmet. I explained to him we needed to but he still denied. It was dark out as well so we should have had some sort of light. But we didnt..... We rode for about 10 min when a cop finally stopped us. He asked Andrea where his helmet was and where our lights were. Andrea said sorry, the cop gave me some props for wearing my helmet and then told us to walk our bikes home. So we did. He also informed us that this stop could have been a $250 fine! In the famous words of Andrea. "Thats INCREDIBLE!"

The incident was much more dramatic and hilarious that it seems here, because of Andrea's lack of understanding/English isn't 100%.