Monthly Archives: February 2007

Vibrant Straw with Flecks of Brilliant Green

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When you hear something like “vibrant straw with flecks of brilliant green”, what do you think?  I am guessing it wasn’t, mmmm… pour me one of those. 

As you probably well know, Australia is home to many a wine that we enjoy in the U.S.  In fact, I’ve come to learn that Australia is home to some 60 wine regions.  We, or more appropriately I, had the good fortune to venture into the Clare and Barossa Valley Wine Regions while visiting Adelaide.  Dave was the supportive designated driver on this excursion.

I find it amazing that anything can grow on this dry land, much less millions of little grapes that produce “soft and fleshy structure, with surprisingly persistent length of flavour to a clean finish.”  (Yes, for me, one of the highlights of wine tasting is the tasting notes.  Chock full of elaborate descriptions that I could not possibly ever concoct. )

We first ventured into the smaller, farther off Clare Valley. This area is made up of about 30 vineyards and is known for its Reislings.  The real reason for our trip to Clare was to visit Tim Adams Winery (yes, my brother’s name is Tim).  It’s a small winery with none other than the 2006 World Champion Reisling.  Who knew?  Not me.  I’m not really much of a white wine drinker and much less a fan of sticky sweet Reislings.  As it turns out, Tim Adams got this one right.  (Probably an overachiever just like the bro’.)  In fact, it was delicious and by far the tastiest of the wines I tried that day.  The best part – it whipped all those German Reislings’ butts!  It must really goad all those Europeans with their overpriced wines when Oz came onto the scene with pretty good wine at far better prices!

After visiting Clare Valley we swung through the Barrossa Valley – a far larger and more well known wine region.  Since there is a limit to Dave’s patience while I swill wine, we only stopped at one other winery – the infamous Jacob’s Creek winery.  This was like the Disneyland of wineries.  You could check out a high-tech interactive display, see the kangaroos in the bush, take your picture in front of the Jacob’s Creek sign, eat an overpriced meal and of course drink wine.  This is where the tour buses go.  Despite all that, I had the chance to taste some wines we don’t see in the US and that are frankly of much higher quality then what we can get in stores. 

From the penny-pinching backpacker perspective, the best aspect of Australian wineries is that the tastings are free.  Just next door in New Zealand, wineries were more of a tourist attraction where you had to pay a hefty fee just get through the cellar door.  This is yet another reason to love Australia!

Sorry to say that the pictures of wine country went the way of the two cameras.  Hope someone is enjoying them!

Little Adelaide

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It seems Adelaide has something of a self-image problem. It’s not hard to understand why – with competition like Sydney & Melbourne it’s easy to think of oneself as a little provincial. I can assure you this is not the case. Adelaide is a great jumping off point to many points of interest in South Australia.

To the east you’ve got the Great Ocean Road, to the west you’ve got Kangaroo Island – one of the best places in the country to see wildlife in the wild. If you go north you’ve got some of the most prolific wine regions in the world, and if you go south there are ten beaches to choose from. Not too shabby.

The city itself reminds me of somewhere in the Southwest US. It’s dry and sunny here most of the year and the local architecture reflects that. Lots of low, wide homes built with masonry and nice decks rather than over the top lawns.

And in town, despite what they may say in Melbourne or Sydney, there’s a lot going on. We’re here during the Adelaide Film Festival, there’s a Grand Prix in town, and we’re leaving just before the start of a World Music Festival and Fringe Festival. Oh, and AFL (Aussie Rules Football) is just getting ready to start up again.

Oh, and whatever else they may say …Adelaide is the capitol of South Australia and the only colony in Oz not founded by convicts. Suck on that New South Wales & Victoria!

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme – Some More Internet Acess!

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Internet - Gotta Get Our Fix

Internet - Gotta Get Our Fix

One of the more mundane things we do – a lot, of thank you Mr. Blog – is find Internet access. For those of you who haven’t traveled abroad recently there are a lot of ways to get online. Some are surprising, others surprisingly stupid. And for those sitting in the comfort of your home or office relaxing and taking as much time and bandwidth as you please – we envy you. We tourists are getting clipped a couple of dollars for every hour we’re online. Remember, accessing the Internet is a priviledge – not a right.

So far we have seen or used Internet terminal in – convenience stores, airports, information centers, libraries, hostels, campgrounds, gas stations (yes, gas stations) and of course the infamous Internet cafe.

The worst possible way to get online – the coin operated “Internet Machine” – you will find these in your lower quality hostel, your higher quality campgrounds and every airport. Woe upon you if you have to resort to using these devil machines. They are almost always slow, outdated, expensive and probably owned by hackers.

The easiest way to get online – find the Chinatown in the city you’re visiting. I know it’s wrong to generalize, but Asians do love to get online – and usually in Chinatown it’s going to be cheaper, faster and the computers may have had a security update in the past 18 months.

If you want to do some online banking – don’t. But if you must, generally the library has the most locked down moderated computer lab. But the days of free Internet access for tourists at your friendly local library are gone my friend. Get ready to pay.

Every Internet cafe proprietor in the world includes World of Warcraft in his or her prayers every night that game alone keeps them in business – well, that and Japanese tourists. I have seen many sad things on this trip already, but none so sad as the overweight 40 year old man who kept hogging one of the two coin operated Internet machines (that cost over 8 dollars an hour!) playing WOW for over four and 1/2 hours in a hostel in Auckland. The most damming thing – he was there with his family, teaching his toddler the way of the Orchs and avoiding his wife.