Early Christmas, Late Post

Season’s greeting good readers.

In mid November we Cassons travelled to Sydney to have an early Christmas bash with our friends Jayne and Ronnie. This year we decided to rob NSW’s capital city of our celebratory prowess and transport two hours north(ish) to a region known as the Hunter Valley. Mostly renowned for its wine, the Hunter Valley also holds a special event to celebrate Christmas: The Hunter Valley Gardens Christmas Lights Spectacular.

Now, more often than not, when the word spectacular is used to describe an event it can be an exaggeration (a bit like election promises). However, this time the use of the word spectacular was justly employed. The Christmas light show was spectacular and huge. The gardens were festooned with lights depicting all manner of subjects. It was the first time since being in Australia that Christmas actually felt like Christmas (European Christmases are by far the best). Even the crowds of people did not hinder my enjoyment of this light extravaganza.

  

 

Obviously we didn’t just visit the Hunter Valley for its marvellous  light display, we also wanted to check out its wine since it is one of Australia’s famous wine regions. Needless to say we did this very well and stopped at many, many wineries (and a vodka distillery), as well as coffee shops, chocolatiers and day spas. Marvellous!

 

Our accommodation was also quite unique because it was situated on a housing estate that was nestled in a vineyard. The house owners paid a yearly fee for the upkeep of the grapes and vineyard and then received a slice of the profits from the wine that was made from the vineyard’s yield. A very unusual setup but one that worked, and who wouldn’t want to have a vineyard as their garden?

 

So there you have it, our early Christmas catch-up with Jayne and Ronnie posted a bit late. Or timely?

Either way we Cassons wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas.