Tuesday 10 March 2009
I booked a wine tour today, cause you know how I roll—good enough for Jesus, good enough for me! The Barossa region makes some of the best wines in the world and it’s only an hour outside of Adelaide, and I knew I wasn’t missing anything in the city center. I absolutely love wine tours, as it connotes early morning drinking and enables you to meet people. The day always starts out awkward, but by 11am, everyone’s slightly buzzed and super chatty. Or, maybe that’s just me, because I never wake up with enough time to eat brekkie, and that blood of Christ goes straight to my head at 9:30.
I booked with Groovy Grape, which was geared toward backpackers, and the same people I was doing my Outback journey with. As usual, I was the only soloist on the tour, so I just sat in the single seat and chatted with the driver, who I loved as soon as he took up the microphone.
“Good morning everybody,” he shouted way too cheerfully, instantly putting me on edge.
Everyone mumbled hellos, and he took the hint, bless him.
“Thanks for joining this Groovy Grape tour,” he said calmly and softly. “My name’s Stuart, and I’ll be your driver. You can call me Stuart, or Stu, I don’t really care—it’s only a day tour.”
He was dry and emotionless, and he was leading me towards wine, which basically made him my favorite human being. We made a stop for coffee, and to see one of Australia’s greatest sights: the giant rocking horse.
I kid you not.
“There’s a famous toy store over here,” Stuart explained, “and because Australians like building big things in the middle of nowhere, we have the rocking horse on our right.”
Australians seriously do like building big things in the middle of nowhere. There’s the giant prawn, the giant banana, a giant bull, and a giant bottle, among others (for the full list of randomly large things, click here). These things are large and random and relatively useless, other than providing tourists with pictures to bore their friends with. For instance:
It weighs 6 tons and is 25 stories high. And it’s a rocking horse. You don’t have to be drinking to love it.
Thank you, Adelaide. Not only do you give me an extra 30 minutes, you give me a reproduction of a childhood icon.
We then headed to wineries, which were loverly. My favorite would have to be Richmond Grove, where we were given a tour of the facilities by Essey, a spunky 40-something woman from San Francisco who I bet totally rocked an ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ vibe and moved to Australia to nurture her heart and reconnect with the land through grapes and wine. She was hilarious and had great energy, and I totally played the domineering group member who kept adding quips and sassing her. We got along smashingly, and she even let me take a pic with the barrels—holla at a wine-induced bestie! She wanted me to add her to f-book, which I love, but I knew I wouldn’t get internet time for ages, and hoped she would remember me later. Lo and behold, she not only Google-searched blacktress, but she facebooked me and is now a loyal follower!!!
We have a bond that will never die, even when my buzz wears off.
1 comment:
I am torn between the Big Cheese and the Big Penguin.
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