Beach, Wine, and Putt Putt Golf

For my family's final full day in Australia, we did a lot. Who am I kidding? We did a lot for the whole two weeks they were here! Anyway, we started with "morning tea" at Brighton Beach. Everyone enjoyed picking out his or her favorite bathing box while eating lamingtons (an Australian sponge cake dessert) and drinking raspberry lemonade. We played some beach games and then headed to our next location.

After driving through the Sherbrooke Forest, we headed to the top of Mount Dandenong for lunch. We enjoyed the view of Melbourne's CBD from afar and had fun playing among the daisies, climbing the Giant's Chair, and looking through the Wishing Tree.

Then it was off to Domaine Chandon for their winery tour and a tasting. My dad really likes wine, so it was fun to show him the Australian wine region.

After the wine tasting, it was nice to relax out by the vineyards. Yes, it's a rough life, but somebody's got to live it!

We stopped off at another winery and had "afternoon tea," which included yummy cheese, crackers, and strawberries.

Then it was back to Melbourne, where we played a round of glow-in-the-dark putt putt golf in the Docklands using some coupons. Justin had been waiting anxiously for this event. I was proud to beat him and win the game!

Zack met us after work for an Indian dinner in the Docklands, and the Dills later went to bed for their last time Down Under!

Yarra Valley Wineries

On Sunday morning, we headed out in the fog with our friends Adam and Emily and their guest Jason to the beautiful wineries of Yarra Valley.  This is an area about an hour outside of Melbourne (near the Dandenongs) known for its wine.  We visited some of the more well-known wineries, such as Yering Station, Domaine Chandon, and De Bortoli.  We also stopped by Oakridge and the Yarra Valley Dairy, where we bought some yummy cheese.  Since it was a holiday weekend, everywhere was pretty crowded, but we had a good time tasting various wines and enjoying the expansive views.

We took a thirty minute tour at Domaine Chandon, where we learned all about their wine-making processes and got to see some of the machinery.  Domaine Chandon is part of the same company that makes Dom Perignon.  This is the riddling room.  They turn these bottles a quarter turn twice a day.  I was so tempted to turn one and mess up their whole system, but I resisted the urge.  We did enjoy the wine tasting here and bought two bottles. We got one very unique Pinot Noir to share with my dad when my family comes out in November and one Cuvee Riche that I really liked to save for a special occasion.

Since we're heading into winter, there were no grapes on the vines, but the fields were still very pretty.  We all agreed it'd be fun to come back in the summer to see a different side of things.  Many wineries have gorgeous grounds; it'd be lovely to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy a bottle of wine with the nice view.

Once the fog burned off and the sun came out, 

we had a very beautiful day for winery touring!  

Cheers to Yarra Valley-we'll be back!

Tomorrow's post will be about our Monday session of surfing until sunset.  Look for some pretty rad pictures (you can cheat and go to Shutterfly right now to see them ahead of time!).