We have just returned home from a couple of days in the Hunter Valley - Australia's wine region just two hours North of Sydney. We met up with Katy, Olivia and her Mum at lunchtime on Thursday and it sounded like they had had a fantastic time - Katy had her first ride on a quad bike, herded cattle and drove in the tractor, amongst other things! Piccies coming soon, courtesy of Olivia's Mum... We stayed in a hotel at the Hunter Valley Gardens, and just meandered around the village there yesterday, enjoying the shops and coffee houses, playparks and chocolate factory (yum!) Last night we considered venturing out to a restaurant, but the kids were so enamoured with staying in a hotel (rare!) that they were more than happy just staying in the reception area and bar, Ally teaching them pool, ordering iced water (made them feel very grown up) and eating crisps!!! Nice and relaxing, and wore them all out before a late night!
This morning we went to the Hunter Valley Gardens themselves - lots of walking paths, gorgeous different areas to explore, and lots of activities for the kids including a treasure hunt, African bongo drums (certainly kept their interest!) and face painting. They particularly loved the Storybook Garden (lots of nursery rhyme characters) and we could hardly get Katy and William off the bongo drums once they'd started! There was an African man at the front leading the rhythmn, which they had to follow, and they really enjoyed it - the weather was gorgeous too, so our winter-style coats were far too hot (we had been told that it was cooler in the Hunter Valley due to the bigger open spaces... but it seemed today was an exception!) 
We would have loved to have done some wine-tasting, but it seemed we would have to wait until a child-free weekend to enjoy that... still, we had fun and we returned home this evening feeling like we had been away a lot longer than just one night! Lovely! 
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