Weekend Getaway - Part I

Stanthorpe and Ballandeen Wine Tasting Tour

Our first day of our weekend getaway we woke up super duper early (5am) to get to Ballandeen, 3 hours southwest, for our tour of Queensland wine country. Just before arriving at our destination, we decided we better get some food in our stomach before we start our early morning of wine tasting. We stopped at the McDonald's for a 'quick' breakfast, but there was nothing quick about it! Finally after waiting 20 minutes for our 'fast food' we made it to the Ballandeen Tavern where we were to be picked up for our wine tour. The coach arrived 45 minutes late, but finally showed up. I guess we were on country now.

It was so cold outside in the mountains, a brisk 5C, that we were looking forward to getting inside the first winery. Somehow, all establishments in Queensland seem to lack heaters no matter how cold the winter gets, so it really wasn't much warmer inside the winery than it was outside.

Our first winery we were escorted to the private wine tasting room where they keep stores off all their wines. We had tried to take a photo of the two of us in there, but unfortunately it didn't turn out that well.

Here is the second stop for the day, Castle Glen Liqueurs. Mmm they had the tastiest liqueurs here, mainly the chocolate ones! We bought a nice tasty chocolate coffee liqueur which we later put in some homemade hot chocolate that evening.

Here's Todd in front of another winery. We visited so many wineries that day that most the ones in the middle were mostly a blur.

This is the last stop for the day, Rhumbalara. This seemed to be one of the more popular ones around the area as it was packed full of people.


The view off the back porch at Rhumbalara.

That was a long day of wine tasting! Finally off to our lodge at the base of Giraween National Park. As we drove up the long driveway to the reception, we passed by all these kangaroos in the field on the property. Yipee! My first time seeing kangaroos in the wild! Todd knew that was one of the things that I have really been wanting to do here so he did all this research to find a place out in the country where we would see wild kangaroos. He's always so thoughtful.

Here is the national park in the background behind the lodge.

Once we finally checked in, we got dressed to go for a nice dinner at Cook, Gluttons, and Gourmets in the tiny little town of Stanthorpe. It was apparently reviewed well online, but we were very disappointed. Todd's entree of scallops were served on a cauliflower puree in which the cream of the puree had gone off and tasted horrible! That was the worst of many complaints we had of this place. But our bad dinner was made up with a hot relaxing spa bath while drinking a premium bottle of Moet and Chandon with the most delicious chocolate truffles. Boy did I ever get spoiled! I think that was my first taste of real champagne and I'm thinking that this is going to be another expensive habit that we will have to scrounge up some extra money for now.