Hunter valley expedition

Recipe for awesomeness: Take 14 pumped up guys and girls and a cabin in the woods for the weekend in the Hunter. Add copious amounts of alcohol and stir until heavily toasted.

Whilst last years trip to Shoal Bay was a fun, relaxing trip, this was great in a completely different light. The CSN FC team was organised into a lean-mean wine-drinking force by the wonderful Mr Derek and shipped via a mini-van (and two cars) to the beautiful Hunter Valley. Whilst I and Richard took the faster, yet sedate drive up, the van arrived at the quaint, yet well equipped Belford Country Cabins with most of the regular drunks already tanked up. The night quickly progressed into more drinking and hence more hilarity.

Amazingly enough, everyone woke up the next day mostly fresh and ready for a day of drinking. And that we did. From 11am to 5pm, it was wines, wines, more wines, beer, schnapps, wines and cheeses. We visited The Boutique Wine company, Polbolkin Estate, Ivanhoe Wines, Harrigan's Irish Pub, some random Schnapps place (which had AWESOME chilli schnapps) and another winery with a name which we might never know. Apparently we each drank 47 different wines, which probably doesn't include the schnapps.

We also tried lots of cheeses, and I can tell you this now. Avoid aged goats cheese. Its mostly just ewww. But there were plenty of other tasty cheeses to offset that taste.

Our troop arrived back to the cabins around 6pm, and we then ran a bbq. The rest of the night was mostly a blur. A few notable exceptions included Ryan walking around STARK naked, and a lot of stacks-on people. Immature you say? Maybe, but you'd sure be laughing if you were in our position.

The next day was mostly quiet. People were tired (aka hungover) and mostly broke from the prior day. So after visiting a few more cheese and chocolate shops, we headed back to Sydney. A brief stop in Cessnock reminded us why we want to avoid backwater towns (the place feels like time hasn't caught up with them), but otherwise an uneventful trip home.

Kudos to my friend Richard for coming along with a bunch of people he never met before and for integrating so well. Even if he did get confused for Harry Potter.

For incriminating photos.