Plague, Pestilence and Precipitation

If you want to enjoy some of the best fortified wines Australia has to offer then Rutherglen is where you should be headed. My long time friends Robyn and Neil live just outside Rutherglen on a property where they run their own B & B, Renaissance Farm, and their newly established Renaissance Chocolates factory and shop.

Driving with locusts

That's where I spent Christmas and New Year. Like many people that live in rural areas these guys certainly have to put up with their fair share of Nature's nasties. just prior to my arrival there had been widespread flooding in the area - so much so that the river was out of bounds for Christmas camping. While I was there we were in the midst of a locust plague. They had eaten their way through many acres of crops and it made for some very interesting driving. It was easy to tell those drivers who came from the country! This Christmas if it wasn't the locusts then it was the mosquitoes. These guys were savage and relentless. Multiple repellent techniques couldn't even keep them at bay. As I was leaving it was the turn of the blowflies. And just to really get on your nerves there were the never-ending miniature tumbling weeds that I called Hairy McLairies. Robyn had another name but I can't pronounce it. They blew in on every wind and the only real way of getting rid of them was picking each one up individually. Truly enough to send you mad. Ahh the joy of rural living!!!!!!

Pub in Rutherglen

Rutherglen is very central to many other gorgeous northern Victoria towns. It was a short drive to Beechworth for lunch at a delightful French cafe. This place is very like Bowral in NSW - full of tourists and a shopping haven. All set in a town where the original facades and buildings remain. We visited the famous Milawa Cheese Factory (they now stock Renaissance Chocolates), took in a movie in Albury and visited a fabulous home design store in Wangaratta (Wang to the locals!). This is all within 30 minutes of Renaissance Farm.

All Saints

If it's wine you want - then it's wine you shall have. I thought Hawke's Bay had lots of wineries. This area must be full of as many drinkers as the Bay. Campbells, Bullers, All Saints, Chambers, Rutherglen Estates, Scion - and that's just scraping the surface. What I did find that was a lovely connection with NZ was a building built in the late 1800s that was originally used as a storage facility for Vidal Wines from Hawke's Bay. Go figure! The cellar doors at some of these wineries are stunning. On Boxing Day we went to a concert at Buller's Winery featuring Joe Camallieri & The Black Sorrows and Kate Ceberano. It was a musical masterpiece. These guys were there to enjoy themselves and that is exactly what they did. A crowd of around 1,500 meant a very intimate atmosphere. More like a large party than a concert.



THE BEST......well where do I start. The friends aboslutely!!!! The wine - it never stopped flowing. The food - this area is seething with fine food options both to enjoy cooking with and to dine at. And weather was pretty, bloody good!

Bloody Hairy McLairies

THE WORST....that plague, pestilence stuff. The locusts were annoying although did provide a moment of laughter when we had just driven through a swarm only to see a "cool tourist type" driving towards them in his convertible with the roof down and hair blowing. Would love to have seen the mayhem that swarm caused. And those bloody Hairy McLairies - if there wasn't a fire ban I would have taken to them with a match and dam the consequences.

I'M LEARNING......All all play (eating and drinking) and no work (exercise) means that clothes choices are limited!!!!!!!!