Wine & Bike Tour Down Under

We headed out to McLaren Vale and Willunga in search for some wineries with 2 friends we made at Carnegie Mellon (2 Americans at that). Renting a car and hoping that our friend would remember the time he drove on the wrong side (left side) of the road in New Zealand was an interesting feeling to say the least. There was a little hesitation when he pulled us out of the rental car parking lot but then he had 3 people yelling which way to go...all good from there though! Our first stop was at Christie's Beach to take some pictures and run out into the water which was a little too cold for our liking. It was beautiful!




Adelaide was hosting the "Tour Down Under" in mid January which is a bike race that attracts the best cyclists in the world including Mr. Lance Armstrong himself. Little did we know that when we went on our trip south of the city to see the beach and visit some wineries, we would be right in the middle of the biking action while driving through Willunga. One of our friends kept saying he saw Lance Armstrong but they zoom past you so fast, it is really difficult to tell. Funny story: We were driving along a road going the speed limit (mostly) and all of a sudden we're getting flagged down by police motorcycles and getting ugly looks by some serious Aussie cyclist enthusiasts parked on the side of the road. We were driving right along the racing path but proceeded to the finish line anyway. Our excuse was that we're American and don't speak the language! Plus, you know we Americans had to finish first!



So we finally reached the wineries in McLaren Vale. Shawn and I are no wine experts, but we tried some delicious wine and saw some beautiful lanscaping in the country just south of Adelaide. We stopped by around 5 different places where we would try a sip and move to the next one. The Wirra Wirra Winery had this huge wine bottle display made out of corks. Interesting.