We returned from our trip to New Zealand and Australia this past weekend. The entire staff of Guy du Vin World Headquarters was blessed with a return to three glorious weeks of warm spring weather, daylight until 9:00 pm, great food, great wine, civilized behavior (much of the time) and perhaps most importantly - not a single presidential campaign commercial.
There is so much to write about that I hardly know where to begin. I have decided that more time is needed to reflect on all that we saw, did and tasted, before embarking on a lengthy rehash for newsletter readers. I need to distill the "wonderfulness" of it all down to a few of the essentials. The plan is to share my observations and wine experiences in snippets in upcoming newsletters. In this way, I can avoid droning on in one long, tiresome missive, and avoid having to concoct bi-weekly topics by sending out an entire series of electronic sleeping pills!
But a few words on Australia: I love the country and the people that live there.
Australians seem to be free from the "Grass is Greener on the other side of the fence" disorder, and will tell you outright that Australia is the other side of that fence. They call the land "Oz" and "Best bloody place on earth, bar none." The irritating thing about this is they may be right.
Australia does have a few stumbling blocks:
1. Australia has a lot of animals. These can be divided into three categories: Poisonous, Odd and Sheep. Australia has 9 of the 10 most poisonous spiders on earth. Consequently, one spends a lot of time checking shoes and boots before putting them on, looking under toilet seats and generally just about anywhere else. Australia also has an inappropriate number of deadly snakes, sharks, stinging jellyfish, stonefish (a fish which sits on the bottom of the sea, pretends to be a rock and has venomous barbs sticking out of its back), and far too many poisonous plants and trees.
2. You always have to carry a stick. This is because of drawback #1.
3. It is possible to be killed by a wombat. To explain why would take too much space, but Australians consider this the third most embarrassing way to die.
On the other hand, just about everything else about Australia and Australians is perfect.
Next time: The Stick - Second most useful thing ever! and Deserts - How to die in them!
