Aussirose Travel and Photography: Lilydale, Healesville Sanctuary & The Yarra Valley

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PINEHILL CARAVAN PARK, LILYDALE

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Hubby has wanted to visit Healesville Sanctuary ever since he worked at Currumbin Bird Sanctuary as it is well known as being the best place to see Australian wildlife in their own habitat. More about that later. So I diverted our itinerary to include it.

Pinehill Caravan Park looked like a nice central place to stay. We had a pleasant stay here. I booked it early as being in the middle of the Yarra Valley and during school holidays, I wanted to make sure we had a spot. Plus they had drive through sites and I thought that would be a good way to ease hubby back into the rhythm. We had spent the last 3 years living in Tasmania.

Being the navigator, I planned the trip from Geelong to avoid going through Melbourne and toll roads. It was a good 2 hour trip, being on highways most of the time, with the last 3/4 hour driving through nice countryside towards the Yarra Valley.

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SPIRIT OF TASMANIA

Compliments of Shutterstock

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I am sure you have heard about the Spirit of Tasmania debacle. If not, then check out my Latrobe page for the full story. Anyway, we caught the Spirit from Melbourne to Devonport. Now, on the way back, the Victorian port is in Geelong. Perhaps that was arranged in preparation of the 2 new vessels due to arrive at end of 2024. Unfortunately they still have not arrived as work has not commenced yet on the upgrade of the wharf in Devonport to take on the new huge ships. What a total stuffup!

Anyway, we arrived promptly at Devonport promptly before the commencement of loading at 7.30. Well it was near 9pm before loading commenced. They did however send us an SMS at about 8.45 to tell us that they were sorry for the delay. As if that was going to change our frustration! Pfft.

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At least this time I had booked us a cabin. Beds were hard as a rock. And yes, we rocked and rolled our way over the straight. But anyway, at least this time we got some sleep. Do yourself a favour and book a cabin. That is if you should take the Spirit anyway. I guess you know what I think by now on the matter. And if not, then maybe I should also say that the food was not any better. Do not order the buffet. And!.... there was no entertainment. Yes there wasn't any last time either.

Who travels for 12 hours on a big ship without at least a guitar player?....

Not happy Ann.

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COLDSTREAM BREWERY

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Mmm, not too bad. We shared a tasting paddle and then both chose one from their limited edition small batch brews. Tasted similar to one that we had in Germany that was a white beer. Nice and light and summery.

Our shared pizza went down well too with spicey salami.... maybe a bit too spicey for me.

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This place gets busy! It also has a good story behind it's success. Dreamt up by a couple of blokes that decided to live their dream. The Shivering Man logo represented taking the plunge to do something that you love, which is what they did when they decided to start their own Brewery.

The only thing missing is that I feel they should locate this venue to a bigger paddock and include a larger bush setting with live bands. 4 Stars on Google for me.

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HEALESVILLE SANCTUARY

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This place is expensive! We got the Senior discount and it was still $48 each.

Nevertheless, you pay for good quality, and this was good quality. Very well done with shady footpaths and Australian animals that are well looked after in their natural environment.

My favourite bit was the wetlands. We both were quite taken by the satin bower bird. He had an awesome song. But same as our Tookie, point a phone at him to take a video of his song.... and he promptly shut up and hid. lol. At least the above cockie and his mate were friendly and even let us get up real close to take a photo or 10.

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Sorry for the stack of photos. Please take your time and enjoy.

Macro Spider Fail. Too much wind.

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HELEN'S HILL WINERY

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Shout out to David who took us through our wine tasting and told us stories of how Helen's Hill Winery came to be along with other stories of the wine and selection of wine names etc. David certainly knew his stuff.

David @ Helen's Hill Winery

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A visit to the famous Yarra Valley is not complete unless you taste the local wines.

This time, I chose one winery close to Pinehill Caravan Park where we were staying.

Helen's Hill Winery according to David's story started with Helen and hubby John who lived in Melbourne. Helen wanted to pursue her dream and live in the country. John was a city dweller and an accountant. They left the city life and set up a small vineyard here in Lilydale. Helen died not long after, but the legacy lives on with the new owners, family oriented and continuing on with quality boutique wines.

Each type of wine has a story. The winery has a distinct French feel with selection of grapes and oak barrols. David also confirmed what I had learnt at La Villa in Latrobe which is Italian oriented, the difference between Gris and Grigio, being Gris is French and Grigio, Italian. Gris is full bodied and smooth and Grigio is light and crisp. I was quite taken by Helen's Hill Pinot Gris.

I tried their Chardonnay but it did not live up to the ones that I had tasted in Tasmania. I would never had bought Chardonnay until I was converted in Tasmania. The colder climate Chardys are something else!

Moving on, both hubby and I liked the Helen's Hill Lana's Rose. Dry Cabernet grape with a hint of pepper in the after taste. The story with this is that current owner Christine's younger daugher Alana wanted her own label. Thus the lovely rose on front of bottle and name Lana's Rose. There is a conflict today between Christine and husband as to whether yound Alana tasted the wine before age.... I tend to agree with the husband.

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Both hubby and I liked the Pinot Noir and Syrah wines.

Next story by David - The Smuggler Reserve Pinot Noir got it's name from a bloke from New Zealand that visited a place in France that developed the Able clone. He liked it so much that he filled a shoe with dirt and a small plant to smuggle back to NZ. The poor dude got caught at the airport but the customs officer recognised that this could be something good so he took the small vine home and planted it. Eventually he brought his discovery over to Australia and now Helen's Hill Winery has this Able clone grape that produces the lovely Smuggler's Reserve Pinot Noir.

So, after our tastings, we moved into the restaurant to enjoy a cheese board, adding a small plate of proscutto for entree and a couple of tappas - duck spring rolls and mushroom arancini, coupled with a rose for entree and red for main to finish off our Yarra Valley Wine visit.

We also recommend taking Uber if you are drinking. Uber on the mainland is half the price of Tasmania. Another reason half of Tasmania are moving out. Expensive living, jobs are up to 20% less than corresponding employment on the mainland and all other services are just expensive.

I always recognise good service. Another shout out to Ranier who you could tell is geninuely enthusiastic about his customer service. Ranier was noticably attentitive to all, and it became very busy here as you can see from the photos below. Ranier never missed an opportunity to give personalised customer service, even noting that we had not finished our entree and offering to make sure our main came out a reasonable time afterwood, even though we booked it half way through entree. I made sure that I mentioned this young man in my 5 Star google review.