Hey get up to Terrigal this weekend….or the next one!

In the second part of The Mole’s story about great weekends out of Sydney and in this case, in Terrigal, he only wishes he was going there this weekend, but all good thing have to come to an end – you can go though!

In any case having enjoyed the delights of dinner at Seasalt at the Crowne Plaza it was time to have an scrumptious buffet breakfast – make sure you have the chorizo omlette and it was off to explore and discover the village of Terrigal and surrounding area and there is heaps to do, not least of all just gazing at the ocean and the amazing cliff and reefs off shore.

The Australian Reptile Park is a must and although it has been going since 1948, the late and great Eric Worrell, Australia’s first naturalist, it now has worldwide reputation and also is regarded as one of the countries premier attractions under the ownership and passionate guidance of John Weigel.

The Park is the only zoo in Australia which is committed to saving lives with a Venom Milking Program in place for over 50 years which has saved 300 lives a year being the sole supplier of a variety of venoms, which is used for all snake and funnel-web anti-venom in Australia.

It is also home to Eric, described as Australia’s most loved crocodile and wide range of other Australian mammals, including platypus, koalas, wombats, Tasmanian devils, echidnas, dingoes and of course friendly hand-fed kangaroos.  The park also has some of Australia’s largest reptiles, American alligators, giant tortoises and very scary pythons live.

It is all set in a really Aussie bushland setting with streams and waterfalls with heaps of wild birds also having made the park home, perhaps also realising this is haven for them

For more information visit www.reptilepark.com.au

The Mole also found a real hidden gem in Firescreek Fruit Winery, which in 2007 won the Best Wine of Show Award at the 2007 Australian  Fruit Wine Show, held in  Hobart, Tasmania each year and attracting entries from every state in Australia.

The Mole never really thought about fruit wine except perhaps having heard in the past about elderberry wine, but winemaker Peter Buteux and his partner Ellie Walker [Pictured: pouring a taster!] have developed the most amazing fruit wines that are not fruit flavoured wines, but wines made from fruit and fermented in very much the same way that grape wine is – hey grapes are also a fruit!

Firescreek Winery is in Holgate just behind Terrgial and you have to go there and try these wines, which are only available at the cellar door, with herbs grown in batches on the property and fruit sources locally, the yields are quite low and Ellie told The Mole that they maximised the diversity of desirable flavours to produce a velvety mouth feel.

You can sample the award winning Parsley and Lime wine plus an amazing range of others including Fig, Pear and Guava, Plum, Elderberry and Firescreek Firewater their very own Orange and Chilli, but you have to remember that they say, what find at any one time is only limited by the imagination of these innovative winemakers.

For more information on Firescreek, visit www.firescreek.com.au

Oh dear, time for a snooze before dinner – bak to the hotel and that amazing pool and read about the first page of that novel, oh and yes, a cocktail please?

We have to go back!

A Terrigal and Crowne Plaza Report by The Mole