Maserati long weekend Lithgow and Mudgee 10-12/3
Day 1
On Friday morning we met the at M4 Service Centre after the morning peak for coffee and a talk about our weekend.
After we were all acquainted we headed off for our lunch venue at the Bunker Café at Leura where we were to meet our special guests Grant and Vivienne Smallhorn from the De Tomaso Club, driving their yellow Pantera. It was very appropriate given two Maserati of our number were from the De Tomaso era.
The venue was spectacular and the food worthwhile, but it was clear the Pantera stole the show in terms of the cars lined up in the car park. See Photo.
After our enjoyable meal and conversation we said goodbye to our guests and began our journey to Lithgow via the Darling Causeway.
The views are spectacular along the way, however, we made a pit stop at Gallery M on the top of the escarpment where we could see both north and south where the views went on forever. The Gallery itself had members intrigued with the unique sculptures, paintings and art work; however not enough room in the boot for the many attractive works.
After searching every inch of the Gallery we headed down the hill and into Lithgow where we checked into our Motels. Once settled in we headed our Maserati cars to Blast Furnace Park where we were able to climb over and explore the ruins of Australia’s first Iron and Steel works and learn about the wonderful history of the site. See Photos.
With exploring done and photos taken we headed back to our accommodation to prepare for our Blue Fox dinner.
Now the Blue Fox is an icon of Lithgow and we were treated to a long table in a private area, Santo and Lucy had made the long trek straight from Sydney and joined us for dinner and our guest for the evening was a Mechanical Engineer from Blaney who has modified a 3200 for Hill Climb racing at Bathurst. Baden fitted right into the group from the outset, he spent the first half of the night talking shop with the Maserati males and the second half of the night talking to the ladies about their car experiences. After our wonderful meal and experience we said goodbye to Baden who drove straight back to Blaney.
Day 2
The Lithgow Bakery was the place for breakfast until it was time to visit the Lithgow Small Arms Factory and Museum.
We were welcomed with open arms at the museum and treated to guidance around the Museum itself and then around the Machine Shop. Our members were fascinated and we could have stayed for hours. The good news is the exhibition is planned to be upgraded over the next two years and so a good reason to return. See Photos.
Our wine tour in Mudgee awaited us and so we gathered our cars together and hit the highway with Kim in the lead. Unfortunately, the Boys and Girls were out on the highway undertaking works in about 6 locations with gravel sections of road and 60kph speed limits.
Despite this we managed to get to Parklands Resort on time and met our bus for the afternoon activities.
On the way to the first winery members realised the value of hiring a bus with the poor standard gravel roads that were the accesses.
Booking ahead meant the wineries were waiting for us and the wine from Mudgee is first class, in addition we had food platters all around at Walter Wines to add to our wine experience.
Yeates winery was a bit more up market but less prepared, the wines were high quality as you would expect.
We finished our bus tour at Williams Distillery, and although it is quite a task to try all the spirit range, given we are Maserati we made sure we completed the whole of their list.
With a bus full of wine and spirits we headed back to Parklands to rest and prepare for our degustation experience at The Zin House.
6.15 saw us all dressed up and boarding our bus for the Zin House adventure; see photo in the grounds. We were treated to a long table for 14 in the middle of the restaurant and were looked after by a Yo Yo, Well our waiter was Yeo and his nick name was Yo Yo and he did a wonderful job of entertaining us with service and knowledge.
Our first course had the table talking with a bowl of fresh leaves and flowers from the garden with dipping sauce, the local produce kept rolling from there with nearly all of the vegetables, fruits and meats grown on the property. With full glasses of matching wines the meal got better and better as the night went on; a very good time had by all.
Day 3
Yo Yo from the Zin house had advised us that he would be working again on breakfast duty at the Bakery by Zin in Mudgee and encouraged the Maserati team to rise and, well try to shine, and enjoy fresh bakery for breakfast; and so we did.
Sunday being a free day allowed members to continue to enjoy the Mudgee region, head back to Sydney early, or stop in the Blue Mountains for lunch on the way home and we did all these things.
What a wonderful bunch of people Maserati members are.
