Chocolate Festival

On the weekend James and I went to the Hunter Valley Chocolate Festival. We have been to the Hunter Valley before, but certainly not for a chocolate festival. It sounded interesting when we read about it. We were tossing up between that and Brickfest, which was a community LEGO event. I asked on Twitter, and asked some friends at work, and it looks like LEGO won… but we went for chocolate anyway.

It cost about $52 for both of us, which wasn’t all that cheap. There were a few demonstrations and a few samples, but what was most impressive was the competition which involved a number of people making tall sculptures completely out of chocolate.

There were a few food stalls, and the Snow Time in the Garden school holiday event was running at the same time, so entry fee included entry to that. There wasn’t much though, just a snow machine spitting out shaved ice, some iced sculptures, a long line for the toboggan, and some people dressed up as snow gods. (You can see the snow king guy in one of the photos giving a “low-five” to a little girl.)

Most chocolate was gloriously expensive and had to be paid for, unfortunately. We left before the festival ended and ate lunch in the local village. I drove a lot of the way up to the valley and back, it was a little terrifying to be honest, but it was good to practise some driving. It did put into perspective how dangerous driving can be, and that it is extremely important to take regular breaks.

Anyway, some photos!