Lookout and Vines Cruise

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15 June 2025 / story Christine Cameron, Pics Pauline Schofield and David Gazzard

Twelve sparkling MX-5’s lined up at Cameron Park Maccas to celebrate King’s Birthday Weekend with Saturday’s run to the vineyards and lunch at Greta. Hunter run regulars welcomed new member Linda driving her new grey RF on her first run with the club. In glorious sunshine - a bit of a novelty after the never-ending rain and flooding - Mark and Lynda led us along the windy sections past Sugarloaf, then via Lake Road towards Cessnock. After a brief comfort stop at Poppet Head Park at Kitchener, Mark had a close-up and personal view of a large roo which chose to hop across the road not far in front of him. It gave us all a reminder of how quickly they can come out of nowhere at any time of the day.

Coming into Cessnock from the west, we turned up Bimbadeen Road – a NEW ROAD for most of us. Well done Mark and Lynda – extra brownie points for finding a road we haven’t been on before! This narrow, windy road led us ever upwards, finally reaching a spectacular lookout facing east with views all the way to the coast. After winding our way back down again, we headed through the vineyards towards our designated morning tea stop at Pokolbin Park, only to find it was full to overflowing with what looked like a wedding party. So Plan B came into effect and we drove round to Hunter Valley Gardens picnic area which had plenty of free tables and space to accommodate us.

Morning tea over and done, the convoy headed on to Greta Worker’s Club via Hermitage Road, Wine Country Drive and Wilderness Road. John & I actually chose to sneak away for a visit to de Iuliis Wines and de Bortloli Wines to check out their long weekend case sales. It’s amazing how much wine you can fit in an NC when the boot is already half full of picnic stuff, although 1 case did travel the short distance home on my knee! But talking to other members of the run, the lunch at Greta Workers was tasty, plentiful and great value for money.

(DG) The workers club food was Australian and Chinese fare and the club gave us members prices for the day. So lunch was well priced, the plates where full and very tasty.


Thank you to Mark and Lynda for organising a great day out, and to everyone who came along to make the day fun.