Elton John in the Hunter Valley ...

View from the train

It was with much anticipation that Mum and I boarded the train bound for Newcastle early on Saturday morning.  We were headed for the Hunter Valley with two purposes in mind - Elton John and wine.  After 2.5 hours on the train and about an hour in the car, we arrived at our accommodation in East Maitland at the Windsor Castle Hotel, which had possibly the only hotel room left in the entire Hunter Valley due to Elton's appearance in the valley (and my lack of organisation in booking something).  Thankfully (and perhaps surprisingly) the room was quite lovely and perfect for our needs.

The Windsor Castle Hotel

Waiting for the gates to open

After dumping our bags, we quickly headed out to the Hope Estate to line up so that we could secure ourselves a good position on the lawn for the concert.  Surprisingly, the line wasn't that long and we were amongst the first people there.  We only had to wait for about 30 minutes before security let us in early and we quickly found a great position and settled in for an afternoon of people-watching (wow, people can behave oddly after too much booze or other substances) whilst drinking bubbles.  We had ordered a gourmet hamper which was well worth it (we'll ignore the fact that the antipasto platter was covered in mould and needed to be exchanged) and kept us entertained for several hours as we ate our way through its contents.

 

Enjoying our gourmet hamper in the afternoon sunshine

I'm a new fan of the cello ... no reason why.

The music began at about 6.30 with Eran James whose music was okay but fairly unremarkable.  However, the second support act, 2 Cellos, was amazing - both musically and as eye candy.  The 2 Cellos group is made up of two absolutely gorgeous Croatian guys playing rock songs on the cello - U2's 'With or Without You' and Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' were the stand out hits.  I was thrilled to see that the 2 Cellos stayed on stage, playing, for most of Elton's performance.  Eventually Elton arrived on stage and entertained the crowd for well over two hours, demonstrating his superb singing ability as well as some athletic ability with a jump or two over the piano.  He played all the big hits as well as some other songs that I was unfamiliar with.

Mr John himself

Mother and daughter enjoying the music

The fantastic concert (and firework display at the end of the evening) was only slightly dampened by the fact that it took us 1.5 hours to get out of the car park and another hour to get home thanks to the dodgy directions from the traffic warden.  But, overall, it was a fabulous experience to see a worldwide icon such as Elton live in concert!