Orange is a small town in Regional New South Wales, about 260 kilometers west from the center of Sydney. We found Orange to be a great escape from the city with rolling countryside, nature walks, hikes, local produce, and its cooler climate, which makes it perfect for growing grapes and producing wine.
For accommodation, we stayed at the Orianna Hotel on Woodward Street. The hotel has rooms themed by different countries, and we were more than impressed with the size of our King Terrace room with stylish decor and Russian memorabilia. Our room came with an ensuite, air conditioning, a TV with Netflix readily available, along with a kettle, toaster, coffee station with a small coffee machine, and a bar fridge with complimentary drinks.
We also received two complimentary drink vouchers for the hotel’s bar, the Orianna Saloon Lounge, which we used the following night with dinner. The cleanliness of the room was second to none, and all in all, we were really happy with our room. For an additional $20, the hotel offers a small buffet-style breakfast, which includes fruit, yogurt, bacon and eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, toast with a variety of spreads, tea, coffee, and juice.
Mount Canobolas
Mount Canobolas stands about 1,395 meters above sea level and is a really great lookout point nearby the center of Orange. It’s actually an ancient volcano, and at its peak, it boasts stunning views of the city of Orange and surrounding areas.
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Unfortunately, for us, the summit was closed on the day that we went, so we couldn’t see the views from the top, but we ended up doing a smaller trail, which is just down the hill a little bit called Young Man Canobolas, and it was about 1.7 kilometers, which was long enough for our fitness levels at the moment, and the views were still pretty great.
Botanical Gardens
If you’re not quite up for hiking but you still want to get the blood flowing and go for a bit of a stroll, then you might want to check out the Botanical Gardens for a bit of a slower pace. It’s about a five-minute drive from Orange town center and has free entry and is pet-friendly. The gardens themselves are beautifully maintained, and as we were there in springtime, we were fortunate enough to see a lot of the flowers out in bloom.
Main street in Orange
The main street in Orange has so much to offer, including boutique and specialty shops, cafes, pubs, and other eateries. There are also a few different grocery stores around, including Woolworths, Aldi, and IGA, which are all close to the main street.
And then, of course, there are the wineries. We stopped by two wineries while we were there, as we actually don’t drink a lot, but we always love to do a couple of tastings when we visit areas that are well-known for producing wine.
Shel Lane
Next, Shel Lane was the first winery that we went to. Unfortunately, they were fully booked on the first day we were there, so we walked in for a tasting on the second day. They offer two different tastings; I think one was 10 tastings, and one was five tastings.
We did the five tasting option, and I found their wines to be really nice. They were really subtle on the palate, not overpowering or overly robust, and we ended up purchasing two bottles of their white wine to take home.
The second winery that we wanted to go to was called Printemps, but they were actually fully booked for the entire weekend. So, just a tip, if you’re going to Orange and you want to do some wine tastings.
Milthorpe
Just walking around Milthorpe, a little espresso, and let’s check it out casually walking, you know. If I could take you back to my celebrity. So, it is our second day in Orange. Yesterday, we did the wine tour, and today we are in a town called Ophir.
From doing a bit of research online and asking the locals, the other massive export from Orange is gold. So, it used to be a massive gold mining town. Now we’re walking along the Central Mining Trail, which is going to be awesome, and I think there are still tunnels which you can go into, and hopefully, we find some gold.
Ophir
Okay, so we kept driving for about another 20 minutes when we were last recording, and now we’re finally in Ophir. Yeah, over the mining range.
So, we’re gonna do walking track number one, which leads to the tunnels. It’s absolutely stunning here and looks like a camp down there, so we’re going back to camp someday.
Okay, there’s a lot of spiderwebs on the trails. We’ve got our spider net smasher, pardon. Yeah, we’re trying to find the entrance to the tunnels. We saw one back there, but apparently, it’s down here, and hopefully, we can join the trail again at some point.
This looks like it could have been an entrance to a mine. I wonder what the rings were, and there is no one around. A little bit freaky. Can’t even see a single person. The car’s also running low on fuel, so it’s gonna be a little adventure on the way home, and did we get up a very steep hill at the minute?
Okay, so we made it out of the mining town safe and sound, got some fuel, had a Subway.