Newcastle

Australia

November 2005
3 days

Gavin wrote:
We sorted out our bus tickets and moved on to a place called Newcastle, which is a couple of hours up the coast from Sydney.

We stayed in the YHA and had our first shared dorm room where our room mates arrived around 2am and then one made the most bizarre snoring noises all night and we didnt get much sleep. Newcastle itslef is a lovely town. At the YHA they kept doing organised nights out at this irish pub with free dinners - these were good fun - i got decimated in a pool competition (the guy potted 7 balls against me on his first go!), then we came 6th in a quiz (out of about 13 teams - not bad, although there were prizes for 7th!).

We spent a day at the beach nearby, it like all beaches so far in Oz was massive with white sand and a blue (but cold) ocean. I also discovered the Pie Burger at the little cafe on the beach - i thought it would be a pie in a bun - but oh no, its much better, they get a meat pie and then cut off the top, then they add cheese, lettuce, carrots, beetroot, ketchup, tomato and then stick the top back on - SO tasty!

We also went on a vineyard tour in nearby hunter valley which was an excellent day - kinda like a posh pub crawl - lorraine and i were fairly tipsy before lunchtime! We visited about 5 or 6 different vineyards and in each lorraine and i tried their whole ranges of about 7 different wines and liquors - you only get a small taster (enough to get toasted) but it was actually surprising to compare wines side by side and notice their differences and our guides were very knowledgeable. We also visited an olive farm (conrad would have loved this) where they had loads of bowls and saucers of different olive oils, pastes and dips and then you could wander around and dip bread in stuff.

Lorraine wrote:
After leaving Sydney we went to Newcastle which is a couple of hours north of Sydney. Just a quiet little town - with nice beaches. Stayed at some dorms which was awful - lots of wierd snoring. Also the hostel did free food down the pub and organised events such as pool comps and quiz nights which was good fun. Came about 6th out of 13 which wasnt too bad seeing as only me and gav could answer the questions. Also went to Hunter valley - where there are lots of vine yards. Went on a tour which took us to about 6 different vineyards and tried all the diiferent types of wine. Some was really nice - some not so good. Also got to try some liquers which were really nice. Got v. tipsy in the end.