Another coach and then a train then a bus replacement for the last leg of the journey to get to Newcastle (NSW). The hostel was right near the beach and we had a TV and DVD player in our room! WE had a nice walk around the beach the first evening we got to Newcastle and had a look at the Victorian style ocean baths and along to the pretty Nobby’s beach with the lighthouse at the far end.
As it was the day before my birthday we went to the huge Charlestown Square shopping centre for presents the next day and ended up staying there for hours, there were so many good shops, Cat really enjoyed herself, it’s probably the best mall we’ve been in since te USA. In the evening we had a nice walk along the river foreshore and had a few drinks.
The next day was Cat’s birthday and it was red hot so we went to the town beach for a few hours and basked in the sunshine a perfect way to spend your birthday. In the afternoon we had birthday cake and sparkling wine before going for a lush spanish meal and a jug of sangria. It was a lush little noisy restaurant, it really reminded us of Spain. Afterwards we went to the Great Northern Pub and watched a couple of live bands. A nice birthday day.
We also visited the Blackbutt Nature Reserve on a cooler day and saw Kookaburras, Kangaroos, Emu’s, birds, a wallaby and we got to stroke a very cute Koala called Jarra. She was lovely and her fur was so soft, it was a real highlight of the trip so far. It was a proper rain forest you had to walk through to get to the reserve and we saw thousands of very smelly flying foxes up in the trees.
On our last day in Newcastle we had a walk along the river and went to the Newcastle Museum which was similar to the discovery museum at home with a real range of different exhibits. Ste and Ueli also played frisbee and Aussie rules on the beach but it was so windy, you could hardly guess where it was going to land.
Newcastle was a cool place, the beaches were lovely and it had a few good bars and it was a lot of fun meeting Jarra. What we found really funny was all the place names were the same as at home. We saw a Wallsend, Jesmond and Gateshead, lol.
