AusTour 8: Newcastle

We arrived at 3:30am in Newcastle. I knew exactly where this YHA was, and without much energy exhausted we got in and passed out. I should mention this is one of the most ‘hostel’ hostels I’ve ever stayed at. It used to be an Old Gentleman’s Club, the ceilings were high, it was spacious and the floors, banisters, windows, furniture were quaint-ornate. Overall the hostel had a very homey feel to it which was very agreeable. The next morning we slept in and practically missed breakfast. After eating we made our way down to the beeches, past the bathes and out to Nobbys’s head. One thing that made me extremely jealous was seeing a Newcastle Uni student reading his reader on the beech—something I haven’t and won’t be able to do in Melbourne. After reaching the farthest point on Nobbys’s head (used to be an island with a light house until it was joined with the mainland) we returned up the beech to the hostel to grab some body boards. The sun had rejoined us after yesterday’s debacle, and the beach was sunny and the waves clear. They were also high and strong. Simply getting out to a point where you could catch a wave was the hardest part, but the ride in was utterly rewarding—ridiculously fast and wild. The water was cold but withstandable, and the body soon got used to it. With that out of my system we headed back to the hostel for showers and a free barbeque and trivia night. I should add that during the time between body boarding and bbqing I headed up to the highest point in Newcastle to catch some pictures as the sun set. Following trivia night and getting ‘best name’ for “Thank God we Left Port Macquarie” we stayed to watch some of the bands in the local battle of the bands. One band was seriously good, but not everyone’s cup of tea, Memorial Drive. The next day we had just enough time to grab breakfast and a short walk through town and up the Queen’s Warf Tower for a look out on the port of Newcastle (‘the giant penis’) before meeting the bus at 11 to Sydney (oh and while waiting we saw Newcastle’s elusive, yet most famous, tram).
Newcastle: the Complete Review
This was a nice town, the atmosphere was relaxed and it was fairly clean. We discovered on the drive out on the bus that there was a whole end to Newcastle we never got to. We’d scheduled extra time in Newcastle for a bit of rest before Sydney, but could have easily eaten another day doing more of the things Newcastle had to offer. It might be worth noting that Newcastle Uni was one of the original placed I looked at attending—from the town, it wouldn’t have been a bad choice.

AusTour 5: the Bus

In planning the trip we had looked at numerous was of getting from Brisbane to Sydney while stopping at some of the key places in between. We had decided to take a hop on hop off bus down the coast and found a company that would let us do it. For just $115 we were able to go from Brisbane to Sydney while stopping at Byron Bay, Port Macquarie and Newcastle. The bus had more stops (all the reasonably be towns down the coast) but those are the ones we had decided on. The bus would take us down the pacific highway for the most part. Busses departed daily with one bus departing Brisbane at 1pm and another at 3pm. There was also a third bus starting about halfway down the pacific highway starting at around 6am—we took this for the final trip into Sydney. Overall it was great value for money, and didn’t take up the day (travelling mostly during the night) so we could use the daylight to explore and holiday.

Outta Here

Its Spring Break…again! So I’m getting out of Melbourne with Barry from Hartford. We’re flying up to Brisbane tonight, to begin a trip down the coast towards and into Sydney. I’m lazy, so I stole Barry's map of the key stops on the trip.
I should ignore the part about being eaten by a shark. Not because it wont happen, but because I wont be posting a blog anytime in the next 13 days. I also have an extra part tagged on to the end of this trip, down to Adelaide in South Australia being as i have two weeks off for break and Barry only has one.