Newcastle and Port Macquarie

Over 3 days we saw both Newcastle and attempted to see port mcquarie. First up was Newcastle for 2 days:

Day 1 (Newcastle) - We checked into Newcastle Backpackers hostel which was awesome. It had a swimming pool with a volleyball net, a free pool table and a tabletennis table. The first thing we did was have a few games of pool, then when I had kicked Hans ass enough, we played ping pong which was a nice change. We did some shopping at our local Coles (mainly for fruit and chocolate so pretty standard) then set off to the beach on the free public bus to check it out. We thought we were going onto Nobbies beach but in fact we ended up on Newcastle beach which had loads of untouched sand and was amazing. After we both found our way back to the hostel and had a BBQ with all the guests where Han succeded in eating 5 large sausages! That evening we had some big thunder storms and watched a few gay sci fi DVDs (not our fault it was the freak at the hostel).

Day 2 (Newcastle) - In an attempt to be cultured we booked ourselves onto the Hunter Valley wine tasting tour. A guy called Tex picked us up and took us round a few local sights like the viewpoint, Newcastle and Nobbies beach, and the coal transporting Port since Newcastle is the largest coal distributer in the world! Tex was a cool dude and gave us a heads up on how to get the most alcohol out of the owners of the vineyards. With the first vineyard we got some good tips on how to taste propperly and we were enthusiastic to try and get more wine out of him! By the end of the first one we had alredy bought a 2l bottle of port and were feeling tipsy, o dear! We went to 5 in total with a much needed lunch break in the middle! During the break we had a few crazy asian jumping photos in front ofvineyard and I felt sorry for Tex when he had to take a picture of the overly touchy/sexual couple who started performing soft porn on the grass. At one of the later vineyards we got to taste some cheese which Han loved, probs because it was like Ians selection of strong cheese in the fridge at home! She misses her dad! Back at the hostel we met a crazy couple of guys who were really drunk. One was on a pulling mission and the other told us stories which randomly changed subject half way through!! These included when his chin was on his shoulder and he had to get his face cut in half then reconstructed with titanium, plus ones involving him finding an ancient sword in his garden...What a legend!

The next day we spent one night in Port McQuarie just to say we had seen it!

Day 3 (Port McQuarie) - The main attraction here was suposed to be camal riding but we never did it! Instead we went to our campsite which had a really nice pool but the worst ever kitchen, saw the beach next to the campsite which was alright, and had a walk into town in search of a bar but could only find a bookies which sold beer! The wierdest thing about Port was one of our fellow backpackers in our block who was smashed and kept chatting about us being in his 'beautiful neighbourhood' with his arms spread like he was a hippi! We also saw a Andrews Cross spider which is yellow and black and a bit poisonous!!

So in conclusion we tasted wine, searched for bars and met lots of drunk people...was good!