18/12/04 The Hunter Valey We drove west of Newcastle into the hunter valley wine region. After speaking to some arsy useless women at the info place we found the only campsite and chilled in the pool. We hadnt seen any vines ywt and it was really hot. We set off in the afternoon to Lovedale wine region. It was really nice. We went to a handfull of boutique wineries and tasted some great Semillon (a white but really light and lemony) and Shiraz of cours...

We walked around SP. Claire went to the docs again for her rash, this time given steroids by very weird doc. We then just went for a dip in the pool and chilled out before heading out for another $5 dinner and a go on the pokies. We stopped for a beer and watched England vs All blacks. We set off the next day for the huge 650Km drive to Newcastle. We saw the big prawn and big banana and the raj mahal. None were worth stopping for. We're getting excited abo...

We woke and quickly rushed out of the campsite without paying (we didn't even find the toilets until the morning). We chose to do a 4km walk down the thr bottom of a huge waterfall, it was fun to walk under it. We saw several skinks on the way and a big Monitor being chased by a Kookaburra. It was a roasting hot day, so we were shattered byb the time we got back to the top. We went for lunch at a strange café run by a strange Dutch guy (only him so we waite...

On the way we went to see the big Pineapple (huge ozzy landmarks all over....very kitch). Also we went to the gingerbread factory, just for fun and to get some ginger things...mmmmm We went south to the infamous Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin Crikey!) it was really hot so luckily they had sprinklers and mist next to big fans to cool people down. We raced to the Crocoseum to see if Stevo was there and caught the back end of a crocodile show. No stevo. It was a ...

We woke up, went for a dip in the pool and headed South for Rainbow beach. In the afternoon we bought a Boogiew board and went to the beach. We got a couple of hours in before a huge thunderstorm hit us soi we went back and chilled by the van. It's a small place, a few shops and bars and nice and relaxed. Great sunset and electrical storm. We stayed the next day too, funnily enough we saw a rainbow on the beach both days.