I have called this one Hunter Valley, sounds a little more exotic than Newcastle, which is where we actually stayed.

The main purposed of our trip here was to visit the vine yards and sample some Australian wine. We went on a little tour that took us to 5 wineries, a cheese shop and a chocolate shop. By the end of the day we were sick of wine, cheese and chocolate! We now consider ourselves to be wine experts and we tried all these in one day:

- Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillion, Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Blanc, Desert Wines, Old Tannery Port, White Chocolate Liqueur, Butterscotch Liqueur, Dragon's Breathe Schnapps and Spanish Sherry.

We also met 'Joe', a St.Bernard who actually appeared in the film Peter Pan. All the Americans were interested in the wine and we just wanted to play with the dog.

One night we ate at an all-you-can-eat chinese buffet. Unfortunately we were there with a children's party and one of the kids had too much to eat and was sick over my foot! I refuse to ever go back to an all-you-can-eat restaurant. It even put Aidan off a little bit but he still opted for desert.

We had a heater in our room. Thats a big sign of a change in weather!

Katie.