Day 19

Today we were travelling from Sydney to Newcastle. In the morning before our train journey we headed to the station to drop our bags off and then into Chinatown to go and buy our cheap fruit and veg.

Once back at the train station we had an argument with CountryLink over our tickets. Despite Newcastle being a destination on CountryLink's route planner they told us that they could only take us to Broadmeadow and we would have to make our own way to Newcastle, at our own expense. Al nearly punched the guy behind the desk and Lorna had a go at the woman, so all in all very eventful 45 minutes.

We cursed them all the way to Newcastle. When we finally arrived a station attendant kindly directed us to the hostel. It was the first time we'd stayed in a YHA (global hostel company) and it is lovely, more like a hotel. They do discounts so we became members and this should save us quite a lot of money on our journey.

Once we were settled in we hit the Nobby's beach as the hostel offered free bodyboards. Newcastle is well known for surfing, it even has a competition on this weekend. Al was a wimp and was too scared to get in the water as it was cold, so dared Lorna to board first, which she did. We had issues with our swimming attire falling down, quite embarrassing.

The other benefit was that they took us to a local bar/restaurant for a free meal, free quiz and live music, we even had a buy one get one free drink ticket.