I've labelled this entry as natural wonders due to grapes being natural. And wonderful when they're turned into wine, hehe.

Aloha everyone…Sam reporting. Tuesday morning was spent by general meandering and a stop for lunch before catching our train to Newcastle at 4pm. Our lunch stop was a little bit of a drama. Pizza slices which were probably filling enough as they were. But then Amy noticed you could get 3 slices for $10. Cue us not being able to eat this much pizza and so taking it with us. All the way to Newcastle. Yes, the pizza travelled 3 hours by train to Kate's house. And then we decided we weren't really that bothered about eating it.But anyway, we left Sydney from Central Station and got our double decker train to Newcastle. We sat upstairs of course and watched the scenery until it got dark. It was pretty nice, we travelled past lots of lakes and forests. We made it into Newcastle at 7pm and had our dinner out then a pretty lazy evening, catching up with Kate mainly and chatting to her cat, Scout. This cat is pretty special (not as special as you Holly), but she sticks her leg out over your foot when she walks past you, if she likes you, and then balances like this for a while. So a ballerina cat really. I've never seen anything like it. She was very funny, but when we laughed at her she got a bit self conscious and sat under the table and sulked.

In the morning we got up and Kate drove us to a national park near Newcastle, the excitingly named Blackbutt Reserve. It was nice though and had a free bird walk, koala enclosure and a 'roo enclosure too. So we spent an hour chatting to the animals. After this we hit the road again and made our way top the Hunter Valley. Now this has to be one of my favourite trips so far…you drive to a vineyard of choice, ask if they have a cellar door today, and then position yourself at the bar while they give you glasses of free wine! With no obligation to buy! It was nice tasting them all and I was a bit worried that they'd be quite posh and expect me to know something about wine, but my ignorance seemed to be accepted well. We went to 4 different vineyards in all, and the one where they filmed country practice if any of you know that programme? Well anyway, we didn't try any wine here as they charged you to taste it. So we took our business elsewhere. But before you all think we are very skanky we did buy two bottles of wine eventually. But we just wanted to taste a fair selection before committing to a purchase. We tried $100 wine which was nice and wine which tasted like Christmas Cake in a bottle…fortified wine…yummy. Mum, I think maybe next Christmas we should just have this wine instead of Christmas cake. We can just drink a bottle each instead. Then sleep the rest of the day lol. The last vineyard, Tyrells, was quite a big and well established place and the guy there was very generous. He filled Amy's glass to the very top and then kept filling it up whenever she drank a little bit. I think they were trying to get rid of it! He also told us how they put chemicals in the spit barrel as some people have asked how much they sell that for or if they can just take it. Pretty disgusting really. I suppose you could strain off the spit lol.

After our wine tasting we went to a cheese…I want top say cheesery but I know I'm making words up now. Well, we went there anyway. We tasted a few varieties and then had a platter including: Iish cheddar, marinated feta, brie and blue cheese. Yes…mouldy cheese!! And it actually was really nice. I couldn't have eaten it without the crackers but it was really yummy. (Susie I would like to say for the record that what you eat in country is an important part of travelling).

From here we drove back to Newcastle (Kate drove, Amy and I didn't obviously). We went out to a Thai restaurant called The Grain and met Kate's old boss. More yummy food followed (we took one of our wines with us). After we'd finished Kate took us on an alternative tour of Newcastle, including sights of the beach, various parks, the highest point in Newcastle, various rock pools/ swimming pools cut out of the rocks…and a very interesting local meeting place. I'll tell those old enough to know when I get home. All in all a grand day out. Cheese Gromit!!

And back to Sydney…which I'll continue as separate entry. The train ride back was fairly uneventful. A pretty sunset just outside Gosford, and us figuring out whether we would go back over the Harbour Bridge (which we thought we would as Central Station is South Sydney and we were travelling from the North). Still confused about this one as we didn't cross any bridges anywhere near Sydney. Or a tunnel. Hmmm…xxx