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Hey Guys,
On Monday morning I left Sydney and jumped on a train to Newcastle to visit Annette, Greg and family. The train journey was about 2 1/1 hours which wasnt too bad! We spent most of the first day around Newcastle and at Merreweather beach which was lovely and nice and warm!! The children- Amy and Owen were playing in the water and making sandcastles!! Its a lovely area and I was really impressed by some of the sites!! We then went back to the house which is in East Maitland which is a lovely area. A lot of sightseeing in one day for sure!!
Yesterday we headed around Port Stephens and I was amazes by the amount of lovely little bays so close to each other! We headed to each one stopping to either have a swim or a picnic so it was really lovely! Annette is quite the tour guide and definatly knows her stuff!! We were all around Port Stephens and went to Dutchmans bay, Shoal bay and Fingal bay. Once we got to Shoal bay we went to Tomaree National Park and decided to climb up to the top of the headland- 161 metres I think it was! The walk wasnt too bad, lots of lovely things to look at like the native plants and trees which are so different to the ones back home! The children where miles ahead the whole time but it definatly didnt take long to get so high up! It was so worth it though- a really lovely view!! Really worth the hike! The view was of all over Shoal bay and behind the headland there were some lovely little islands and we were overlooking Zenith beach which looked like paradise!!
Today we went over to The Hunter Valley Gardens which were really lovely- some of the best I have seen here!! There was a rose garden, an oriental garden, a chinese garden, a border garden, waterfalls and ponds, oh and the storybook garden. The story book garden was all of ouyr favorite garden as it was full of nursery rhyme characters so we were sitting on the wall with Humpty Dumpty, falling down the hill with Jack and Jill and haing tea at the mad haters tea party!! Was great fun! After wandering around there we headed to the vineyards and looked around the hunter valley area- stopping at one of the vineyards for some wine tasting- because you just have too!! It was lovely wine as well! I tried 2 of the same wines- one that was from 2008 and one from 2009 and they tasted so different it was amzing! Apparently it depneds on the climate that particular year as to what the wine tasted like! Amazing stuff! Whatever happended in 2008 was better than 2009!!
Tomorrow we are haeading to Gwandaline to visit Curly with Leonie and Mike and Annettes sister Karen for a few days so it will be nice to meet some more of the family!
I will report somemore when I get back!!
By the way, the weather here is in the 20's everyday so I have a nice tan coming along....hope your all enjoying the english weather!! lol
Lots of love xxxx
- comments
Daddy Hey Wanderer, it sounds wonderful and of course you have the weather to enjoy it. Not quite the same as the Newcastle you know and love but certainly warmer and the locals are probably easier to understand! Enjoy your time at Gwandalan, maybe as you have this new found spirit of adventure with mountain climbing etc. etc you will get a chance to get out on the lake and do some fishing.... Love you always Daddy XXXX