Hotel Ibis Newcastle

... It's an event that takes hours on end, schwilling beers and nibbling food all thoughout the day. It was pretty interesting, because I'm not in Sydney anymore, that's for sure. The people here are more uh, shall we say, eccentric. They've definitely got strong opinions and are more than willing to share them. It's all good, though, I can hold my own. Looking forward to chilling out before I head up to Byron Bay ...

... etiquette, when someone leaves food its for general consumption and we managed to pick up a hufe amount of pasta and cereal - all good for the budget, if a little bit pikey hey. Still, when needs must.....

Saturday 31st Jan - defintely a highlight of the trip. We visited the Hunter Valley, getting taken around by 'Tex' and visiting a number of vineyards, along with fudge tasting, chocolate and cheese. We hooked up with three awesome ozzie's - Terry, who was from ...

... Got to Newcastle at around 3pm and we weren't too impressed with it as it was very industrial and a lot of the buildings in the town centre were either boarded up or for sale. So we started out towards Sydney and stopped about 20km down the road in a place called Belmont.
It was the last night in the campervan and we're really looking forward to getting to Sydney now. Lydia's friend from home, Tara, is living in Sydney but going on holiday for 3 ...

... didn't know that I had been living there and was angry that we (me and my other flatmate) hadn't submitted an application and were living there illegally. This was all news to me. When I moved in, I had paid out the last flatmates bond at $520. I had also been paying my rent bi-weekly in advance. Somewhere someone pocketed a week's worth of rent, upped the bond from $300 per person to $520 and pocketed the rest, and Trish had been paying the late rent late at times as well. I ...

... and most of our players have improved considerably. We very rarely have issues rotating now! I've also bought a surfboard. Finally. I've got my flat, my computer, my car and my surfboard. Now I can finally start to save money. After I've paid for car insurance. And paid my $450 NZ speeding tickets (oops, I didn't know, really!). And fixed my car. And payed for student loans. And for health insurance. On that note, I've solved my health insurance problem ...

... But...now we had to climb back up! Oh dear! THAT was a workout! Kip & I were at least half way up when we realized not everyone was climbing & the tour guides were telling them that they would drive down and get them. So after ALL that work!...we took another turn!..lol And these crazyassed tourguides DROVE those truck down that same hill, picked us all up, drove BACK up the hill, and drove down again with us IN the trucks!...OMG ...

... in a luxury apartment with amazing views of the Whitsunday islands (no dorm rooms we good enough for me this time!) and spent the next couple of days on boat trips. The first was to Knuckle Reef, part of the Barrier Reef and I took the plunge and went scuba diving for the fisrt time in my life. Although I was petrified, it really was an amazing experience and I saw some beautiful coral and other marine life. Den tried snorkelling for ...

... up unrefreshed but optimistic. Our other roommate, a hippy from Edmonton, Canada, meets us downstairs and complains about the snorer as well. Fortunately, says the lady at reception, Mr. Snory is not booked to stay tonight. Jane and I catch a local bus out to a place with the evocative name of Blackbutt Reserve, a kind of wildlife place that apparently has some nice bush walks as well. We see some koalas ...

... kill them off?'. silly man. Roger is so funny too. he trod on his sunglasses and the 'arms' fell off, and he says 'Oh no! Where are my arms?!'. he can do some amazing magic tricks though. card tricks. Like making cards appear in his pocket and stuff. Theres another new guy at the house, from Derby, hes called Ant, hes pretty cool. He came out with us last night, we were supposed to be going to a ...

... on English chocolate and sweeties. finally we were dropped off at the show ground harbour to get a boat along the river into Sydney harbour just as sun was setting. that night we got ready to go out to an indie night a the kings cross hotel, when the bouncer stopped us at the door it was obvious he didn't want to let us in and was going to find something to stop us from getting in. after checking all of our i.d (very rudely) he looked each one of us up and down to check what ...