Tex's tours and Terry's homebrew

Trip Start Oct 05, 2008
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Australia  , New South Wales,
Thursday, January 29, 2009

Feeling relieved to be getting the hell out of Bondi we headed north to be Newcastle - where my bro in law played cricket for 6 months a few years back. We booked into a very elegant hostel - a former gentlemens club a short hop from the beach. A local pub was putting on a free BBQ so we took advantage of this and hooked up worth a couple of other backpackers and got involved with the pub quiz.....coming away VICTORIOUS!!!! Free drinks followed, as did a chat about Tony Hancock. Had glorious, uninterrupted sleep due to our room mates not being complete bastards and felt refreshed the next day. Had a bit of an explore round town - not a whole lot happening but a nice enough place. I had a body board in the sea, watching out for some really strong rips and feeling shattered fighting against the currents -still all very good fun, gradually topping up that tan too!!! We managed to collect an obscene amount of free food from Newcastle -  as is the travelling 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 Newcastle and two of his mates from uni in Melbourne who were travelling along the east coast over the xmas break. Nick really knew his stuff when it came to wine and ensured we REALLY got involved. I think around 45 wines were tasted in all. On the way back towards newcastle Terry suggested we stop by his, as he brews his own beer. Back of the net. We headed into suburban newcastle and recevied some fine Austrlian hospitality - getting cooked a homemade pizza, being treated to many a homebrew and watching the cult Oz film the Castle. It was a great end to a great day and we staggered on to a late train into Newcastle and very much hoping to keep in touch with the guys - fingers crossed they will make it to London in the future and we will treat them to a similar experience....just need to get brewing that beer!! It really was a fantastic day, it was great to meet some locals after being surrounded by gap year brits with more money than sense in bondi!! 
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