Newcastle

I say “willing to provide travel tips” but what I really mean is “willing to provide local tips”.
You don’t want to listen to the tourism people about newcastle. They will only send you to places you would expect to see somewhere else. The vineyards are nice to visit and very picturesque, but the rest of the stuff, ignore what they say and befriend some locals.

I went here to visit a dear friend. I think Newcastle was once an industrial town. It is a slow paace and probably a great place to live but I don’t think it is a place one would put on there place to go. Probably a nice place to settle down in. This was one of the first places I visited in my three trips to Australia. The Hunter Valley is not to long of a drive from Newcastle—-great wine as is the Barrosa Valley in South Australia.

One of my best friends has just moved there and I can’t wait to catch up with her again. We used to live together in a very remote part of Australia and I miss her so much. I’ll be going in November!!!

1992 Detached with the US 7th fleet. Knights Inn. Almost jumped ship for the tavern owner’s daughter.

We were loading coal, I was on a merchant ship, we went ashore to a bar (as you do) and a few of us were invited home to the house of a couple we met in the bar. We were so hospitably treated with beer and food that I remember little of the rest of the afternoon only the apology the following day when our hosts came onboard to visit the ship. Australia is a great place, one day I’ll have to see it sober :-)

n.b. I did see Sydney and Melbourne sober in 1989/90, but having spent 3 weeks in Aus and three months in NZ I think that tells you all you need to know about my preference.