G'Day from Down Under

Well, After many months of planning we've finally made it back to Australia.  We've been here a week now and currently are in Newcastle.

United Airlines cut our connection time from Sacramento to San Francisco down to almost nothing due to a really late departure from Sacramento.  We did make it though and then had to suffer through 13.5 hrs cramped 3 across on a 747.  Thank goodness for Tylenol PM.  Suffice it to say that this will hopefully be our last international flight on a domestic US carrier.  Enough whining and on to the fun stuff.

Our first few days were spent in Sydney at the Victorian Court Hotel.  A small but comfortable room that was within walking distance of most of the neat Sydney attractions.  Once we got rested up we went out exploring and just left our rental car in the hotel car park.  We were able to walk to the Royal Botanical garden and Mrs MacQuaries Park just across a small bay from the Sydney Opera House.  Had a great view of the Opera House with the Harbor bridge in the background.  We cut across the arboretum and headed for downtown Sydney.  At one point we were checking our city map and a lady stopped and asked if we needed help.  We explained that  we were looking for an Optus mobile phone store and she lead us right to it.  I love these people they are so friendly!!

Got our mobile phone re-ignited and then we were off again.  We found a coffee shop, had a smoothie and used their wifi.  Pat and Norm we're sorry we couldn't Skype.  We then spent a couple of hours just sitting in Hyde Park watching people and reading.

Ocean pool

We have found that things are quite expensive here.  The exchange rate is right now about $1.05 American to get $1.00 Australian and they have a General Sales tax of 10%.  There must be some serious "sin Taxes" because a bottle of beer cost $7.90.  I can get a 6 pack of Blue Moon back home for that!

The next day we did venture out in the car and went to the famous Bondi Beach.  It was a beautiful beach and it's famous for the surfing and the Lifesaving club.  Didn't get to see any surfers get saved but they did have a John Deere towing a machine that cleans the trash out of the sand.

The last day in Sydney was pretty much a carbon copy of the first day but spent more time at the Arboretum.  There was a "spring flower" display.  Beautiful and lots of flowers were in bloom.


On Friday we were able to get out of Sydney and head to our friend Deb's house in Newcastle.  We took the scenic route and I'm sure glad we did cuz we went right through Bucketty.  We can now cross that off our bucket list. :)

We've had a wonderful weekend with Deb and her daughter Sophie.  In addition to showing us around her town she introduced us to friends of hers, Steven and Carrie, who showed us a wonderful afternoon in the Hunter Valley which is the areas premier wine country.  We had an wonderful lunch at an Italian (I mean REAL Italian) restaurant and winery, then to a little shop that specializes just in desserts.  WOW!!  Steven and Carrie are members at one of the winerys so we got to have a special wine tasting in the "Members Only" room.  Pretty cool for "trailer trash" like us, Huh?

We don't have any plans for a couple of days after we leave Newcastle so we've decided to head up to Lightning Ridge, a Black Opal mining area.  It's about an 8.5 hr drive northwest of here.  We'll be getting close to the outback.  More on that adventure later.