Ok, this is purely for documentation and mostly just a placeholder - I'll add links and photos and such later (probably). We left on Friday a.m. (the dawn patrol, as my dad would have said) to fly to Newcastle, NSW (north of Sydney). From there:
- Snack in a cafe in Cessnock
- Hunter Valley Zoo - petted roos, wallabies, and saw various other marsupials and other native fauna
- Lunch and playground at Hunter Valley Gardens
- (Sadly, no wine tasting in perhaps the preeminent wine region in the country. Alas.)
- Horse riding at Hunter Valley Horse Riding & Adventures - Kid rode her own HORSE (not pony), with no lead rope and we trotted a lot. And we saw roos.
- Headed to Terry and Irene's [sheepless] rural sheep station. Whilst there we saw more roos, tons of kookaburras, a couple of dragon / lizard thingies and the practically tame possum that comes to the veranda for snacks, who let Kid pet it.
- Oh, at Kid's suggestion, we also had lunch floating about on a raft in their pond - it was about 22 and sunny. Nice!
- Checked out Tea Gardens and Hawksbury and the [gorgeous] beach.
- Had a nice lunch at Nichole's in Tea Gardens. (Aussies do great salads. I had roasted sweet potato, rocket, feta and pine nuts.)
- They dropped me off at the train station and I got on the train down to Sydney. Parts of the ride were truly spectacular (like, I really didn't know that there were parts of Oz that were THAT beautiful) - i.e. around Woy Woy.
And now, I am here in the Travelodge on a work / consulting gig in North Ryde Sydney and Kid and Guy are back home in Melbourne.
