Newcastle
I have just returned from a weekend in Newcastle, home of the largest coal exporting harbour in the world, and the seventh largest metropolitan area in Australia (by population - by area it is the largest, I think). The idea of a trip had been floated around a few weeks back at the big New Orleans feast, but not much had been discussed of it again until Friday night. One of the girls from Newcastle, Amanda, was heading up to a friend's housewarming on Saturday morning, and it was decided some time late Friday or early Saturday that I would come along for the ride.
On Saturday morning Amanda got to my place (with our friend Leisa and her daughter in tow - they were on their way to visit family in Newcastle) and we set off before midday (Aussies rarely use "noon") toward the north via the city. We crossed the Harbour Bridge and headed up through the northern suburbs before getting on the M2 (one of the highways) to trek up the coast. Along the way, through the trees, you could catch glimpses of magnificent green hills (large, large hills) rolling down to lakes and the Pacific Coast. With views like that I was excited to see Newcastle, even with the things I had been told about it from my friends who had moved down to Sydney. The drive took a while, there was quite a bit of traffic, and we finally got to Newcastle around 3:00.
We arrived in the "city", more suburban sprawl than anything else, and dropped Leisa off before heading to Amanda's grandparents on the shores of Lake Macquarie. The drive there, and subsequent wanderings, evoked images of the vistas of the Pacific northwest. With views of water and green hills, it almost felt as though we were driving around Seattle (save for the fact that we were driving on the left). After a bit of a visit we headed off to Amanda's parents to drop our things. We chatted briefly in the kitchen and enjoyed the views of the Lake and Pacific Ocean from the veranda before getting back in the car and driving around the Lake to Toronto (a suburb of Newcastle) for the housewarming. We stayed from around 5:00 until 12:00 or so (knowing that we would gain an hour through daylight savings change last night) and had a wonderful time chatting with a wide array of people, talking about Australia, things I needed to see in Newcastle, and a ton of other things.
I woke up this morning and did a bit of work on the veranda outside my room before Amanda and I struck out to see some sites before breakfast.
We headed to Bar Beach through "downtown" Newcastle - a sad assortment of derelict and abandoned old two and three storey buildings along Hunter Street. Newcastle had a large earthquake in 1989, and downtown never recovered. The city became decentralized and fully suburbanized. The most centralizing feature of the entire metro area is a large shopping mall, putting the final nail in the coffin of the effort to restore downtown. There seem to have been some efforts to improve things, but to no avail.
From downtown, it was a short drive through the hills and looked out over the Pacific from a cliff before heading to meet two of Amanda's friends at Goldberg's on Darby Street, the main commercial drag in the suburb Cooks Hill. The company and conversation were wonderful, and the breakfast (an egg and bacon roll) was delicious. We all parted ways and Amanda and I headed off to walk along the beach and out along the breakwater into the Pacific. On the beach, a large amount of activists were taking to kayaks to take part in a blockade of the entrance to the port in protest of the usage of coal. Amanda said they do this on a fairly regular basis, and from time to time tend to stop ship traffic up in the channel for a bit. The walk out along the breakwater, past a lighthouse on a large cliff, was cool, though Amanda assured me it was a much better experience when the tide was higher and the waves were bigger.
To wrap up my time in Newcastle, we went to Wickham to an old haunt of Amanda's - a dive bar called Lass O'Gowrie Hotel - and had a chat and a schooner. We drove around a bit more and saw some of the ritzy areas of the city on the way to pick up Leisa and head back to Sydney. The trip back to the city did not take nearly as long as the trip up to Newcastle, though as we drove across the Harbour Bridge back into the city it began to rain - not the nicest welcome we could be given.
It was a fantastic trip, and it was wonderful to get out of Sydney and see a bit of Australia which isn't on the radar of many travelers. I look forward to more adventures out of Sydney in the near future!
Word of the day 1: schooner
Usage: a glass for drinking beer that holds 425mL, about 15 oz. Australia beer glass sizes also include a middy (10 oz. - half an imperial pint) and a schmiddy (12 oz.)
On Saturday morning Amanda got to my place (with our friend Leisa and her daughter in tow - they were on their way to visit family in Newcastle) and we set off before midday (Aussies rarely use "noon") toward the north via the city. We crossed the Harbour Bridge and headed up through the northern suburbs before getting on the M2 (one of the highways) to trek up the coast. Along the way, through the trees, you could catch glimpses of magnificent green hills (large, large hills) rolling down to lakes and the Pacific Coast. With views like that I was excited to see Newcastle, even with the things I had been told about it from my friends who had moved down to Sydney. The drive took a while, there was quite a bit of traffic, and we finally got to Newcastle around 3:00.
We arrived in the "city", more suburban sprawl than anything else, and dropped Leisa off before heading to Amanda's grandparents on the shores of Lake Macquarie. The drive there, and subsequent wanderings, evoked images of the vistas of the Pacific northwest. With views of water and green hills, it almost felt as though we were driving around Seattle (save for the fact that we were driving on the left). After a bit of a visit we headed off to Amanda's parents to drop our things. We chatted briefly in the kitchen and enjoyed the views of the Lake and Pacific Ocean from the veranda before getting back in the car and driving around the Lake to Toronto (a suburb of Newcastle) for the housewarming. We stayed from around 5:00 until 12:00 or so (knowing that we would gain an hour through daylight savings change last night) and had a wonderful time chatting with a wide array of people, talking about Australia, things I needed to see in Newcastle, and a ton of other things.
I woke up this morning and did a bit of work on the veranda outside my room before Amanda and I struck out to see some sites before breakfast.
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| Looking out from the veranda of Amanda's house to Lake Macquarie. |
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| Driving down Hunter Street in the heart of Newcastle |
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| Driving toward Bar Beach from downtown Newcastle. |
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| Approaching the Harbour Bridge from North Sydney. |
Word of the day 1: schooner
Usage: a glass for drinking beer that holds 425mL, about 15 oz. Australia beer glass sizes also include a middy (10 oz. - half an imperial pint) and a schmiddy (12 oz.)
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