Newcastle

Why didn't anyone tell me what a cool place Newcastle appears to be? Our last full day of our short break was Thursday, so I pondered what to do, considered a drive to the Hunter Valley then hit upon the idea of going to Newcastle. Sal's eyes lit up - big antique warehouse in Newcastle. The drive is about an hour and quite uneventful, though we did see a small kangeroo by the side of the road as we headed to the Pacific Highway. Our approach and entry to Newcastle took us along the waterfront, all industry and gentrification. Not sure where all the tenants for the offices and apartments will come from now the future is a little less (credit-fuelled) rosey than it used to be. Ho hum. Apparently the waterfront area has really been cleaned up, but someone who knows what it was like can tell you more than I can, what with having now been there just this once. Sal was complaining of hunger in a way that suggested she may chew my arm off if we didn't stop soon for breakfast, so with only just over minimal faffing we found a cafe overlooking the ocean and settled in.

They breed their surfers hard in Newcastle. Several were out in just board shorts; fine for a quick swim, but a session in the surf? The guy in the cafe thought they were mad too, so I felt a little less soft. Breakfast was fine enough, but I think we were ripped off or subject to a genuine maths error with the bill. I'm prepared to go with the latter; we paid and went for a wander. With my phone camera working again I was always going to dawdle around the Ocean Baths, and so it was. They are closed for cleaning each Thursday, so were water free as we wandered past. No bother, that gave me the opportunity to wander through them and click off some pics. Also being restored, so some parts fenced off. Very picturesqe, though maybe not on a bright, hot, clear day. Plenty of history too, which I'll not bore you with but you can get here. While I bimbled about Sal continued walking around the foreshore, and I caught up with her at Nobby's Beach that has for quite some time been runaground-tanker-free. A cracking little bay where plenty of local sprogs seemed to be having their school sports lessons. I don't remember doing too much surfing back in Morden. AH well, these are things AJ has to look forward to.

It was pretty warm by now, so we watered up and kept wandering towards town, stopping for AJ to have a roll on a grassy patch in front of Customs House - she'd been in her pram for long enough. Our wander through town was sort-of an antique shop hunt and on that front it was a resounding failure. However, I was mightyly impressed with the architecture of Newcastle. For whatever reason - foresight, oversight, apathy, don't care - there is plenty of old building stock left in Newcastle. The blight of 60s progress has not left too much of a scar on the city (though the Telstra building is, of course, a fucking shocker.) There is the massive art deco bulk of the Great Nothern Hotel that hits you straight in the face. I just checked their website and it lists swimwear model, Ralph model and manhunt; I suspect it is not exactly a classy establishment, and while off on this tangent, as much as I liked the city around lunch time on a sunny Thursday it did have the feel of a place that may be altogether more menacing come Friday (or any other) night. I digress.

We wandererd to and through the main shopping drag, again finding solid old building stock all around. What's more, inside some of these buildings were funkly little cafes that would not have looked out of place in Melbourne. But wait, there's more! Large metal curves were situated in a couple of the laneways just off of the main drag and they had speakers attached and shade sails ready to deploy. Again, much more Melbourne than Sydney this use of public space. There was more art deco, more federation, some old weatherboard; nothing I could capture particularly well with my phone, but certainly plenty to whet my appetite for a return trip, armed with proper cameras (chances of that happening? We shall see.)

Oh yeah, AJ was just chilling all along. Not really a lot more she can do at the moment. Thought I'd mention it to reassure you we'd not left her down by Customs House.

We meandered back to the car and then started back to Bundabah. On the way out, with utter luck trumping any judgement I managed to find an antiques warehouse and a 15min free parking spot just outside. Sal damn near rolled out of the car as we drove by, popped in, did a quick round and popped back to the car to tell me how damn expensive a lot of the old stuff was. Ah well.

And that was Newcastle.