Newcastle

I went to visit some friends I met in Whistler last year in Newcastle (a couple of hours North of Sydney). I stayed with one of my old Whistler roommates Chris and his family for the majority of the week. Chris works in Western Australia but comes home every third week. His family was awesome, they were really nice and welcoming.

While in Newcastle I also got to see another of my old Whistler roommates Callan as well as some of my old Whistler co-workers from lift ops.

Although Newcastle is a nice coastal town with many nice beaches, it’s a working town which strives on it’s coal industry. In fact, it’s currently the largest coal exporting harbor in the world.

The first three nights were spent drinking quite a bit, enough to make us lay off the booze for the remainder of my time in Newcastle. In fact, for my last couple of days, even the smell of beer would almost make me sick. I didn’t even want to think about the next time I would drink. But we had some good nights on the town as well as some good nights just hanging out at Chris’ sisters house playing pool in the garage.

One of the many highlights of my trip to Newcastle was playing a round of golf with the boys. We hired two carts and hit the golf course with force. I hadn’t played golf in over two years, and I’ll be the first to say that I had quite a few chocking hits. But Chris and I managed to make a dollar for the game against Callan and Gavin.

I flew to and from Newcastle with Jetstar this time instead of Virgin and the day I left, they charged me an extra $80 for checked baggage (my flight was less than $80) which I was sure I said I would have when I bought the tickets. I argued a bit with them but I was late checking in and only had a few minutes to get to my gate so I gave in and handed them my credit card. Never flying with Jetstar again.