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Published: December 30th 2005
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Christmas in Newcastle
An American resident goes all out to decorate his "Graceland" home. We were lucky enough to be invited by Alun and Cath Kelly (nee Lynsky) to spend Christmas with them in Newcastle. Cath and Alun are also doing a "round the world" trip and just happen to be in NSW at the same time as us, stopping off with their relatives in Newcastle. The train ride from Sydney to Newcastle took us over and past lots of rivers, inlets and eucalyptus forests.We arrived after a 2 hour trip and were met by the Wilson family - Cath's cousins. South African friends of theirs lent us their house to stay in, a beautiful home with a cottage in the garden and a swimming pool - felt like we had our own little resort! Our first evening was spent having a bbq on the banks of Lake Macquarie - a huge saltwater lake. Next day all the girls went Christmas shopping while the boys settled down at a coffee shop, and when that got to be too much we headed for the beach, which is only 2 kms from the Wilson's house. Since then our morning ritual has been to get up at 6.30 and the girls go for long walks along the
Getting friendly with Santa
Lisa and Cath putting in a last ditch attempt to improve their haul.The local fire brigade put on a show for the kids each year. beach or the promenade whilst the boys surf and body board. Newcastle has a beautiful long beach and the water is really clean and awesome for swimming and surfing.
Christmas Eve was a hot and sticky 39 degrees so we spent most of the day in the air con lounging around. Cath, Alun, Nicole and Lisa went to Midnight Mass at the Catholic Cathedral and ended up sitting in the choir loft for lack of space, with over 500 people in the church. Needless to say Alun's singing made up for all of us and I think he should have joined the choir! Christmas day was beautiful and sunny and we had a great lunch outside on the veranda by the pool. We were joined by 2 Zimbabweans, Matt and Ronald, and we spent all day playing Boules, garden cricket and tennis on the road. Our $5 Secret Santa gifts were mostly games, so we all had to have a go at them. Needless to say we were exhausted by the end of the day...
Boxing day was yet another stinker, with the mercury rising to the mid 30's, but we tried to scrub up and set off
A "friendly" game of boules
Keith, Alun and Matt (from Zim) caught up in fierce competition. for the horse races, which is meant to be the social event of the year in Newcastle. We certainly saw some sights, with very little being worn by most of the females. We didn't win any money, but enjoyed the people watching!
We have been on some great day trips both North and South of Newcastle to Palm Beach and Nelson's Bay. We caught the ferry from Woy Woy to Palm Beach on yet another clear, sunny day. Palm Beach is very posh and we spent most of the day talking about which yacht and mansion we would own when we won the million. We hired a surf board and had an awesome time surfing.
At Nelson's Bay we found a stunning beach and again spent most of the day surfing, body boarding, swimming and snorkeling. Last night all the girls went out to have Frio's (espresso served with milk and vanilla bean gelati) and Lisa was in heaven! We took a drive past some of the old houses that have been renovated and enjoyed a magnificent sunset from the hill top. Today we went out to the coffee strip on Darby street and had iced coffee shakes
Christmas lunch
Good food and company made for a great day while the boys hit the surf yet again. It was too hot to contemplate doing anything else, so we spent the afternoon at the beach. What a beautiful afternoon it was. The sea was aqua, a cool breeze was blowing and we even saw a school of dolphins playing close to the shore in amongst the surfers. Tonight we are off back to Bar Beach to have fish and chips and sun downers. Tomorrow we all head to Sydney for NYE and are busy sewing hearts on to our shirts in keeping with this year's theme.
The Wilson's have spolit us rotten and it has been so wonderful to be part of a family, if only for a little while! They have a really lovely home in Newcastle and are so lucky to live so close to the beach. We have had a great time and are also looking forward to seeing the fireworks over Sydney Harbour tomorrow night. Wishing all our family and friends a safe and very festive New Year. We can't believe it is the end of 2005 already... We are over half way through our trip now and need to do some serious planning for
Waxing up
Keith applying the final touches before hitting the surf New Zealand! Sending lots of love, Lisa and Keith. xxx
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tom
non-member comment
its nelson bay!!
just letting you know its not Nelson's Bay it is Nelson Bay.