Newcastle / Tamworth / Armidale

So from Sydney we headed up the Pacific hwy on our way to Stockton Beach at Newcastle. We called in on our way to catch up one of Rob's friends from his university days and her family and Somersby for morning tea, then continued on to Newcastle.

We arrived at the Stockton Beach and were given our site allocation of 230 which was prefect for us with the playground opposite our site and behind that the amenities including a children's bathroom which were entry via code only. We booked for 2 nights paying $76 ($38 per night) with children under 5 free. The Park is a lovely spot backing onto the beach, though mainly consists of holiday permanents but only a handful where there when we stayed. There is no pool here but via the office you can get free passes to go to the public swimming pool next door. As we arrived mid afternoon by the time we set up and made a trip down to the main street of Stockton Beach to get some groceries from IGA it was nearly dinner time so after showers for the boys we headed out to the RSL which had a great specials menu for dinner.

Wednesday morning saw us catch the ferry from Stockton Beach to Newcastle ( a 5 minute ride cost  adults $2.50 and children $1.20 each way). 


Stockton Beach to Newcastle Ferry


We made use of the free public bus that takes you around  inner city Newcastle passing by the grand Catholic Cathedral and having morning tea and doing a bit of window shopping on Hunter street before catching the ferry back to Stockton Beach to sit in Pitt street reserve and watch 3 tug boats head out and collect the Hua Ta, a South Korean coal ship come in. 270 meters in length by 43m and can carry 77273 tones. One massive ship



Hua Ta coming into Newcastle Harbour


After the boys afternoon sleeps we walked along the 2km shipwreck walk which lines the breakwater 16 wrecks forming the walk with the most visible being 'Adolphe'  a French barque. While walking we we lucky enough to have 2 fighter jets fly over us from the nearby RAF base at Willamstown.


Shipwreck walk





The wreck of Adolphe

 Thursday we left Newcastle and headed to Tamworth. We stopped for lunch at Willow Tree were the boys had a play on the playground and got to see a coal freight train pull up to the signal. J was very impressed it had 3 engines to pull it. Around an hour and half later we pulled into the driveway of Grandma and PaPa where we spent Easter catching up with family.

Next Stop after Tamworth was to be Coffs Harbour but we thought we would break up the drive a bit for the boys and catch up with Rob's brother and his family in Armidale so we spent our first night free camping at Dumaresq Dam (camps 7 161). So peaceful here, and a very popular spot, we wished we could have stayed a bit longer than just overnight.

Dumarseq Dam Armidale

We woke on Thursday morning and the weather had turned it on for us, cold and raining (the first lot of rain since we left home 4 weeks ago) so we set off for our next destination of Coffs Harbour via Waterfall way.