Lake Macquarie and Newcastle

Lake Macquarie is the largest coastal saltwater lake in Australia, at 24km long, four times the size of Sydney Harbour and located between the Central Coast and Newcastle.

It is promoted as a location for aquatic relaxing holiday with activies as cruising on the lake, mountain walks, lakeside dining and shopping.

When first planned, it was meant to be an overnight stay in Lake Macquarie. Somehow, the accommodation were rather pricey. So we canned the thought of staying overnight. Till now I am not totally sure if we actually gone to the right place (I mean where all the activities are) but it doesn't seem very tempting. We were quite relieved that we didn't book for a night's stay.

As said, I am not totally sure if we were at the hype touristy location , in fact I don't exactly have any cool pictures of Lake Macquarie. :P May I should've asked my colleague, heard she has a holiday home in Lake Macquarie.

Trip to Lake Macquarie was not successful, hence to make the drive a little more worth it, we popped by Newcastle. I had memory of being rather sleepy at that time, not too sure why but.. anyway..

Newcastle is also famous for its beaches, and can be reached by Cityrail.

I believe there are quite a few tours to Hunter Valley departs from Newcastle. Don't take my word for it, cos I have not been to Hunter Valley :P

Back to Newcastle being famous for its beaches, there were a lot of people doing paragliding when we were there.

We walked to the end, near to the waters... I remember it was a rather long walk.

And we saw big vessel with some tug boats...

Side note: Yay for AI fish curry... ^_^

Hawkesbury River

One of the short breaks idea given in NSW Short Breaks book from the VisitNSW holiday planners is Hawkesbury River. And no, I did not undertake so many breaks in short duration of time, this was a while back but feel that I haven't been blogging much on Sydney, and this current place where I call home at the moment deserved more mention.

So, while lazing on the couch, with Detective Conan anime running, a mug of coffee, I looked up on some picture folders filed away and found a couple of places that I could write about.

First up - Hawkesbury River.

The introduction given in the holiday planner as this is location an hour's drive north-west of Sydney. From the early 1790s, the farms of the Hawkesbury River Valley were crucial to the colony's early survival. The remaining of the introduction, you can read from the link itself.

I remembered the day we were there was gloomy, and it rained. Not a brilliant day for a day out. From memory, at least to me, there wasn't much to do. More of those rest & relax holidays, perhaps with a cruise and wine in hand sort of break.

By the way, Hawkesbury River can be reached by train, with the station name of the same - Hawkesbury River.

We didn't go on any cruise, just wandering about. In fact, we didn't stay very long.
Anyway, here's some pictures... with gloomy weather :P

Side note: I caved in and bought the bag :P

North Sydney Market

I'm so slack lately. Sometimes to the extend that I'll do my groceries after work on Friday night, and nua hibernate over the weekend. On rare occasions, I'll drag myself out for the sun. Last Saturday, was one of the rare occasions that I dragged myself out... to the North Sydney Market. It so happened that one of my classmates in Japanese class mentioned that she is manning a stall in the North Sydney Market regularly and we could pop by to visit. I used to visit the North Sydney Market, which was a stone throw away from where I used to live, now... I frequent the Kirribilli Market :P

North Sydney Market is located at Miller Street, next to the Stanton Library, every 2nd Saturday of the month, from 9am to 3pm. I thought I'll walk a bit... to absorb some Vitamin D.

I thought the gate looks nice... if I'm not wrong, the building is a church.

Roundabout at Milsons Point

Bridge connecting city to North Shore

First sign of spring? Doubt it though... still very much in winter

Graffiti at one of the back lane leading up to North Sydney

North Sydney Market in operation

Tempted... but didn't get any

Sri Lanka dishes - 4 vege dishes at $7, 4 vege dishes+1 meat (choice of chicken or mutton on the day I was there) at $8. The lady even offered to refill before I take the pictures, but I told her it's alright :P

Glutton me also bought a piece of the finger food ($3, though I'm not sure if all were priced the same) to munch when walkabout.

Back to dropping by to say Hi to my friend... I can't seem to locate her stall. Haha. When I saw her a couple of days ago, she described the neighbouring stalls and guess what, I remembered all of them, but somehow didn't see her. I must be mata sepet = ="

Walking away from the market... there's a red phone booth where I spent a lot of 50 cents and phone cards calling mom.

Buildings opposite the market, thought the contrast colour looks nice

... and drumroll... here's the building where I used to stay.. for at least 6 months.

Side note: Am tempted to get this bag in stone colour. :P