We Had a Date with Nature -- Wed., Nov. 28

A lovely day at the Hunter Valley Gardens today...the rain stayed away, the temperature was perfect, and the display gardens really resonated with us. Upon entering the garden, we spiraled into the sunken rose garden with its sculpture of children frolicking.

[Note: Please click to enlarge photos for detail on flowers, leaves, birds, trees.]

The Indian Mosaic Garden was interesting, but not our favorite. Here's Bob under a shelter by one of the lakes and a picture of the mosaic part of the garden.

Indian Tea House.

Indian Mosaic Gaarden

Right next door we found one of our favorite gardens of the day: the Chinese Moongate Garden. The garden is circular, no corners for demons to hide in. You'll note the moongate is circular. Looking through the moongate are garden versions of a river (crushed white rock), mountain (big gray boulder) and clouds (the topiary bush). You'll also see modern day gardening implements. Oh, and me. LOL.

Moongate with symbolic scene.

Moongate

Fuschias and hostas in Chinese Moongate Garden.

We then walked up a hill, past orchards with ripening apricots, to a lookout over a pond and the rose garden. I didn't take lots of long-distance photos because the gardens were decorated with wire Christmas decorations for their nighttime Christmas Spectacular. (Their Christmas Spectacular can be seen from space!)

Along the paths, we saw unique flowers and beautiful birds.

Red-browed Firetail

Male Superb Fairy-wren

The Storybook Garden was very cute with books turned to a page of a nursery rhyme and statuary that brought the nursery rhymes to life. Piped in music played children's nursery rhyme music. I'm a fan of Alice in Wonderland, so where do you think I landed? I was late for a very important date with the Mad Hatter and Alice.

Fashionably late.

We found a vegetable garden tended by a scarecrow with a gray moss beard. He guarded over corn, eggplant and squash. Very clever display.

Another garden that impressed us immensely is the Border Garden. Wow! That is one BIG hedge border!

Bob is 6' tall. The hedge must be 18' tall.

Love the varied green bottom hedge.

Inside the Border Garden.

From the Border Garden we took a hike over to the Oriental Garden and stopped to admire a waterfall and plants along the way.

 

 



 

On to the Oriental Garden, another of our favorites! I took so many pictures here but I can't put them all in my blog. Sigh.

Bob was into taking photos of me today.

Japanese Pagoda.

Skinks, methinks.



Water lilies.

 

Another type of water lily.

That's the end of your tour of the Oriental Garden. We finished up our garden date on the Lakes Walk. I'm a sucker for birds who pose for me and these three were sitting ducks. (Sorry.)

Other shots taken on the Lakes Walk...

Cape Chestnut (Calodendron capense)--native to Africa.

In the Formal Garden we were greeted by a willie wagtail bird dressed in his tuxedo. Do birds just know to dress for the occasion?

Willie Wagtail.

When we finished at the garden, we drove across the street and took a photo of one of the big wineries in the area. This photo doesn't do it justice.

After almost three hours of walking, photography and sniffing flowers, we were ready for the hot tub. The one nearest our unit was worked on Tuesday, but the heater still wasn't working. We walked up the street to the other pool and hot tub. That one worked. It sure felt good to sit in the hot tub for 1/2 hour!

Tomorrow we're taking the CityRail train into Sydney. We can get a day pass for $21 that includes all trains, ferries and buses. We'll really be able to get around. Bob wants to see Bondi Beach, the National Opal Collection and wants to show me the Darling Harbour area. We also want to re-visit Queen Victoria Building (QVB) shopping area and check out The Strand shopping area. We don't know if we'll get to it tomorrow, but we also want to tour the Hyde Park Barracks to learn of Sydney's early convict history.

That's it for today.

Travel Bug out.

Newcastle: Beaches and Ocean Baths -- Tues., Nov. 27

The beach won out today. Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, to be exact. Bob loves the ocean and when I saw the 5K Bathers Way Walk on the "Free Guide and Maps to Newcastle" brochure, I knew that would be our walk today.

After a one-hour drive to Newcastle, we parked at Camp Shortland and started the walk along Macquarie's Pier and walked out past Nobby's Lighthouse to the end of the harbour break-wall. The weather was overcast and warm; however, when we went out on the harbour wall, a fierce wind kicked up and we got sandblasted for a short distance.

The breeze was a constant companion on our walk and without it, the temperature would have been sweltering. About two hours into the walk, we had quite a bit of ocean spray and high misty fog roll in, but didn't block our views.

Nobby's Lighthouse and dunes.

Looking back at Nobby's Lighthouse from the break-wall.

The city of Newcastle from the lighthouse walk.

Looking back toward Nobby's Lighthouse.

Along Bathers Way, we saw numerous beaches along with Ocean Baths.  The first ocean bath we came to was Newcastle Ocean Baths.

Art deco building at Newcastle Ocean Baths.



Huge saltwater pool at the baths with lap lanes at one end.

The walk followed a beautiful stretch of coastline.

Bob's happy face.

Newcastle Beach and our walkway.

While we were walking, a Marine Rescue helicopter was just off-shore. We saw someone in the water set off a flare. The helicopter hovered for quite a while and ended up pulling two people out of the water.

Marine Rescue helicopter.

The next point of interest on the Bathers Way was the Bogey Hole, one of the oldest ocean baths in New South Wales. The Bogey Hole was constructed by convicts in 1819 for the personal use of Commandant Morisset. The name Bogey Hole comes from the indigenous word meaning "to bathe." There were about 12 people swimming in the Bogey Hole today. If we had our swimsuits and towels there would have been two more in there. It looked so inviting.

The Bogey Hole.

"Crown Land" beyond the fence.

The steepest part of the walk was up and over the above headland. At the top we came to Cook Hill neighborhood (The Hill) and Strzelecki Lookout.

Cook Hill homes.

Strzelecki Scenic Lookout

Rainbow Lorikeet

(You didn't think I could do a post without a bird or animal, did you?)

 

Bar Beach, Dixon Beach and Meriwether Beach.

Along our route were history markers. The signs below tell about the history of coal in the area. Click to enlarge the history markers below.

 

 

Kite surfers

The farthest destination on our walk was Merewether Ocean Baths, the largest ocean bath complex in the Southern Hemisphere.

Merewether Ocean Baths.

From here we turned around and walked 5 km back to our car along the same route. All in all, our walk was about 13 km (7-1/2 miles). With all our stops it took us 4 hours and 20 minutes.

 

Dinner was at "A Taste of Asia." Then we drove back to Cessnock.

On the way home, the rain started, and the lightning. Tonight, we are having another thunder and lightning show.

We were going to take the train into Sydney tomorrow, but the weather says otherwise. It's supposed to rain with thunderstorms. Thursday will be better weather, so we'll do our Sydney trip on Thursday.

Oh, I don't think I've posted a photo of our replacement Hertz car. It's a Hyundai. We love the sapphire blue color!

Friday, we check out of our timeshare. We're still waiting to hear about our Melbourne timeshare--they haven't found one for us yet. If we don't get the timeshare, we will wing it and drive the coastline from Sydney to Melbourne, staying at motels along the way.

Tomorrow is another day. Let's see what it brings.

Travel Bug out.