Newcastle

This weekend I went to visit a friend from camp who lives in Newcastle, about a two hour train ride from sydney city centre.
Since we have arrived in sydney, we have moved about between a number of different hostels & are living out of our suitcases, so I was looking forward to a couple of nights in an actual house! Thursday was a productive day, I opened a bank account, applied for a tax code, booked a flight to adelaide and I felt a lot better about having to start from scratch over here in Sydney.
Sophie, sean and his friend johnny stayed in sydney for the weekend.

Friday 12th
When I arrived my friend Jodzi told me about the plans for the weekend.  He volunteers for a charity called Camp Quality, which provides help to families affected by children with cancer. There was a bike 10,000km bike ride which had been taking place for the last 8 days, and day 10 was on Sunday! He was in charge  of organising the welcome home event and so it was nice to get to see a bit of what was going on in his local community.
We went for a drive around the area to see some of the beaches, which is what Newcastle is known for, and they really were beautiful! The rest of the night was spent relaxing, watching tv and movies and anyone from camp who has visited jodzi before has apparently had a "jodzi bbq." Thankfully, my first australian bbq on this trip didn't disappoint, it was delicious.
Saturday 15th
I had a lie in until 10.40am and definitely needed it! The weather was beautiful so we headed out to spend the day by the beaches in the sun. We walked for about an hour along one of the coasts and saw some sea lions sunbathing on the rocks and swimming along the way. Another funny discovey was that the sand on the beach was so soft it squeaked as you walked along it!
That night we went to a pub where the bike riders and families were coming in and we had our tea there.
Sunday 16th
We left early in the morning to set up for the bike riders finish line. It was in a car park of a local pub. We built a stage area, inflated a giant arch and inflated over 100 helium balloons! It looked really good and the families loved it. The riders were also lead to the finish by a local motorbike gang (and obviously I had to get a little photo opportunity in there!)
I then hopped on the train back to sydney mid afternoon to go and meet & back up with the others.
I definitely had a lovely welcoming weekend to Australia!