Day 29 – Newcastle – 13 October 2017

As we left Port Macquarie I simply had to stop at Bels Gordon Street Bakery for one of their pies. I had their famous Beef & Reef pie, with beef and prawns, and what looked and tasted like a Mornay Sauce on top and it was absolutely amazing!
Definitely the best pie I ever had, with tender chunks of beef, 3 big chunks of prawn and an incredible rich, salty gravy to hold it all together. Cannot recommend it enough!

After that it was more beaches, some lakes (we did the Myall Lakes Drive – and Wallis Lake is beautiful!), saw my first black swans(!) and made it to Newcastle without any issues. Once in Newcastle though, it was a massive pain getting to our hotel (The Clarendon Newcastle) as they are digging up the whole street in front of the hotel, and that along with a confusing one-way road system to rival Cape Town’s, meant it took ages to get checked in and to our room.

Although it was a very windy day we braced ourselves and went outside in search of sustenance – first stopping at The Lucky Hotel, then The Central, before making our way towards the waterfront area, which seems newly upgraded and with a stretch of nice bars and restaurants. In the end we couldn’t find anything there that we fancied eating though, and headed back to The Lucky Hotel where they menu caught our eye earlier. The place is very interesting inside with a hip vibe and good, solid food options, and that is where we ended the night. Newcastle was another pleasant surprise with many good eating and drinking options, despite the somewhat industrial look at the harbour. The fact that we were there on a Friday night also meant that there was a proper weekend vibe going and all the bars and restaurants were busy and full of people having fun. Newcastle is quite a big place and unfortunately we didn’t get to explore all of it, but it was a very good choice for a stopover.