Lindt at Circular Quay, Sydney

As we strolled along the Circular Quay on 5 July, Paul got a call from Serene asking us not to miss the chocolate drinks in Lindt.

Sydney Opera House

My trip to Sydney would have been incomplete if I have not set foot to Sydney Opera House.

I did learn something new about its design when I came back from the trip.

Familiar Landmarks in Sydney

I told myself before visiting Sydney to revisit some of the familiar places again. Well after a lapse of 14 years, they are literally identical when compared with old photos.

In fact, I should not expect to find any change as these same old icons are there for keep to draw in millions and millions of foreign currencies for Australia.

Newcastle

I admire their tenacity to withstand cold in the winter.

Surfing in winter.

Iconic lighthouse landmark.

Hotel F1 where we stayed.

Obelisk.

Macadamia

On the way back to Newcastle from Port Stephens/Nelson Bay, we made a detour to visit a Macadamia farm.

It's a good educational tour to pick up a few tips about this whole business of planting, harvesting and processing of Macadamia.

Stockton Beach Sand Dunes

We finally made it to this huge beach sand dunes on 1 July, a place where Paul had talked about. By Sahara or Gobi Deserts standard, this is nothing. But to a first timer to a "desert", this is still immense - 32km long by 1km wide. The experience of being within such an immense expanse of white sand is different from being in Wave Rock, the latter is more of barren bush land. Still, it's a good get-away from the cheese tasting and chocolate samplings we are used to in Australia.

I was quite tempted to do a few slides down the slope. But then looking at the steep slope, I was concerned I might end up  rolling down rather than sliding down. That would be unthinkable!

Of course, Paul with his "youthful" legs had no problem racing up and down the slope. Try to spot the tiny dot of Paul on the slope......

As a diligent visitor, I took nothing from this "desert" but left behind my footprints albeit for a very very short time.

Whale Watching at Port Stephens

Humpback whales commence their annual northern migration in mid-May towards the warm waters of the Barrier Reef. This 10,000km migration peaks in July as most whales would be travelling within a mile of the coast. It was said that these juvenile and sub-adult Humpbacks start to congregate off the coast often in group of threes and fours. They are young whales either too young to mate or too old to hang around with their mothers.

We were fortunate to come to Port Stephens at the right time to do this whale watching.

Mind you, these are real whale photos captured by my own camera!

Beside the whales, our cruise ship was also accompanied by friendly Bottlenose dolphins along the way.

Hunter Valley

As usual, you won't miss out visiting a winery each time you visit Australia. We have been to Yarra Valley Winery in Melbourne, Margaret River Winery and Swan Valley Winery (this is added after reminder from Serene) in Perth. In Newcastle, Paul was the sole planner and guide for our winery tour in Hunter Valley.

I must say, he did a good job. I noticed he spent a fair amount of time in advance to study the route as well as the destinations. I must admit except in our first driving experience to Sydney to locate the hotel and later the car rental company, there were no major hitches in our whole trip. In the end, we always managed to find the place after a few wrong turns. I did a fair amount of driving while Paul acted as the navigator. I think it would have been disastrous if it had been the other way mainly because of possible poor navigation I envisage!

Paul was fully absorbed in online checking of impending route to take the next morning.

With the countless times of wine tasting, cheese samplings and chocolate samplings which we had done in the past, the interest had somewhat waned this time. Nevertheless, we still diligently looked out for these to make sure the itinerary was complete.

University of Newcastle, Australia

How should I describe University of Newcastle campus. Like what Paul said, it's one of a kind in the world! I won't dispute that after being in and out of it.

I would describe it as a university set in a botanical garden because there is so many trees and thick foliage. Even from a bird eye view, there is so much green.There are a lot of pebble-finished footpaths, lot of narrow but rather long bridges and lots of external staircases. At least, that's my impression!

But, I am especially impressed by the Barahineban hostel design. It is well ventilated, a lot of green and good roof-top facilities for residents' get-together and hostel functions. It is also solar-powered with panels installed on the roof. I wish the 5th College which I stayed in MU way back in the 70's was like that.

Any unusual building? well, probably the red building is one of them. I heard this is part of the Architecture Faculty.

Of course, beer is plentiful in the campus! At least now I have a better feel of the routine of Paul in the campus. Well, if there is not enough tennis, walking around the campus would compensate for that.

Flight to Sydney

Well, our trip down south (27 June - 6 July) and Singapore (6 July - 8 July) went by faster than anticipated. It was eventful from the moment we left the house on the way to KK International Airport to fly to Singapore at 0930 on 27 June. Our travel agent called us to convey the news that the flight had been rescheduled from the original 1155 to 1700. This was only confirmed when we arrived at the airport. We had to go home and waited until 1515 to start all over again.

The plane finally flew off at 1815. In the flight, we were wondering whether we could make it to our connecting flight to Sydney at 2035. Half an hour before the plane landed, we were invited to move to the 1^st Class seats just next to the main exit. We thought, it would have been nicer if we had been asked earlier say before dinner was served! The air-hostess told us to rush as fast as we could to catch the connecting flight the moment the door was opened.

We literally ran all the way to the check-in lounge the minute the door was opened. Because of this, we missed out the chance of seeing Terminal 3 which we originally expected to spend a fair amount of time. As it turned out, the flight was delayed as well to 2100 and it finally flew off at 2130.

Well, the unfortunate experience was finally compensated by our first experience inside the much talked about Airbus A380.

When we finally landed at Sydney Airport and got out of the Terminal, it was well passed 0830 and we were in the safe hand of Paul and his friend.