Sunday 8th January 2023
After checking out from our hotel, we went to explore Morpeth. It’s a quaint little olde worlde town, very picturesque with loads of cute little shops and cafes.
We went into Morpeth Gourmet Foods & Ginger Beer Factory, an interesting shop with a variety of gourmet foods and drinks, and quite a few free sample to taste. The ginger beer was especially good!Unfortunately they’re only sold in large bottles of cordial that needs to be diluted with soda water, and there’s no way we’d have time to drink a full bottle before we fly to New Zealand in a couple of days time.
On the top floor is Morpeth Gallery, a small art gallery. There’s quite a range of art, all for sale, and the staff are extremely friendly and chatty. We were told about one artist who uses gold (including rubbing his wedding ring on the paper!), silver, and platinum in his artwork. His portraits were so realistic and life like, but I’m not convinced the precious metals added much.
We then continued on our journey to Newcastle, where we visited Newcastle fort. You can walk around the old fort and several of the buildings house small museum exhibits. It’s a pretty interesting place. Entrance is free, although you can pay to do a tunnel tour. Unfortunately we arrived just after the 11am tour had already started, and the next one wasn’t until 1.30pm (which would be too tight to make our 2.30pm lunch booking).
We did, however get to see the gun being fired at 1pm, which was pretty cool to watch. They explained the process as they did it. If you ever visit Newcastle Fort it’s definitely worth sticking around for the gun firing.
There were also fantastic views over Newcastle from top of hill, so we sat on a bench to relax while enjoying them.
We then went for a late leisurely lunch at The Flotilla, where there’s a set 5 course tasting menu. The food was exceptional. I especially loved the buttermilk fried barramundi wings and the slow cooked beef short rib (which literally fell apart and melted in your mouth).
After lunch we drove to the Swansea Hotel, where we’re staying for the night. It’s basically a pub with accommodation above it, and is probably one of the worst places we’ve stayed. The room was tiny and pretty shabby looking with no door to the bathroom. It was fine for a night, but I’m glad we weren’t staying any longer.
Swansea is on Lake Macquarie, and as it was a lovely day we decided to walk to the Swansea Channel, where the lake meets the sea, and sit and watch the world go by for a while. By this time it was evening, so we walked back to the hotel for an episode of After Life (which we’ve just started watching on Netflix) and an early night.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 