The third leg of our journey took us to Newcastle, a scant 45 min drive outside of the Hunter, and also home to Liz’s parents. There was the slightest bit of trepidation for this visit, as Liz’s father is an Anglican minister, and Ben and I are godless heathens. In the end there was nothing to fear, as Ben and I both behaved, and we were well received. Liz’s dad has a subscription to Time magazine, and loves American politics, so he had a field day having me around. Ben noticed a woodcut on the dining room wall, and asked Brandon and I for a confirmation. It was indeed the Last Supper.

We had a lovely dinner, walked around New Lambton a bit with Gus, the yellow lab walking Ben, and watched the Darjeerling Limited. The next day we went downtown to the harbour and had a ginger beer at the Brewery. It was quite a refreshing change after all the wine. Who am I kidding, we’re a bunch of alcos, and it was still great to have a beer at 11:00 am.

We headed home, and I made my request to stop in Brooklyn on the way for some cheesy photo ops. We weren’t sure there was even an exit, but indeed there was and we got off. It turned out to be a nice little town complete with a pub, police station, post office and train station. Everyone was a bit peckish, so we decided to eat lunch as well. I made an inspired choice of local prawns, whose heads I had to rip off. But they were amazing. After the requisite photos, we headed back down to Sydney.

All in all, an awesome trip. I hope my liver thinks as much.