Happy Easter.

The weather here in New South Wales was superb for the Easter weekend, warm, sunny and dry. On Easter Saturday Jonesy and I headed for the Hunter Valley Vineyards. With over 120 wineries and in excess of 3,500 hectares of vines, the Hunter Valley represents one of Australia's largest wine producing areas. From large Internationally known wines such as McGuigan through to boutique wineries there is something for every taste. Add to this cheese, chocolate and other gourmet food outlets, hotels and leisure pursuits people flock to the Hunter Valley from all over the world.

Humpty Dumpty before his big fall.

Jack and Jill in free fall.

What the fork? with the dish and the spoon!

Jonesy on the fiddle!

We went to another of the valley's attractions, the Hunter Valley Gardens. Created by Bill Roache (not he of Coronation Street fame), his 50 gardeners took 4 years to plan and plant the 60 acres  and 10 feature gardens that comprise the park.

One of these themed gardens was especially popular this Easter. Storybook Gardens was the setting for a children's Easter Egg hunt. There are 8km of walkways through the gardens and a guided tour train runs for those wishing to let it take the strain for them.

Brumby stallions.

Chinese pagoda.

This was a challenge for my recovery from the cellulitis that had affected my left foot, and I am happy to report that I suffered no reaction to the 3 hours of walking that we did around the different gardens. The Rose Garden would have been spectacular had we been visiting at the right time of the year, so it was the Chinese Garden that stole my vote as the most memorable. The clever art of topiary was in evidence with various animals depicted and in particular, the Brumby horses were very much in evidence.

The other themed gardens were; the Sunken Garden, the Formal Garden, the Indian Mosaic Garden, the Italian Grotto, the Oriental Garden and the Fountains and Statues Garden.

On our return journey we drove through the towns of Cessnock and Maitland and past the Sugarloaf Lookout, with its views over the Hexham Wetlands.

On Easter Sunday we took a drive around part of Lake Macquarie and took lunch at Wangi Wangi (pronounced Wongi Wongi).  Some of the properties that border the Lake are fantastic, many with their own private jetty and would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I couldn't help but wonder at the fantastic outdoor lifestyle of the citizens of New South Wales. As Jonesy commented, it can be easy to take this wonderful countryside for granted.

I had been invited to join Alan and Callum to watch the NRL (National Rugby League) game between the Newcastle Knights and the Paramatta Eels at the Hunter Stadium that afternoon. Paramatta is a suburb of Sydney and many of their fans made the relatively short journey to support their heroes. This helped swell the crowd to a respectable 24,518 on a warm and bright Easter Sunday afternoon.

Sunbathing on the grass at the game.

The Knights score a penalty for 2 points.

The Eels players warming up.

Knights cheerleaders warm up the crowd.

Unfortunately the game didn't exactly get the fans on the edge of their seats and the Knights shaded a contest between two teams who seemed low on confidence and frightened to lose. Still, a enjoyable distraction even though I don't follow this form of the rugby code normally.

That evening we had arranged to meet up with old friends from my first visit to Australia in 2002, Stephen and Trudie and their son Tyler. We met at the Honeysuckle Hotel, a new venue situated on the Newcastle Foreshore and a very popular and happening place with the local people.

I had met Stephen and Trudie on my first day in Newcastle, 10 years ago, as Jonesy and I had breakfast at the Bogie Hole Cafe near the beach. The Bogie Hole is no longer so called, and now goes by the name of the Raw Cafe.

As we caught up on our respective lives we were treated to a quite spectacular storm with torrential rain and brilliant flashes of lightning that lit up the whole river area. When the storm had abated we made our way to Beaumont Street and had a pleasant Chinese meal before promising to join Stephen and Trudie for a 'sausage sizzle' before I return to the UK.

Easter Monday and the weather was still superb although quite windy. Jonesy, together with a couple of his Father's friends, took advantage of the weather to take Peter for a short outing from his Nursing Home.

This was the first time that he had been out other than on a hospital visit and by all accounts he enjoyed the excursion very much. It was also a fillip for Jonesy to have his Dad out for a couple of hours and hopefully this can be repeated in the future.

Meanwhile I decided to road test my foot by having a short cycle that actually turned into a slightly longer cycle to Newcastle Beach. I stopped for a coffee and some raisin toast at the aforementioned Raw Cafe and enjoyed the lovely sunshine before cycling back to Jonesy's unit. Thankfully, I suffered no reaction to the exercise.

The rest of the day was spent talking and relaxing and trying to plan where we might go over the remaining 4 weeks of my stay.