Another place we were very sad to leave. A wonderful hotel, the Anchorage, in a lovely spot.

As we had loads of time to reach our next destination, we decided to head south first towards Newcastle just to extend the journey. As we did, we passed a turning to the Gan Gan lookout, which we decided to try out, unprompted. And boy, am I glad we did. Some absolutely stunning views of the Port Stephens area from here – pictures simply do not do it justice. However, here are some feeble attempts to convey the beauty of this area:

Truly serendipitous.

We continued on our way, with Jean having her first experience of driving on the East coast, but it wasn\’t particularly pleasant. Flat, uninteresting, and downright ugly when we got to the outskirts of Newcastle. (Nothing to do with Jean\’s driving……)

Gratefully we turned back north-west to our Hunter Valley destination. Yes, THAT Hunter Valley, with the wines and that. Surprised, huh?

Got there about 45 minutes later and, once again, we have really fallen on our feet here. Lovely room, a wonderful greeting with a glass of champagne, and a superb setting with a top-class restaurant (apparently). We couldn\’t get in to the latter for this evening, but booked for tomorrow night.

We took advantage of the shuttle service to a neighbouring sister restaurant, which has only been open for 10 days since a 30 million dollar refurb, for our evening meal. Another stunning place, but I\’d forgotten my phone so couldn\’t take any pictures. Bugger!! However, there were actual kangaroos in the grounds, so Jean finally had her sight of kangaroos in the wild.

The meal itself was very nice, without being superb, and was remarkably reasonably priced for an upmarket establishment. Had a slight quibble about the bill, which was sorted satisfactorily, then back to the hotel using the shuttle service again.

A visit to a local vineyard awaits tomorrow, with a spa treatment for Jean and a massage for me in the afternoon. Weather looking good.