The Hunter Valley

We traveled north through the Sydney peek hour traffic and on to the Pacific Highway. We turned off the highway, drove through Cesnock and Pokelbein to the Hunter Valley Gardens.

The url is:
http://www.hvg.com.au/home.asp

There are about a dozen different gardens spread over 25 hectares. The gardens are very attractive and well maintained. We strolled through the gardens for about an hour and then had lunch in the restaurant overlooking the Oriental Garden, with its pavilion and lake. The Oriental Garden is in the background of the picture.

In the afternoon we traveled to Tamworth which took about three hours. This was our first day together so we did not know our traveling companions well. During the drive, I looked across the isle to see a bloke (whose name badge was Bob) with a good SLR camera and a map. I realised that I had forgotten to get a map for myself and commented to him that he was a "man after my own heart" with a good camera and a map. We became good friends during the trip. More about Bob in later posts.