First Days in Australia, Redux

That's the Sydney skyline in the background, just after we landed from Fiji.
The rooftops under storm clouds were shot from the small balcony outside the master bedroom at our first rental on Beaumont Street, in Hamilton. James Fletcher Hospital paid for the first three weeks of rent to give us a chance to find our own place. We knew nothing about Hamilton when we first arrived and expected to live downtown, close to the hospital and the schools that we were considering for the kids.

The holiday store window is on Beaumont Street, a block up from our first lodging and a couple of blocks from any other businesses, just plopped on a corner in an old white building with pink and white awnings in a residential area. I still don't know what they sell, although antiques would be a good guess.

Here's Sarah at one of the numerous outdoor cafes on trendy Beaumont Street. It is the best restaurant street in the city, although Darby Street, in Cooks Hill, is more highly touted, partly, I think, because it is located downtown and near the art museum and main civic buildings. (Note the humorously named "Thong Thai" restaurant in the photo. It is one of the first Beaumont Street restaurants that we sampled.)

The banyan tree (actually a fig tree, but I'm a little confused on the proper name) is in Gregson Park, across the street from Nick and Pete's Hamilton Public School and a couple of blocks from Beaumont Street. Not only didn't we expect to end up in Hamilton, but when we first discovered Gregson Park we didn't think we'd be living a half block away from it. Hamilton has turned out to be a very happy accident. We recently had a very good and relaxed Saturday night dinner at the Greek community center in the white building with the tall columns, in the background. Greeks are the main immigrant group in Newcastle and they settled mainly in Hamilton.

The tree lined street below is in Cooks Hill, and the beach cliffs are at Bar Beach, a 10 minute drive from Hamilton.