Newcastle, NSW, Australia

I totally underestimated Newcastle.  I thought it would be a shipping port - something similar to New London, CT but it was so much more and then some.......

It turned out to be a lovely beach town with surfing (really big waves in comparison to OBX & NSB), a great college campus town and a great shopping mecca (even saw a Target & a KMart).  The views were spectacular from the cliffs.  One neat thing was a huge outdoor public pool on the beach.  It was carved out of rocks by convicts.  People were swimming laps, doing water aerobics (crab walking across the length), and playing with their kids.  A teacher had a group of teens there swimming and it wasn't crowded at all.  I would say it is 4 or 5 times larger than the NSB Clubhouse pool.