Grape Smugglers in Cessnock

We've made our way up to Cessnock to begin our jobs as grape pickers for the Hunter Valley wine area. However, we haven't actually started working yet because there has been so much rain and the sugar levels are too low apparently. We are staying in a caravan park with lots of other backpackers, mostly from Germany but theres a handful of Canadians too. We're sharing a site with a couple Canadians named Dean and Rachelle from Edmonton. They're pretty cool, the same age as us and share our humour which is huge. Since theres been so much rain and we aren't working we've been getting a little stir crazy trying to find things to do. The one night we rented 5 movies, amazing classics in our opinion: Year One, Junior, Houseguest (yes, starring Sinbad lol), Strangers and Love and Other Drugs. We've only watched Junior so far but we're excited for the rest! Other days to get a break from hiding from the rain in the van I went for runs or we drove into town to check out the shops. With all the rain our campsite turned into a mud pit so it was just a mess to be in every day and you could never really get clean.

This weekend we're in Newcastle with Dean and Rachelle since we found out we aren't working until Monday. We drove here Friday morning after being up at 6am expecting to work and finding out we weren't. We hit the beach all day yesterday and definitely paid for it in sunburns despite wearing sunscreen. We went out for a surf which was a lot of fun and I managed to get a couple pics of Stew standing on his board which will be soon to come! Last night we stayed in a cute little hostel and went out to a couple bars. We started at the King Street hotel bar which was ok and then headed to Finnigans a pub/dance bar which was sooooo much fun. Stew and I danced upstairs and out of no where a big circle formed and guys started break dancing. I've been watching break dance videos with Stew and talking about his breakdancing days so I forced him to join in and it was sweet! It was so cool to watch, I had a blast.

Today we went out for breakfast and then to the beach again. I went for a nice 8km run later along the coast and discovered a couple cool beaches. I saw 4 different weddings taking place today which definitely goes along with everyone getting engaged these days. One of the weddings was on the beach right behind us so we may just be in some of their pictures. We had dinner by the beach watching the surfers and then made our way to Gloria Jeans so we could use some internet and charge our electronics. Tonight we'll be doing our routine of finding a parking lot to park in and sleep in. Tomorrow we'll be heading back to Cessnock to start work on Monday which I desperately need as I payed some of my visa and the funds are dwindling :S donations will be acccepted.

Running has been great and I've managed to get a pretty good schedule going. I mainly love going for runs here because we're always in new areas so I get to discover new places. I'm trying to convince Stew to do a relay triathlon with me at some point this year. I was thinking if Mick cycled, Stew swam and I ran we'd be a pretty good team. There's a relay triathlon in June in the Gold Coast so that may be an idea--only 5 months to convince him to do it. Also still planning to work towards another half marathon in May in either Melbourne or Canberra which would be great in either city.

Not too much to update as we've just been waiting to start work since the Great Ocean Road, which was awesome. We're hoping to make some good money out of this job and then head straight to Byron Bay. Stew was saying he wants to work at Dominos which would be perfect since he LOVES pizza more than life. I want to work at Subway because then I can eat it for free and get my fix all the time. Never thought we'd be looking forward to working in fast food joints for cash ha.