Over a space of roughly 30 hours, I was able to explore Newcastle in NSW, Australia. I had nothing but the clothes on my back and my camera with a single 10-22mm lens. The aerial view from the plane revealed the town's green surroundings and many rivers. The terminal building was one of the smaller ones I had been to with everything from car rental, check-in, baggage pick up and the departure lounge located in one building.

Between the airport and main city is mostly a large industrial park with massive factories and machinery. Colourful graffiti art is found throughout the streets along with less decorative taggings.

The local skatepark which is built right on the beach provided a great location for photos. Three young boys had taken the day off school - when the cops came by on their patrol they simply stopped for a moment before continuing on which was a bit surprising. I met Mitch (in the image above) and his good mate Red here later in the day. They were both very keen to be photographed having previously been in the local paper.

A few hundred metres up the road are the famous Ocean Baths: pools where the sea water flows. There were some elderly guys putting in several lengths of the olympic pool - far more than I could manage. In the adjacent pool young families were enjoying a leisurely swim. Unfortunetaly a strong wind was picked up a lot of ocean spray and sand and placed it directly on my favourite lens.

I stayed in a hostel where I met several German travellers all with the intention of studying at Newcastle University for a semester. We made our way down to the local pub for a barbeque dinner and some bingo - of which I somehow won two rounds in a row!

You can view the other photos here