There was great excitement locally this week as the Queen Elizabeth was scheduled to arrive in Newcastle on Monday morning. Cruise liners do not usually visit Newcastle, there is no passenger terminal and the city docks are all dedicated to coal ships which come from all over the world to load up. 
Newcastle is about 40 minutes by car from us or a twenty minute drive then 5 minutes on the ferry, so we planned to watch from the ferry terminal. The ship was due to arrive at 7.15 am so we got up at a sparrow's fart, loaded up our bikes and arrived in plenty of time. There was quite a crowd gathering by the time we got there and several coal ships were being dragged out to sea by tugs in a mad scramble to get on their way before the Queen Elizabeth pulled in and blocked the entrance to the harbour for an hour or so.
Bang on time she came out of the sunrise into view. The gun at Fort Scratchley fired three times in salute as she rounded the lighthouse and headed into the docks. Because she is so huge, the ship had to complete a 180 degree turn right in front of the watching crowd before being backed into her dock for the day. It was pretty spectacular and well worth the early start,  when the ship was sideways on it became clear just how little room there was to spare and, if you look in the corner of the photo, you will see there was even a kangaroo joey watching the proceedings and taking pictures with his phone.

The visit was part of a four month world tour for the passengers and there was a little ceremony after to commemorate the original Queen Elizabeth carrying Australian service personnel during the Second World War. There is talk of building a cruise ship terminal in Newcastle which would be great for employment and the local economy if it went ahead.
We caught the ferry across and cycled around the headland after. The beaches in Newcastle are sensational and Surfest was beginning there this week, last year the event was badly disrupted by shark sightings but there has been nothing like that so far this time. As we cycled over the Anzac bridge a milestone was reached as Ian's bike display reached 1000km (I have only done 965), we have nearly cycled the equivalent distance to visiting Zoe in Melbourne!

A much bigger celebration was in order at the end of this week though as we laid the last concrete slab in our path and can finally get ourselves and our bikes in and out without scrambling up and down the grassy slope.