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Post by questa on Apr 3, 2016 3:24:45 GMT
A quick glimpse of Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia. My nursing group re-union was at Port Macquarie this year. Port Mac as it is called is about 400 km north of Sydney and was only the 5th settlement of Brits in Australia.. It was built by convicts (“volunteer to build a port and after one year you are a free man”) at the point where the Hastings River joins the sea. Fertile land, good climate and the port flourished. Now it is a choice place to retire to, go fishing and a growing tourist town. Our first day was spent chugging around the waterways in an old Chinese junk. The river is full of dolphins who accompanied us, surfing on our bow-wave. Various water birds flew around...too far from my camera unfortunately, although a White Sea Eagle kept watch over his nest nearby .
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Post by questa on Apr 3, 2016 3:32:36 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 3, 2016 4:20:28 GMT
What fun, Questa, and fabulous pictures! You all look like you're having a ball & how perfect to have your excursion blessed by dolphins.
The houses on the canal remind me of Florida, although there is usually a sort of Spanish style prevailing there & an inordinate number of uniformed maids on the lawns.
Can't wait to see what you get up to once back on dry land.
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Post by questa on Apr 3, 2016 5:26:41 GMT
Thanks, Bixa, The girls have OK'd it for me to post this. We all turn 74 this year. Can you pick me from the rest of the mob?
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Post by mossie on Apr 3, 2016 19:19:19 GMT
You must be the prettiest. No 3 from the right.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 3, 2016 19:56:55 GMT
!Mossie! All of the ladies are pretty, but I don't know which one is Questa. The avatar gives no clues, as you well know, Questa.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2016 21:45:29 GMT
I will concur with Mossie's choice.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2016 22:36:48 GMT
Actually I meant 3rd from the left.
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Post by questa on Apr 3, 2016 23:55:37 GMT
Ooops! I missed out on the Navy landing vessel. You may have thought my posting was being censored. Nothing would surprise me nowadays!
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Post by htmb on Apr 4, 2016 0:05:04 GMT
I had thought you might be the woman in the middle-back, but now I'm wondering if Kerouac might be correct. So, which one are you, Questa?
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Post by breeze on Apr 4, 2016 0:37:13 GMT
That's a very convivial looking group and your get-together is off to a good start.
There are three women holding cameras. Picking from them, I'm guessing you are third from the left. You could have made it easy for us by wearing the same outfit as in your avatar, but no, you had to go and wear something different.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 4, 2016 1:51:28 GMT
Okay, I wasn't going to guess in case you were offended if I picked the wrong person. Initially I rejected everyone holding a camera, thinking you handed your camera to someone to take the picture. But duh -- of course you all probably shared your photos. Anyway, my gut feeling is the third from the left lass as well.
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Post by questa on Apr 4, 2016 2:19:51 GMT
My best friend is sitting on the floor. I am immediately behind her tugging on her hair to tickle her, while looking oh so innocent. All the girls have pretty blouses or Tees, I have a T-shirt featuring a Blue Touareg warrior on a camel.
Unfortunately there is a girl on the right of the pic who got cut out because I have forgotten how to resize on photobucket...Help!!
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Post by questa on Apr 4, 2016 2:41:10 GMT
Let's see if this works
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Post by questa on Apr 4, 2016 2:46:20 GMT
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! (indication of joy)
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 4, 2016 5:21:11 GMT
I've just done a google image search on that photo and found matches with a number of others titled, "Ex-Vogue models on a day out".
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Post by questa on Apr 4, 2016 6:41:11 GMT
Mark, you made me chuckle...you're a dill, but a nice one
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2016 16:24:14 GMT
I have certainly driven BY Port Macquarie once but probably not through it since I drove from Sydney to Cairns on one of my trips. I even pushed as far as Port Douglas one day. I remember seeing the earthquake damage in Newcastle, since I was there just a month or two after the event, but I think that I spent the next night after leaving Sydney in Coffs Harbour.
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Post by questa on Apr 5, 2016 7:03:37 GMT
The Main street was the usual shops, cafes and businesses found everywhere, but I noticed the contrast between 2 churches. One was unusual, built from dark brick, on top of a hill. The other was next door but built on the street level. It was cute in that it looked like a cartoon face from the front. It was an early Wesleyan Chapel while the other was the Catholic Church
Across the road from our apartment was Town Beach, usually with people surfing or swimming.
The huge cyclone, “Winston” that had ravaged Fiji was now causing danger here with wild waves so the beach was closed.
Although the waves were not high, their power was under the crests where they created undercurrents and deadly rips. What they call “washing machine” water.
As kids living on the coast we learnt how to recognise rips and, if caught, how to get out of them. Tragically our drowning rates have soared in recent years as tourists and new migrants have ignored warnings and beach closures.
We drove south along the coast, stopping to look at the waves.
A hollowed out rock makes a great "Whump" as the ocean hits it and drains away.
High on the cliff stands a decommissioned light house
Then off to the local marina for fish and chips for lunch
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 6, 2016 13:11:12 GMT
Lovely pictures and so interesting, Questa. The lighthouse is an unusual shape, making me wonder if maybe it was built to withstand waves breaking over it. Wonderful pictures of wave action, incidentally.
From the ruggedness of the water's edge you've shown so far, I'm assuming we haven't seen the port part of Port Macquarie yet.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 6, 2016 13:30:07 GMT
I've only just caught up with this but can I say I picked you straight away (honest).
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Post by tod2 on Apr 6, 2016 14:29:30 GMT
Terrific Questa! What a lovely thing to do with your girlfriends. I looked on my Aussie map to see exactly where Port Macquarrie was. I have not driven past it only flown over it on my way to Brisbane. (Plane probably went nowhere near ...)
I know quite a lot about the Father of Australia, Govenor Macquarrie. Been to his grave on the Isle of Mull. Sat in Lady Macquarie's Chair in the Botanic Gardens in Sydney. He was quite a man, that old Macquarie - all that strong Scottish blood coursing through his veins
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Post by questa on Apr 6, 2016 16:54:46 GMT
Bixa, thanks, I liked the wave actions too! The lighthouse is w-a-a-y above the sea on a high point so I guess the roof is to cope with the tropical storms that hit here. The port is not for ships nowadays, mainly fishing or leisure craft. I did not see any big docks, just marinas.
Tod, thank you too. Governor Macquarie pulled the colony together after the Rum Rebellion. He recognised convicts with talent and freed them to build the town e.g.Francis Greenway. My father's grandfather was a gardener and knew how to grow food at a time when the colony was hungry....but that's another story.
Mick, what made you pick me? I wasn't carrying a Wisden so what was the give-away?
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Post by mich64 on Apr 6, 2016 23:51:24 GMT
What a beautiful place! Whoever is responsible for choosing this location for a reunion made an outstanding suggestion.
It is fabulous that you ladies have kept contact and can get together like this. How often do you get to reunite? I just returned from my annual weekend with my College girlfriend. I enjoyed our time very much, she made us a beautiful meal and we went to a movie. A weekend I look forward to every year. We graduated 33 years ago.
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Post by questa on Apr 7, 2016 6:15:45 GMT
There was 29 of us who started our training in 1960. We lived together in the nurses' home and studied and worked together. By 1964 our number had dropped to 13...they were tough years with the ward Sisters being mostly ex-Army. No counselling for any of the distressing things we dealt with, just our friends to convince us not to write our letter of resignation. After graduation most married, worked, raised families etc. but kept in touch. I lost track of them as they lived in different countries. In 1996 I was in my café in Bali when 2 lads came in. While chatting one said his aunt trained at my hospital...turned out she was my closest friend whom I had been trying to find for years. They had been having re-unions yearly since their kids had grown up. So we now have 8-11 catching up. We are still as crazy as we were 50 years ago. We are changing to every 2nd year as some of us have to make long flights. We choose a destination that someone knows or lives there. We have gone to New Zealand to visit one of our group, I hosted them in Adelaide and we explored Bribie Island in Queensland. We usually have a week around the last week-end in February.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 7, 2016 11:12:00 GMT
Questa,Your chance meeting with those 2 lads and finding out you were to experience 'a blast from the past' is just wonderful. Must take hours and hours of catching up on all that has happened in everyone's lives.
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Post by questa on Apr 8, 2016 5:57:45 GMT
We were told of the beautiful views which we could see from the vantage point up the nearby mountain. As we got near the top we were enveloped in cloud/mist/fog. A lively discussion followed about what to call it.
At the viewing point it was so dense that one girl jokingly groped around, while her friend held on.
I thought the fog would make a good featureless background for a few photos, so snapped around while they carried on as usual
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Post by bjd on Apr 8, 2016 6:41:35 GMT
Nice to see you all enjoy each other's company.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 8, 2016 10:18:07 GMT
Wonderful, fun sequence! Not only super photos, but a much nice recording of the group rather than the standard posed pictures.
Last night I finished a book about the early days of Australia, and the ghostly tree in the fog would have illustrated it nicely.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2016 14:20:34 GMT
It looks like you never stop laughing together. Are there times when you all cry together?
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