For the Easter break in 2007 we chose to visit Mackay. We flew from Brisbane to Mackay – a short 90minute flight, then hired a car for the 4 days.
We had found Ocean Resort Village , a nice little resort with self contained apartments.
It turns out, there is a fair bit to see around Mackay. We took a short drive to Sarina to explore the “Sugar Shed” and learnt a lot about the growing of cane and processing sugar.
To the north of the city is the Mackay Harbour and stretches of wide beaches. From the top of Lamberts Lookout, we got a great view looking south down the beach.
Not far from our cabins was this cute park full of “story book” characters for kids to play in.
On another day we headed inland with the intention to see Finch Hatton Gorge. Unfortunately, the road into the gorge was unsealed dirt road, and not suitable for the small 4cyl hire car we had. Further up the road at the top of the ridge was the historic Eungella Chalet Hotel.
This ridge is also where daredevils with hang gliders throw themselves off the mountain and fly.
Back at the cabins, we were entertained each night by the local possum. We even went shopping especially for fruit to feed him.
We had a lovely 4 days away and really enjoyed Mackay and its surrounds.
Every May the Photographic Industry holds its Trade Show. As we have a display stand at the show, we have one member stay back after the show to pull down the stand and arrange for equipment to be sent back to Brisbane.
This year the weekend coincided with the May Day weekend in Qld, so I arranged for hubby to come to Sydney on Saturday afternoon.
We went out for dinner on Saturday night and then on Sunday afternoon, we just had to break down the stand and label up boxes to be returned.
We were really lucky and managed to secure a forklift early and were packed up and all done by 2:00 pm. The rest of the day (and the next day) was ours.
Hubby had not been to Sydney before, so I made the decision to ride the iconic Manly Ferry from Circular Quay over to Manly and have fish and chips on the beach. Sadly the weather was not great, with drizzly rain and gusty winds.
We found a cafe and had a lovely meal of fish and chips with a glass of wine.
On Monday, again we caught the ferry. This time over to Taronga Park Zoo.
We decided to see Tasmania in winter 2005 We enjoy the cold and we certainly got cold. We had a great trip and it proved to be the first of many Tassie trips.
Awoke to find a light frost on the ground. It still wasn’t cold though. We did a final check of the vehicle before heading to the airport and heading home. Our flight took off on time at 12:15pm
We had a good flight back and then had a 1hr 45min wait for our bus to the Sunshine Coast. The bus dropped us off just about at the door of the resort. We were home at just after 6:00pm
Awoke to another mild morning, we have now given up on the off chance that it is cold in Tasmania. We have decided it is a ploy to keep the Queenslanders away!!
We headed up to Richmond. Richmond is a lovely historic town that was one of the first settlements of the new colony. Consequently, it has many historic buildings and, of course, the famous “Old Bridge” which was built by convicts in 1834. We stopped at the Richmond Bakery and had another scallop pie!! This time instead of being curried, the scallops were in a creamy garlic and white wine sauce. YUM
After Richmond, we headed to the Barrilla caravan Park. We went here again because of its close proximity to the airport. We gave the van a good clean, packed our bags and had wood fired pizza at the caravan park’s own restaurant.
