Port MacQuarie

Port MacQuarie

Port Macquarie was, in a way, a reserve stop. Like Coffs Harbour, it is a good place to go whale watching, so if we hadn't managed to see them there, then this was our second chance. As it turned out, it wasn't necessary, so we just pootled around the town instead.

Royal Hotel, Port MacQuarie

The town was founded in 1821 as a penal settlement, taking those convicts from the New South Wales area that had reoffended since arriving in Australia.

The main bit of town sits just back from the coast line, at the mouth of the Hastings River. It is a small and relatively quiet town, but it is nice to walk along the front, and there are a few little historical bits that you can take a look at along the way.

Port MacQuarie

We also liked finding some of the 'Hello Koalas', which is a collection of 50 fibre glass koalas that have been decorated differently, by professional and celebrity artists.

Hello Koalas, Port MacQuarie

This kind of thing seems to be all the rage these days - we've seen elephants, London buses, lambanana (that will be a much later post), and various other things. Sometimes they are permanent like these, other times, like the elephants, they get auctioned off to raise money for a charity. I rather like the idea.

As the river here has dolphins, we decided to take the Chinese Junk sunset cruise. It is a bring your own drinks arrangement, which I suspect can get a bit out of hand at times. The cruise was OK. It took us up the river and around to the creeks. There was some commentary along the way, which again was OK, but nothing very exciting.

XLCR, Port MacQuarie

They did point out a boat, the XLCR, which is an old fishing trawler that was built in 1903, and has been refurbished by the Newman Senior Technical College, and they told us a bit about the logging in the area, but that was about as interesting as it got.

For some reason - possibly because there wasn't much else here to show us, a chunk of the tour was spent taking us into an inlet where there really expensive houses are.

Port MacQuarie

It was kind of interesting to see them, but not what I would have expected - or preferred - to do. This was also where the boat took on board the delivery of a takeaway, for those who had opted to include the fish and chip supper in their ticket.

Port MacQuarie

Watching the sunset was nice, but there was nothing especially stunning about the setting. And we did spot a few dolphins on the way back, but if course by this time it was quite dark, so you didn't see them very well. Overall, this is a perfectly acceptable way so spend a few hours, but it isn't something that I would especially recommend.

Kangaroos, Port MacQuarie

The other thing we did here was to head out with the hostel that we were staying at, to see the kangaroos. We did see them, but unfortunately they stayed across the other side of the fields, so it was only from a distance. Still, these were our first wild kangaroos, so we were happy.

Hello Koalas, Port MacQuarie

Hello Koalas, Port MacQuarie

Hello Koalas, Port MacQuarie

Hello Koalas, Port MacQuarie

Hello Koalas, Port MacQuarie

Hello Koalas, Port MacQuarie

Port MacQuarie

Port MacQuarie

Port MacQuarie