Pit Stop in Port Macquarie

Two years ago Ewan was best man in our friends Al and Kat's wedding back in England, and while he was off performing his duties, one of Kat's bridesmaids used his hotel room for her son's nap time. Nicole lives in port macquarie, and so ewan wanted to make a quick stop to see how his little friend was getting on.(and Nicole, of course!)

We picked up our second camper van from Jucy, a company we'd made lots of fun of in new Zealand, but due to the Australian budget constraints we were under were forced to eat our words and rent one of their "penthouse" vehicles. If the britz was Howie jr., we decided the Jucy was the hick cousin no one talked about but whose presence was undeniable. You can see how inconspicuous "hank" was roaming the streets out of Sydney up the coast...




We stopped for a night at a backpacker campsite some friends recommended for the wildlife. Unfortunately the most abundant wildlife we encountered was of the mosquito variety, and we spent most the night squashing the lil buggers. We made up for it in the morning though when we got to meet Joanna, the owner's pet kangaroo!






A few hours drive and we were at Nicole's house in port Macquarie. Oliver was now 3, and had a little brother, Xavier, who immediately took a shining to us, and our shoes. We spent the night catching up, playing with the boys and figuring out the rest of our east coast trip.



We took off early the next morning, stopped at the local koala sanctuary to check out how more of ewans babies were recovering (he's now adopted baby fur seals, kangaroos and koalas ).



We then went for a spur of the moment dolphin viewing trip in the harbor. Both guidebooks and locals touted the area as the best spot in oz to see the dolphins, and once we heard the stats for sightings from the captain, we signed right up. The boat went out more than 600 times a year, and missed seeing the dolphins an average of 8 times. Ewan did however take a swim in the boats boom net much to the enjoyment of the rest of the boat who decided the water was too cold!



Unlucky for us, we were one of those eight boats. But we did get a great day for sailing, and saw tons of seagulls... Which is almost as good. Almost.





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