A museum, a coastal walk and picking strawberries

The former Court House

We awoke to the sound of rain falling on our roof.  It was a nice way to start the day.  Fortunately it only lasted for a little while and soon we were on our way to explore Port Macquarie. 

Port Macquarie was established as a penal colony for prisoners transported from the UK who had committed a second offence in the colony of NSW.  It was identified as a suitable place by the surveyor-general of NSW John Oxley.  The town began to be settled by convicts in 1821 and they began by building their own accommodation.  Of course, there was a garrison of soldiers who kept watch over them as well administering severe punishment of 10 to 50 lashes.  They were cruel times.  We learnt all this in the local museum which was housed in an old storehouse that had been bought by the local historical society. 

The local museum

The town itself sits at the entrance to the Hastings River and like New Plymouth has a wonderful coastal walk.  The population is around 50,000 people and has been marketed as a resort for the past 90 or so years.  It is rather lovely and laid back.  There seem to be quite a few retirees and while walking the Breakwall (part of the coastal walk) we encountered a retired farmer from Orange who had retired to the town.  He was interesting and charming until he began stating openly that he thought problems in Australia were the result of people of coloured people immigrating to Australia.  We weren’t going to change his mind, so we ended our conversation and continued our walk.  I think he was lonely as he had recently lost his wife. One interesting feature of the walk were the painted stones which had all manner of drawings on them, sometimes referencing people.  It made it interesting and colourful.

Breakwater walk part of the coastal walk

One of my favourites

A stop for coffee and lunch on Town Beach enabled us to relax, eat and watch the sunbathers and surfers.  We both commented that it is easy to see why there is so much melanoma in Australia with may spending extended time lying in the sunshine. 

Town Beach

The local visitors’ magazine highlighted picking strawberries at “Ricardoes” a few kilometres from town.  Remarkably, Bev who is not a fan of strawberries suggested we go there.  They also grow tomatoes.  It was a big enterprise with lots of preserves and even had New Zealand manuka honey for sale. 

The picking of strawberries was so easy and before we knew it we had both consumed a few of the exceptionally sweet and ripe berries and had a bucket full. 

Finally, before heading back to our cabin we went for a drive south down the coast to see places that had been recommended.  The little settlements were obviously places where baches had once been but were now substantial homes.   There were also new developments, presumably because the land is cheap and you can build a large house with four bedrooms, two garages multiple bathrooms, etc on a pocket-sized section. On the other hand the beaches were superb with vast stretches of golden sand and surf and were largely empty. 

I cooked a steak for dinner on the barbecue in the common area and then back at our cabins and we sat eating it on our veranda, with a glass of wine,  enjoying the last of the light in the warm balmy air. 

The old and the new hotels