Around Port Stephens - May 2008

Hello all..... far and wide

A quick update from me, since I haven't been doing so in a while there are a lot of pictures and events to tell you about.

What have I been up to? HMMMMMM

After sailing up the east coast I bussed down to Brisbane where I spent a couple of days with a friend who I had met in Hawaii. From Brisbane I continued back to 1-Mile Beach since I had left my car at the backpackers. Knowing that my sister (Frauke) would be arriving shortly I decided not to head back up north as originally planned, but rather to find some employment as well as relaxing at this epic place!

Relaxing at 1-Mile Beach includes a lot of surfing, walking, reading, squid fishing, a visit to the largest wandering sand dunes in the world and sandboarding.....

Sand dunes at Birubi

Sandboarding.... great fun going down, not so easy getting back up!!!

.....relaxing at Melaleuca Backpackers included cooking a "potjiekos" - traditional South African stew- for the crew at the backpackers - YUMM, YUMM!!

"Potjiekos" at Melaleuca Backpackers with some of the crew (Pete and Mick)

"Froggy" the frogmouth owl

"Josie" the eastern grey kangaroo suckling on my backpack

But of course having so much fun costs money, so whilst waiting for Frauke to arrive I decided to do some construction work. The work was building jetties on the Williams River an hour inland in a really beautiful rural area. The work included dropping 1-ton moorings into the river securing pipes to the moorings, filling them with concrete and the bolting the platform to the pipes. Although a lot of the time was spent just sitting in the sun waiting for the concrete truck to arrive!

Installing jetties on the Williams River near Clarence Town

Old wooden bridge spanning the Williams River

On the way to work (1)
On the way to work (2)
On the way to work (3)