Sunday 22 February 2015

Where is Bonny Hills I hear you ask.....(31/01/15 - 01/02/15)

After Corindi we went down the coast, thinking to stay at Port Macquarie to visit some lovely friends, Robyn and John, who we haven't seen in quite a while, although we keep in touch.    In fact, in having dinner with them at their home, we looked through their "visitors" book to see that the last time we were there was in April 2008, nearly 7 years ago.  I have promised not to leave it that long before we catch up with them again.  Mind you, we have one of those lovely friendships that when we meet up, the years melt away and it seems like only yesterday that we saw them. We have a couple of friendships like that, the other couple being Liz and Bruce who live in Sydney....we had a most memorable catchup up with them.....but I am getting ahead of myself.

We decided not to stay in Port Macquarie itself but in a laid back little village some 30 minutes south, called Bonny Hills.  We stayed in the fabulous little caravan park on a headland overlooking the white sands of Rainbow Beach and of course, the Pacific Ocean where there were lots of people swimming and many board and paddle surfers about.  This beach is well known by the surfing fraternity.

Overlooking Rainbow Beach from our caravan site
Another awesome sunrise
There is also an interesting trail that dots the landscape from the Pacific Ocean and Hastings River  on the northern end of Port Macquarie to Wauchope in the hinterland and the national parks and waters of the Camden Haven.  It is called "Hello Koalas".  The "Hello Koalas" project was conceived by the Port Macquarie based Arts and Health Australia and was launched in December 2013 as a way to engage people of all ages, encouraging interaction and participation within the community.  The trail comprises of 50 large scale koala sculptures, manufactured in fibreglass, featuring original designs, hand painted by local artists/celebrities and sponsored by local businesses and the council.  As a patron of the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie, John Williamson, also painted one of the koala sculptures.  John Williamson, is not only an Australian country music singer and songwriter but also an accomplished visual artist who designed and painted a number of his own album covers.

We didn't have to go far to see one of these fun sculptures...there was one on the walkway right by our caravan site.


Isn't he cute!!