Port Mc-weird-ie

Sometimes we do so much I can't keep up! Left Newcastle on Tuesday after checking out their library (free internet!) and local gallery. Had a long (4 hour) train journey north. Got into Port Macquarie and it was POURING rain! Wed morning was overcast and we headed out into the vast (haha actually tiny) town of Port- where 90% of the population is over 90 (that is only a slight exaggeration). As we wandered, the sky actually cleared and it turned into a sunny and beautiful day! We found the port and saw a whole flock of pelicans who were very interested in a couple who were cleaning their fish. These birds are HUGE- probably over 3 ft tall- and Hannah and I ventured into the pack to take our pictures with them. We continued along the waterfront which was very picturesque- sandy beaches, green hills and mountains in the back, grassy walkways. Much of the walk is lined in big rocks and over the years people have painted designs and messages on them which is quite cool. We relaxed in the sun for a while, and then headed down the road to the koala hospital.

The hospital is only about a 15 min walk from town, and on the property is an historic house from 1890 that has been restored and filled with items from the (very rich) family. The koala area was quite good. They are the only koala hospital in New South Wales so get sick and injured koalas from all over the state. Most of them come in after being attacked by dogs or cars, and they had really sad posters on ones that had been rescued from bushfires. A major cause of koala sickness is chlamydia which they treat a lot of. Those dirty little bears. We saw feeding time where the old ones get infant formula. One of the animals is called Birthday Girl and they think she might be the oldest koala alive at 22. We listened to a talk about how to protect them- put a rope in your swimming pool so they can pull themselves out, for example. Very informative stuff.

To round off our day we went to the astronomical observatory (naturally) and listened to a talk on why Pluto is no longer a planet, how the discover of Uranus originally wanted to name it George (one of my favorite pieces of trivia) and got to zoom around the solar system in a program akin to Google Earth- like Google Galaxy (if it isn't already named that, it should be). It was a cloudy night, so they didn't bother getting out the telescope, but probably even better than that was the 3-D slide show of Mars that we got to see. As one does.

Some people laugh at Port Macquarie, but where else are you going to stand with pelicans, talk about koalas getting the clap, and watch a 3-D space show in one day? That's my defense of the Port.