Welcome to Mackay

We made it to Mackay!  Jon came and picked us all up in the Cruiser, as you can see we had no problem with our bags!

Quit Whinging and Get to Work

After a bit of a chill day on Friday when we met Chris and Janice Neilson (Tegan's Mom and Dad) and Tegan came to say hello; we went our separate ways on Saturday.  The girls all went to a Kitchen Tea which was a great opportunity to mingle with family and friends and drape tissue paper over each other.

That's Tegan in Lilac, and Alyn in Orange.  Alyn apparently won.

The sign says this is Tegan

Since I wasn't there, I'll have to assume the party was a rousing success!  Tabitha says "It was a delightful mid-day celebration of kitchen awesomeness".


Meanwhile the boys went on a camping trip.  We got to drive our utes on the sand, do some four-wheeling, and had a great time discussing fifth century art and other multi-cultural and intellectual fodder.  There may have been one or two beers consumed during the course of the day... I can't recall.

Lets just say that the camping spot was really spectacular, with a beach just across from where we camped.  We went out snorkelling with spear guns (alas the water was too murky), spent some time oystering, ate jumbo prawns, and had a shot (or two) of Phillipino Rum.  Austin approves of only the beer.

Not often we drive to the campsite on the beach

The next day we dined on the finest of eggs, toast, and bacon and did another little four wheel drive track to a lookout point.  All in all an excellent start to our Mackay section of the journey.

On Sunday we returned in time for the meeting and Amy's brother Ben gave the public talk, which was really excellent.  After the meeting we met up with some friends and played some beach volleyball for an exciting conclusion to our weekend.

Austin digging deep

Monday was a bit of a rest day, we slept in, got our suits in the the tailor (Janice's sister) for a quick freshening, went to the beach a few blocks from Jon's place and watched the tide come in, and then off to Janice and Chris' place for tea.  Tomorrow we're doing a big road trip to Airlie Beach (Tabitha just said quite dramatically (so do this in your dramatic Tabitha voice) "The Gateway to the (arms flailing) Whitsunday Islandsssssss") for some snorkelling at the reef!  Pics and story are upcoming - stay tuned!