Townsville

Townsville, last few days, the final installment!
Back in Townsville again with a very much happier Daphne, Erle’s sister, the holiday has done us all good.
Daphne bounced out bright and early as I prepared again the huge bowl of tropical fruit salad for our breakfasts, she said “right folks what are we going to do today? Where would you like to go, is there somewhere in Townsville you haven’t seen yet?”
The empty rock pools,

After a bit of discussion we decided we should go for a swim in the rock pools on the Strand beach. The rock pools are not quite natural, they have a concrete base and lots of rocks all around the sides but the sea still flows in and out tidally keeping the water nice and fresh but warmed by the shallow water over concrete, sounds a great idea to us, but first we all decide to take a nice walk to the nearest shopping centre to pick up a few supplies for lunch.
After lunch we were away to the rock pools, and some disappointment, as the pools were completely empty, for maintenance. However there is an area with a stinger net around on the main Strand Beach, not nearly as warm or calm but we thought we should still give it a go.
Erle walked first down the beach and stopped to ask a man coming from the ocean whether it was cold in the water. The man said “no mate its just fine and hey are you a Kiwi, so am I.” So the two of them stood there chatting a few moments and discovered that the man’s parent lived next door to us at our last house, and are good friends with us! It’s a small world isn’t it!
We had a nice swim. It was not particularly warm, bracing in fact, but we still enjoyed swimming in the ocean. Then quickly home again to shower off the sea water.
Decided we would go out to the big Townsville RSL for a meal tonight, it is about 2 kms from Daphne’s house and we thought of taking the car, but Daphne said no we shall walk, it will do us all good, we can all enjoy ourselves and have a drink, then get a taxi home. Such a long walk certainly developed a good thirst and a hunger, we did plenty of window shopping along the way so the walk went quite fast.
Because I have had such a good run of luck, I decided to try my luck again with the poker machines, and quickly won over $100! Hard to believe! I drew out all the winning very quickly, I am not really much of a gambler, and went off together to the restaurant.
So after we had a particularly lovely meal, as its our last night together, I sneaked out without Erle or Daphne seeing and paid for the meals again. I do believe my run of luck has been for doing just this, not for keeping for myself. However I did let Daphne pay for the taxi, I am more used to receiving not handing out money in a taxi!
Next morning, we packed all our luggage and Daphne drove us to the airport, it could have been a real sad parting, but Daphne parked in a not stopping lane to let us out, so we quickly gave each other a big hug and said very quick goodbye and promised to do it all again soon, and a happy Daphne drove home while we happily boarded the plane for home. What a great holiday!
Thank you all for being interested enough to read of our hoilday, we are about to embark on another one in Rarotonga, cook Islands!