From New Zealand we landed in Sydney, but the city with the opera house was not our exchange site. To get to Forster (pronounced Foster) we would have to fly north to nearby Taree. We were glad to hear our boarding call, until we saw the plane. It was small, very small. We were told that depending on what the other passengers were bringing our luggage may not be going with us on this flight. Luckily our fellow passengers were mostly businessmen who were carrying little more than their laptops. After bending and cramming our way into the fuselage we were greeted with a choice of one seat on either side of an abbreviated aisle. The seats seemed similar to those that my parents would call card table chairs only they were somehow affixed to the floor. There was no division between passengers and crew so I sat directly behind the co-pilot. This degree of coziness had its advantages such as all the co-pilot had to do was twist around in his seat and toss the peanuts to us. Wisely he just had us pass back the water and pop. The other advantage was that the pilot could give us an ongoing travelogue as we flew low over interesting terrain. This helped to keep our mind off of the stomach churning bumpiness that is the hallmark of such small craft which are often referred to as vomit comets.
The disadvantage was that I could hear the muted voice concerns that the co-pilot had about the right hand prop engine. The pilot gave it a definitive shrug off but the co-pilot kept watching the engine and I kept watching the co-pilot watch the engine. Let's just say that the engine was well watched.
When we arrived at the small airport in Taree, we were greeted by Wayne who was one of our official sponsors. His wife Kathy would be our other one. He asked how our flight was and I pointed to the plane. He said,"Oh you took the Death Pencil."
As for the rest of the day Jan's original email probably says it best.
Hello family and friends!
All I can say is YOU NEED TO COME HERE!
What a beautiful place Forster is! The beach at the bottom of the street is absolutely gorgeous - soft sand, warm water, sand dunes....they will have to remove us from here with a hook!
Our community rep, Wayne, met us at the airport in Taree this morning. We had a wonderful tour of the area. I went to my campus and met the principal - the resources and facility are amazing.
Tonight Wayne, and his wife Kathy, who manages a lovely cafe in town, invited us for dinner. They live just around the corner. Kathy prepared a typical Oz dinner - roast lamb, which I had never had before - I LOVED it!
I have a meeting at school tomorrow morning at 10:00. After that, I don't have to show up until Monday!
Kathy and Wayne have 3 children - a daughter, 21, and 2 sons, 18 and 16. They are already eager to take Dan around the town and entertain him. Dan arrives on Feb. 4.
The house is spacious and elegant. There is a huge deck and swimming pool in the backyard. I have promised Ken that I will be the spider killer should we see any. There is plenty of room for guests so come and stay as long as possible.
It's been a beautiful day - a bit humid - but with the lovely breeze it's very pleasant.
Will write again soon..
And then darkness came.
As this house was only a few streets up from the beach there wasn't much light coming from the east, the town had two large patches of forest and the surrounding area was single family housing so all in all the amount of light pollution was fairly low. I'm not talking cabin in the woods dark but certainly much darker than your typical Canadian city. Now I know that every house has its own noises and you don't hear them after awhile because you just get used to them. But here on our first night were lying in bed with our ears tuned to the darkness. Due to a milder climate and a regular evening breeze the house was both heated and cooled via open windows and large screened doors. In Canada our windows are usually closed at night to keep the cold out in winter and the air conditioning in for our hot humid summers. The result wide ears and eyes for much of the night. Something kept scurrying across the deck just beyond the screened sliding door. Vegetation swayed audibly.There were bird/animal sounds that sounded roughly like monkeys. We asked each other if there were supposed to be monkeys here and wondered aloud about what we had gotten ourselves into.
As this house was only a few streets up from the beach there wasn't much light coming from the east, the town had two large patches of forest and the surrounding area was single family housing so all in all the amount of light pollution was fairly low. I'm not talking cabin in the woods dark but certainly much darker than your typical Canadian city. Now I know that every house has its own noises and you don't hear them after awhile because you just get used to them. But here on our first night were lying in bed with our ears tuned to the darkness. Due to a milder climate and a regular evening breeze the house was both heated and cooled via open windows and large screened doors. In Canada our windows are usually closed at night to keep the cold out in winter and the air conditioning in for our hot humid summers. The result wide ears and eyes for much of the night. Something kept scurrying across the deck just beyond the screened sliding door. Vegetation swayed audibly.There were bird/animal sounds that sounded roughly like monkeys. We asked each other if there were supposed to be monkeys here and wondered aloud about what we had gotten ourselves into.
I remember my ride on 'The Death Pencil'. Such an experience should be had by all visitors to Australia
ReplyDeleteThanks for the ride Mom and Dad :)