Nambucca Heads Painted Rocks

Where the Nambucca River feeds into the sea.

Nambucca Heads has a painted rock breakwall, just like Port Macquarie.  There were a fair bit of people walking out along the jetty on that Sunday morning, for exercise and for leisure, and a lot of people fishing.

The painted rocks in Nambucca Heads seem much older and weathered than the painted rocks in Port Macquarie, perhaps with fewer of the older rocks being painted over as people vie for space.  In Port (as I recall) the rocks dated before 2010 or even 2000 were few and far between, whereas there were quite a few paintings in Nambucca from the 90s.

Looking up Nambucca River.  The city of Nambucca Heads is located
on the north side of the river.

Found him.

The view of Wellington's Rock from the end of the jetty.
(This was to be our next destination.)

At the end of the jetty, looking south down the coastline.

On our way to walk across the beach toward Wellington's Rock.

Port Pelicans and Painted Rocks

One last set of photos from Port Macquarie.  It's really enjoyable to walk along the painted rocks jetty in Port, enjoying the scenery along the Hastings River as you walk toward the Pacific.  We saw new painted rocks that weren't there during our visit last January, paintings we recognized, as well as other rocks we'd forgotten but were dated earlier than 2015 so we very well might've seen them.

Port Macquarie and pelicans will always go hand-in-hand in my mind: it was the first place we ever saw pelicans in substantial numbers, up-close, and the first time I captured one in photograph.  The more I look at them the more strange looking they seem.

This particular pelican looks rather comical to me.

Looking up the Hastings River

Seagulls bobbing in the Hastings River

A new type of seabird to look up

I remember this rock from our first visit.  I think it's very cute.

Most of the rocks are painted with pictures; this abstract graffiti-style stood out.

The air along the water was cool but the sun was very hot, a bit hotter than we
were prepared for coming down from the New England highlands!

Of course I had to take a photo of the rock with rosemaling. I didn't particularly
remember this rock, but it's dated 2013 so we must have walked by it last time.

The end of the jetty

Park Beach and several downtown resorts

Lots of boats going by on the Hastings River.  Big boats, little boats,
fishing boats, tour boats.

Crane flowers, or birds-of-paradise flowers, are a common garden feature on
the coast: but I'm still amazed every time we see them.

Sheffield Murals

Many of the murals feature either Cradle Mountain as above, or Mount Roland,
the latter being the prominent geologic feature visible from town

The small town of Sheffield, Tasmania has made a name for itself with all the murals painted all over the town, of which there are over sixty.  We joined in with the other tourists to take a look.

Mount Roland ponies

Nearby towns displayed in front of the Visitors Centre

Uralla Lantern Parade

Waiting on the street corner as the sunlight faded from the sky

Giant gnome lantern

Last night we went down to Uralla for the Lantern Parade, an annual Uralla tradition for seven years running.  Kids from the different Uralla schools make lanterns and walk in the parade with their parents, accompanied by some larger professional lanterns as well.

It was a really fun event -- watching the flickering lanterns ghost down the dark street and the the bobbing, glowing lights as they approached from down the hill. The parade was followed by an event at the park that coincided with Earth Hour.  Uralla is implementing a new program to have all its energy come from renewable sources, and is the first in Australia to do so.

There was music, dancing, a skit by the kids, and a sausage sizzle (of course.)  The skit included a song about nothing other than compost -- which was a startling revelation to us Americans that Australians pronounce 'compost' with identical vowel sounds.  We say /ˈkɒmpoʊst/ but the pronunciation in Australian English is ˈkɒmpɒst/.  It's just another addition to the list of Australian words we didn't know we didn't know how to pronounce.

Bee and flower lanterns

Rainbow serpent

Giant possum lantern

Lanterns made by the Uralla school kids

Lunar New Year Terracotta Warrior Lanterns

From the Sydney Chinese New Year website :

"Created by Chinese artist Xia Nan for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, these larger than life lanterns also include women and children arranged in family groups. Fashioned out of fabric and wire, they have all the delicacy of a traditional Chinese lantern, on a scale that inspires awe. With 90 2.1 metre high warriors and two horses glowing in brilliant bursts of colour, this is a sight not to be missed.

The Lanterns of the Terracotta Warriors have previously only been shown in China and the United Kingdom, and are in Australia for the first time as part of the City of Sydney’s Chinese New Year Festival. Illuminated against the beauty of Sydney Harbour for ten days and nights only, this unique exhibition is an unforgettable experience."