Almost over

Last day in Mackay before the big trip home to Brisbane. We decided to have a bit of a quite one. While my Pop headed off to a Doctor's appointment, mum and I headed into town for a spot of shopping. We toured around shops at Mount Pleasant Shopping Centre. It really hasn't changed much at all in the years since I left. The shops may be different, and there is a bit more undercover parking, but there haven't been any major upgrades. I even remember the swimwear shop on the end from the time we were heading up to the Barrier Reef one holiday and I needed a swimsuit. The shop is still there. We finished off our shopping by heading into town back to Caneland Shopping Centre to pick up a couple of things that we spotted earlier in the week. By 11.20am we were done and headed over to my Aunt and Uncle's place for lunch.

On the way home, I filled up the car with petrol and cleaned the windscreen so that we are all ready to head off bright and early in the morning. I am going to be driving straight through to Brisbane in the day, so we want to make an early start. The car is mostly packed and I am about to call it a night to get some sleep before the drive. Be back in Brisbane soon.

Driving tour

A bit of an uneventful day, I spent the morning driving around Mackay, taking in the sights and seeing what has changed over the years. 

The Mackay Base Hospital is now massive. The jetty out the front was the old hospital bridge. The hospital, where I was born has completely removed the old buildings and fitted it out with brand new and modern designs. 

 We next stopped by my old schools. I was only six and in grade 2 when we left Mackay, so I never made it into the primary school propper, but the other places I went were still there in some form. My old kindy, the Paddington Bear Kindy has disappeared to become a day care centre. My preschool is now "Prep" and the West Mackay Infants School (Grades 1 and 2) is now the Junior Campus. I guess they were trying to make it sound better. But many of the buildings that were around when I went through are still there.

Just a few shots driving around Mackay - you will notice that there a good number of round-a-bouts. Mackay is the city of round-a-bouts. There is one at just about every intersection and then in-between as well to slow down the traffic.

We stopped by my old street and house in West Mackay. The train line running down the end of the street is no longer there, but you can certainly still see the rail corridor.

And while the Mackay showgrounds have had a major upgrade and refurb, the old main entrance is still the same...

 We then took a trip out to the harbour. It is massively different from when I was a kid. The playground is now in a different spot and they only moved a few of the big playground equipment over. Certainly not the old climbing frames or roller slides. The lighthouse though, is still there (of which I am the proud owner of a few rivets). And while it is possible to drive out on the breakwater, it was a very windy day and I didn't really want salt water splashing up on my car.

Next, we headed up to the top of town at North Mackay where there is a lookout. It's a really great view of Mackay, you can see right out to the harbour, into town and out towards the sugar mills.

To round out our trip, we headed on a bit of a tour around the local beaches out near Bucasia.

 I had managed to face plant it into the directional dial up at the lookout, so headed home for the afternoon to ice my wounds (got some very colourful bruises) before napping and heading out to dinner with the family at the local bowels club.

Cleaning out the Cupboard

We didn't really do much for our next day in Mackay. It turned out to be more of a family day. My Pop had me up in the morning go through the old china and crockery in the cupboards to take anything that I wanted. My Uncle doesn't want the stuff, so we may as well take it with us if we do. My mum and I selected a few things that we would like to take home with us, which means we now need to try and find some space in the cupboards at home to store it all *sigh*.

As for me, I picked out the Blue Willow dinner set which I will be able to use for my Regency Re-enactment. I think the set is missing one dinner plate and there are two different styles of tea cups, but otherwise, it's in good condition and going to be very useful. I also found a Shelley China tea set to take home. It has 6 cups, saucers and plates, a cake plate, a milk jug and a sugar bowl. I've packed it up with a heap of newspaper, so hopefully it can all make the trip home without any breakages.

The remainder of the day we spent visiting family - my cousin who I haven't seen for a very long time and then my Uncle and Aunt. It was lovely to catch up again with everyone.

Shopping in Mackay

Our first full day in Mackay was quite a quiet one. After a good nights sleep we got up and headed out to the town shopping centre - Caneland. It was around when I was a little girl, before we moved away from Mackay. But it is vastly different now. The lower level has trippled in size and there is now a second level as well as a full five story car park attached. They have quite the range of shops inside so mum and I picked up a couple of things. There weren't a lot of shoppers around so it was a nice change from the packed Chermside that we would normally go to. 

I snapped a couple of shots from the upper levels of the view at the main entrance. You can certainly see the river but the centre should hopefully be above most of the flood levels. 

 Afterwards we took a bit of round-a-bout route back across the river towards Bucasia. We followed through town a bit having a look at the changes around town in the last nine or more years. The thing that I love and strikes me the most is that many of the building still exist. You can really see it in the Art Deco facades on the buildings. The original companies may no longer be inside, but the buildings still have their beauty.

I didn't get as many shots as I would have liked, but I was driving, so you take what you can get. :P

We managed to convince my uncle that we needed to stop at the local fabric store on the way home - Needleworx. I love their tag-line "The hardware store for ladies". They had a good range of quilting cottons, though they were quite a bit more expensive than I am used to paying for them. I only picked up a couple of things but they did have a nice range of haberdashery items and my mum managed to get some beautiful lace that I am going to use on her ballgown later this year. It was good to see what they had though, and let's face it, I am a real sucker for a fabric store.

Onto Mackay

The final leg of my driving trip was the last little bit from Rockhampton to Mackay. After a terrible night of sleep, sharing a room with a snoring mother and then dealing with a rumbly tummy (I suspect there was corn in something I ate unwittingly at Sizzler the night before), we packed up our PJs and got in the car. It was quite a brisk morning, but we quickly hopped over to filling up with petrol and breakfast at the local Coffee Club. And then it was back on the road.

It's quite a journey, wobbling through road works and getting stuck behind military convoys travelling at 80k in the 110k zone *groan*. But we arrived in Bucasia at 12 to stay with my Uncle and Pop. It's been nine years since I was last in Mackay (for my Pop's 80th Birthday) and things have certainly changed.

It's very bizarre to see the changes. I was born in Mackay and came up every just about every year to visit family after we moved away in 1992 until around 2002 when I finished school and travel was not so easy. I had come to know the area a bit but had never actually driven in Mackay, so it was quite the change. It was lovely to see through, as you come into the area the flowering sugar cane, blowing purple silver in the breeze.