Australia - half way now!

Arrived in Mackay in the early hours of Friday morning and had a cold sea fret to greet us. It is so COLD here!! As soon as the sun goes down arpound 6pm the temperature drops sharply and we have been wearing jeans and fleece tops!! The customs and quarantine procedure was pretty straightforward and I just had to hand over some tomatoes that we had left on board and some cooked meat (kept in case we had to have lunch on the quarantine dock). So by 10am we were all checked in and cleared to move to a berth in the Marina which is large and spacious with good facilities.Even found a good hairdresser in the marina complex called Jospehine who was Toni & Guy trained and did a very good job on my shaggy hair as it had not been done since we left Tahiti!! Friday night we were guests of Mackay Yacht Club at a BBQ and got the chance to chat to the many crews we had not spoken to since leaving Vanuatu. The passage across from Vanuatu was not the easiest with a couple of uncomfy days when the boat motion was making both of us a little queasy but neither of us was actually ill. Saturday I went into the main shopping centre with Marie from Dreamcatcher and we browsed around the shops and got some groceries mainly fresh stuff as we had to empty our fridge and freezer of all meat fish eggs and dairy and all fresh fruit and veg to enter Australia so the cupboards were bare! That night we had some bubbly on Dreamcatcher then we all went to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant called Angelos just next to the Marina office. Just as I was leaving the boat to go for drinks on Dreamcatcher I was serenaded by the Russians with a Russian song that the crews of Piligrim and Royal Leopard sang for me whilst Eugene played his guitar. Unfortunately Peter was not on the boat at the time and it all happened to quickly I never got a photo of this! I also received a lovely cook book from Dmitry and Natalia (Piligrim) and a bottle of wine from Mikhail(Royal Leopard). Sunday was the official rally prizegiving and lunchime BBQ hosted by Mackay Tourism at the Clarion Hotel here in the Marina complex. That evening we were invited onto Wind Dancer for drinks then we all went to dinner at a Thai restaurant. Yesterday (Monday) we went on a bus tour of the region and visited Greenmount Homestead which was an old fashioned house from the late 19th century. Then we went onto Eungella national park where there was a fantastic waterfall and we saw Kookaburras in the trees and Platypus and turtles in the water. That evening we had an invite to the VMR Mackays monthly meeting. This is a voluntary search and rescue organisation so we told them a little about us and the rally and left a donation for their funds in return for a Sausage BBQ. So today we finally have a chance to get our breath back since arriving and Peter is sorting out boat spares and we are waiting for our new Parasailor to come up from Sydney where it is waiting to be cleared by customs.We received our spare generator part so Peter fitted that Friday and all is in perfect working order now.