Thursday 26^th May 2016

After Don the electrician had spent an hour checking out our electrics on board, it became apparent that the problem was in fact with the socket on the pontoon.  Although this was annoying, we were actually relieved to find that the boat didn’t have a problem after all.  Having moved our power lead to a different socket, Steve and Don went to speak to the guys in the office.  They agreed to fix the wiring on the pontoon and to reimburse us the cost of Don’s labour.  So all good.

With that problem out of the way, we decided to take a drive to the North Coast Regional Botanic Gardens in town.  The garden covers 20 hectares and is surrounded on three sides by Coffs Creek, a wide, mangrove-lined tidal estuary.  We strolled around the five kilometres of paths and boardwalks, taking in the colours and smells, and enjoying recognising some familiar plants and seeing some interesting new ones.

‘Morning kiss’ otherwise known as the ‘Musical Note’ plant.                       Dwarf Chinese Lantern

A bird of paradise, labelled as a ‘Bird Tongue flower’.                                     No prizes for guessing this one.

Or this one.                                                                                                                         The only flower in the lily pond.

Epiphytes growing on a fallen tree.

Steve attempting to tell the time on this analemmatic sundial by standing on the month of May.

Unfortunately it was a cloudy day, so no shadow to tell us the time.

The bromeliad section of the glasshouses.                                                            And the orchids.

Elephant apple (India)                                                                                                   A splash of colour from another familiar plant.