From John McNamara

Well we are back and didn’t lose anyone . I travelled last Monday on a very early train out of Brisbane and the other Johns (Jon Mander – Jones and John Elph) arrived by car the next day. Murray and Judy Smith looked after me until The Boys arrived. We stayed at The Pacific Bay Resort and arranged to tour this resort and another (Opal Cove Resort). Both could work but we all favoured The Pacific Bay so mission accomplished!

We indicated the Class Gathering would be in August 25 (they smiled at our long notice and praised our enthusiasm and confirmed they have rooms available 🤣) – for want of dates we have looked at a Winter Escape for some and have tried to avoid school holidays etc and have selected 19 – 21 Aug 2025 as the core dates, so in on the Tuesday and out on the Thursday. But of course having made the effort to get there, some may wish to stay in the area for longer.

Murray knows a good caravan park for those thinking this way and others may stay the week at this resort or other accommodation places.

We tried a night in town at a brewery and it was good without being great and we had trouble getting transport back (even though it was fairly early) so the couple of organised activities that we will suggest will be at the Pacific Bay Resort to make it simple and hassle free.

Pacific Bay has a 9 hole par 3 golf course, three tennis courts, a gym and the beach is 200m away for those in need of exercise. There is also plenty on offer in the Coffs area – off shore fishing, nice drives and walks (Dorrigo for example) excellent golf courses (Bonville, CHGC for example).

So that is about it – we will sit on the outline plan until we need to put some meat around our ideas.

Very happy to hear any thoughts you may have?  Oh, and the four of us had a good time, but will try and get more sleep next recce!

Regards for now.

JohnMc