5 April 1973

MQ 44
Government Settlement
Republic Of Nauru
Central Pacific
5 April 1973

Dear Mum & Dad,

You are right about not getting any letters from this end for a while, in fact I don’t think I've written since we got the news that you bought the house. It is most unfortunate that you are striking so much trouble with it. But as you say, the work will make it quite a sale-able asset (plus a comfortable home which is more important). I was interested to hear that Roy has pulled out of the partnership deal. Did it cost him any money? Getting back to your house & jobs, we were really pleased to hear that you decided to give Warrnambool a go as I’m sure you will settle in very well there.

We are reasonably well. We have all had something wrong over the last 3 weeks or so. Andy has some sort of wog on top of a bit of morning sickness & is really miserable. She is still suffering with morning sickness though it doesn't only affect her in the mornings. Darren has had bronchitis & about 5 tropic sores on his bottom. Luckily Andy has been able to keep the sores at bay & they have nearly cleared up. I’m just getting over a bad cold which I've had for about a week.

Our various ailments haven’t seemed to have slowed us up very much. We attended the 50th Apex dinner last Saturday week, the annual golf club dinner last Saturday & this Saturday we are going to a party at the Lampings. Peter & Barbara Lamping are the couple we heard about before coming up. Peter’s mother is a friend of the Hughes & I spoke with her on the phone about Nauru. We haven’t had much to do with them as yet but we should know them a bit better after Saturday.

The weekends are pretty quite, Saturday is usually spent cleaning the car & bike & perhaps the beach. Sunday morning we usually go to the beach & then the club for lunch. Most of the families in the settlement go to the club for Sunday lunch. Lunch consists of either fish & chips or hamburgers or both which we take back to the large tables, order a few drinks & all the kids run around & amuse themselves.

I’ve got a whole list of stuff to tell you about but I want to get at least some thing off to you on tomorrow’s plane. We now have our car, not after a bit of excitement. It had to be craned off the ship onto a lighter & sailed into the boat harbour & craned again onto the wharf. It was a bit scary to watch our car put through this ordeal. Anyway it has arrived in one piece.

I’m enclosing 4 photos that we would like back when you have finished to send to Andy’s family. They have some that you haven’t seen yet.

1. Andy & Darren at Anibare Bay. The “channel” is one of the best spots to swim as there is always some water there low or high tide & it is relatively free of coral.

2. This is the road to the Government Settlement (we live about ¾ miles from here).

3. An inside shot (without a flash) of the lounge looking out to the veranda. The veranda overlooks some paw-paw, coconuts to the Pacific (as you can see we haven’t got our curtains up yet)

4. Andy & Darren outside the house last Saturday. The door is actually the back door to the kitchen. The window which is open is the dining room & you can see through the house to the door to the veranda shown in the last photo. The fence or wall is made from coral set in cement.

Till next time, love from the Nauru Tuers

Greg