Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island 3.22 & 3.23

We drove thru Townsville, lots of military here, a cute little town tho...reminded me a bit of new Orleans but much smaller. Got dropped off at the ferry terminal where we caught the ferry over to Magnetic Island, a nice little vacation spot about 8km off mainland. It is suppose to be quite busy because of Easter with lots of locals heading out for the weekend. Magnetic Island was named by...guess...Capt Cook, I may not have been mentioning this but Capt James Cook discovered and named almost everything in New Zealand and Australia...anyway he named it such because as he sailed past his compass started acting up and he thought it was some magnetic pull of the island...not so...but the name stuck.

We are in a 8 person dorm tonight as they had no privates...it is an a-frame, cute and rustic but so hot it is crazy!!! I am so not about being in the sun today after being on the boat for 3 days in the sun...and it is soooo hot!!! I try to go to the pool but it is too hot so I go to the room after a while and chat with the English girls who are roomies..then just try to lay down and have a little nap....in come 2 more roommates..2 Aussie's just returning from an all day dive at a shipwreck off shore. I rollover and meet them and they ask me to come have a beer...good idea..off we go..

It is much nicer outside now and the hostel has a nice deck over the ocean with an outdoor bar..a kookaburra bird lands on the rail, they are the ones who sing crazy songs...they are cool looking....the sun slowly sets as we sit and drink strongbows, a local cider....turns into a late night down on the beach meeting lots of new people, lots of locals and a few old friends from the boat...Will broke out the guitar on the beach and we had another singalong...until about 3 something am.....goodmorning....

Happy Easter!!!!!!

Due to Easter we missed out on the full moon party...famous parties on magnetic where they have dj's come out and there is a huge beach party til wee hours of the am...I guess we kinda had our own full moon party didn't we???? anyway happy easter....Wanted to sleep but it became way to hot in the room, unable to rent scooters or mokes as they were all booked out for the weekend so we hopped a bus, Johnny, Dave and I over to Horseshoe Bay on the other side of the island. Horseshoe Bay is a cute little strip of restaurants galleries and shops on the beach...also today vendors had set up on the beach...the beach has a stinger net enclosure where it is suppose to be safe to swim without the box jellies...so we did...it was lovely and refreshing!! Just swam and lounged in the water and under a tree for hours...finally went back and had moved out of the dorm into an a-frame overlooking the ocean..set up on rocks right above the water...big a-frame all ours..ensuite and spacious...always love that...especially after a 8 person dorm, where Russ kept everyone up all night with his snoring!!!!

Cleaned up and we all decided to try a Mexican place for dinner..walked like 20 minutes and the place was booked, so we bought a carton of VB and headed over to the pizza joint next store and ate lots of pizza and drank lots of beer and were entertained by a large yellow lab....love Maggie Island wish we didn't have to leave tomorrow!!!another good night!!!