Whitsunday Magic

All three days on the boat began to run together into lazy hours of snorkelling, diving, eating and sunbathing. Wake up, eat, wrestle into the stinger suit, snorkel, shimmy out of the stinger suit, sunbath, lunch, repeat. It was glorious.



Jon went diving with a our fabulous Frog dive instructor while I opted for slothful snorkelling - floating along with a noodle doing absolutely nothing. The underwater scenery was something out of a picture book; it was hard to believe you were actually there. The piece de resistance was when we came across clown fish - NEMO!



One morning, we took the Zodiac to Whitehaven Beach, which is known for its pristine aquamarine waters and white silica sand. The sand is so unbelievably soft and fine that it was like walking on sugar. It's no wonder it is considered one of Australia's most beautiful beaches.

The entire experience was so relaxing that we never wanted it to end!

Tangalooma Nights

One of the first things I really wanted to do when we got here was take a day trip out to Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort on Moreton Island and feed the wild dolphins. Finally, today, I got my wish!

We had to wake up so early and drive back down to Brisbane to catch a ferry over the Moreton Island. We got so incredibly lost and ended up missing our 7am ferry by mere seconds. To make matters worse, the area around the launch is very industrial, so pickings for a cafe for brekky were limited and we were even worse off because it was a Sunday at 7am! So, we went to the Airport which is right nearby and had Red Rooster Brekky rolls! (Red Rooster is the chicken equivalent to Burger King.) While we were at the Airport, Jon bought my stuffed koala, Nellie, a new friend; he's a wombat named Russell (I didn't name them, the tags on their tushies did!)



We arrived with plenty of time to spare at the ferry the second time around and set off across Moreton Bay. Moreton Island is 98% national park with the resort making up the other bits. The water is gorgeously calm & clear and the white sand beaches are spectacular! Except, you end up with sand all over everything because it is a sand island just like Fraser Island and it is actually home to the tallest "sand hill" in the world (280m.)

As we were on the boat, they ran a video of all of the different things there were to do at the Resort & on the Island. Everything looked like so much fun that we were kind of bummed we hadn't made a weekend out of it. All of the big sand hills are great for "sand tobogganing" which just looked like SO much fun and there were some kayaking tours where you could go see some dugongs (manatees) in their natural environment, but they didn't fit into our timetable. The ATV trips & Blue Lagoon excursions were not running the day we came out, so that was out. There are also awesome whale watching opportunities for migrating humpbacks, but it was the wrong time of year. So what did we do you ask?



We decided to go snorkeling the Tangalooma Wrecks. It's a group of about 15 different dredgers, trawlers, and other working ships that were sunk off the sheltered western side of the island that are home to myriads of reef fish and gorgeous corals. It was only about a 50 yard swim out to the Wrecks and for the early part of the day the water was absolutely beautiful, not too cold & no strong currents. We took heaps of pictures, but they didn't come out. Words cannot describe how gorgeous the afternoon turned out to be!

We watched the most amazing sunset and snacked on fish & chips at a beachfront cafe while we waiting for night to fall. As dusk settled in, we made our way over to the boat launch area where each night as the sun sets over the horizon, a group of Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphins swim in for a visit. There is a marine biology research station housed at the resort that does heaps of conservation and education about the dolphins, their habitat & eco-conservation in general.



As the biologist is giving his chat, the dolphins arrive at their own place and just play around in the water. It was explained to us that they are still completely self sufficient in the wild.

The after all of the dolphins arrive and the marine biologist finished his talk, you walk down in pairs with on the marine biologists and get to hand feed the dolphin. The dolphins line up in lanes in pairs of two with certain biologists in each lane; they return in the same formation almost every night. You handed a fish and instructed to hold it like an ice cream cone, scales down not to injury the dolphin. On the count of three, you both bend down and feed the dolphins simultaneously or you might lose some fingers =)

You can meet the dolphins we fed here:
Tinkerbell: www.tangalooma.com /dolphinweb/dolphins /tinkerbell.asp
Shadow: www.tangalooma.com /dolphinweb/dolphins /shadow.asp



What a weekend! It was such a great time! Jon and I can't wait to get back and spend a little bit more time exploring the island. It was far too much for just one day!

Snorkelling in Coral Cove

Jon and I woke up early Saturday morning to enjoy the beautiful beach that was at our doorstep. I had brought up my snorkel gear and Jon took it to go off the rocks by our campsite. He saw some small sharks, anemones & some great fish. It was impressive, but we had heard there were better spots in the area that he wanted to check out.





So, we set off in search of a dive shop to pick up a snorkel set for Jon, so we could go splash around in Coral Cove for a bit before we had to head back home to Marcoola. But, Bundaberg decided to be closed; almost everything was shut because it was Sunday! Finally, after hours of hunting, we found a dive shop and Jon was able to get the bits he needed.

The owner was really nice and gave us tons of advice on where to go. So, we headed down to Coral Cove about 15 minutes outside of Bundaberg and hopped in the water off some rocks. It was absolutely spectacular. There were heaps of reef fish of all varieties, colors & patterns. There were quite a few really large schools of fish that we were swimming through ~ brilliant. The corals were every color in the rainbow! It was absolutely spectacular!!



On the way back from our entry point, we found this area in the rocks where the waves rushed in through a small opening into a larger pool. The water swished around like a washing machine, so of course, against my better judgement, I decided to jump in and go for a spin. I checked with some of the local kids ~ but teenage boys and good safety advice usually don't go together. It was so much fun!!

As the sun started to set, (which is super early because here in rebel Queensland we don't do daylight savings time; we're too cool) we started to make our way home.
It was a WONDERFUL weekend; just what the doctor ordered, so to speak!



A total aside, on the way home, we were listening to the radio and heard a news story that is too funny not to share! It was about these two schoolgirls in NZ who did a school science project that involved testing beverages for Vitamin C. Ribena is a well-known black currant juice over here that claims to have as much Vitamin C as XYZ number of oranges; apparently, it tastes like medicine, but for years and years people have been drinking it because they think it's good for them. The schoolgirls' tests uncovered that Ribena not only doesn't have the heaps of Vitamin C it claimed to have, but it doesn't contain Vitamin C at all. The girls took them to court and won! Too funny.