Jade Down Under

On Monday Liz and I took the ferry over to Magnetic Island. As the story goes James Cook came to Magnetic Island by accident and called the island Magnetical Island as he thought the island had magnetic properties and that was why he was drawn to it. No sailor has ever found this theory to be true. Poor James Cook.
This is the Nelly Bay port, which is where the ferry drops you.



See, told you.


Liz and I walked around Nelly Bay for a while but realized (quite quickly) that there was nothing there, so we jumped on a bus and headed for Horseshoe Bay which is supposed to be the nicest beach area.



Here's Horseshoe! We grabbed lunch as soon as we got off the bus at a place called Noodies, a Latin restaurant. I would not recommend it although it was our own fault - a taco from Noodies.

Below is a picture of the beach. As you can see the stinger netting is still in place and everyone must swim between the netting. Stinger season runs from November through May so we still have some time. I was driving Liz nuts as I made a big deal about getting in the water each time. My argument is there is SHARK netting at Bondi Beach in Sydney and somehow a SHARK gets through that netting approximately once a year - or so I've heard. What's stopping a stinger from getting through the little netting???? PS Dad, we are going swimming there - and you are getting in the water!


This is the beach. You can't tell from this picture but Aussie sand is not like say, Mexico or Cuba sand. Aussie sand is more like little hot rocks that are small enough to pass as sand but my soft feet make them feel like jagged hot coals. One really cool thing was I found a sand dollar, which is quite common but not for me! The sand dollar I found is actually the shape of a LOONIE (man, I love that word), so it means more to me.



After chilling at the beach for a couple hours we had to head back. Unfortunately I had a floor meeting at 7 o'clock so it cut our time short. Liz got some ice cream on our way home and here she is sitting peacefully on the ferry enjoying her ice cream.


This is pulling into Townsville, also known as Breakwater Terminal.


Oh, my lovely new hat.... lol... it was actually a big pain and I crinkled it up in my bag and took it out for this picture. The $7.00 did not go to waste.