Magnetic Island

After my last project (a review on the turtle management plan in a Great Barrier Reef nature reserve, worth 50% of my semester! yikes) was complete it was officially winter break. As I mentioned before, I still had to get up for brekkie everyday...but my days were finally homework free!  What better way to kick off the weekend than with a trip to Magnetic Island.

Emily's brother was in town for his 18th birthday, so I joined them for a little day trip to the island.  It was perfect, just what I needed.  After weeks of sitting in front of my computer it was absolutely fabulous to get outside and spend a day at the beach.  We took the ferry over around noon and it was an absolutely perfect day. Not too hot, but warm enough that the cool ocean breeze on the ferry ride over felt amazing. The ferry is only about 20min, so by the time we got to the island we took the bus to Horseshoe bay and had some lunch at the pub there....where I ordered calamari as my main meal!  Which, for me, is absolutely earth shattering.  The rest of my family has always loved calamari but I could never get into it...until that glorious afternoon at the Sydney fish market.  Anyway, after that we took a hike to one of the beached you can only get to by foot, Balding Bay.  This particular beach happened to be a nude beach....and there were some creepy men utilizing this "freedom".  Luckily they were on the other end of the beach, but still!  I just don't get why those bits need a tan, and if you really think they do, why you feel the need to do it in public?  Hmm, who knows.  To each his own.  We stayed there for awhile and then decided to hike back to Horseshoe bay to catch the sunset and maybe some dinner, though the restauraunt we had been hoping to eat at (a mexicanish one) closed early on Sundays.  We decided we would stay for the sunset and then head back to the mainland to get some mexican (well, australian-mexican) food at Cactus Jacks in town.  It was a beautiful orange sunset, a perfect ending to a mini island getaway!