Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Magnetic Island


I got back yesterday from a lovely four day trip to Magnetic Island, located off the coast of Townsville in northern Queensland, not too far from the Great Barrier Reef. The majority of the island is a national park, but luckily for me, D has friends who live there and love hosting visitors. And they also have an adorable puppy. It's funny, most people outside of Australia assume it's all beaches and tropical weather, but I hadn't yet experienced that side of it. Magnetic Island is indeed a tropical paradise- beautiful beaches, lush palm trees, and warm weather. And since it's not on the main tourist track and only has 2000 residents, nothing is ever crowded. The landscape reminded me a bit of Hawaii, and yes, a little bit of The Island from Lost (especially with that whole magnetic business). Over the four days, we did a lot of relaxing as well as a bit of exploring, inlcuding a hike up to n old WWII gun tower and snorkeling at a coral reef, where and managed to get a sunburn on my ass, which made for an uncomfortable plane ride home.

Items of interest spotted: tree frogs (even saw one in the toilet, aka a "dunny frog"), sea turtle, mama and baby koala, snake, shark (not a scary one, just this guy), lots of birds (including the Magnetic Island curlew) and last but not least, a Dip Sign!! I can't wait to go back- four days was not nearly enough.

5 comments:

Susan said...

This looks awesome. And thanks for listing me on your blog roll!

buddymollys said...

i like the new colors, somewhat:O actually, i thought it was funny b/c when i clicked on your site and saw the new look, molly and i were both like, "whoa! what's this!" i immediately said, oh, i like the birds! (yes, molly and i even use the internet together)

one quick question regarding blogs since you're a blog veteran -- does your blog notify you when people comment or do you just have to always check it (for instance, what if someone commented on an old blog -- how would you ever know, you know?) alright, comment complete -- in summary: happy to see the changes, like the birds and i think the look would be sharper if you could add a a crisp black border around your text box (basically between the light and darker blue in your blog entries ...)

buddymollys said...

buddymollys part two: I thought you were naked or wearing some sort of "Betty Boop" outfit in the "dip" photo. The tan blends in quite well. (Jeremy thought you had on a swimming suit.)

Liz said...

I thought you were bottomless too...

eileen said...

Hey, sometimes I don't wear pants. Just like Yogi Bear.

And as for the commenting thing, yes, I get an email notification when someone comments- to set it up, go to the comments section under settings and add your email address where it says comment notification.

And I like the idea of the black border but it might be beyond my very limited HTML capacities.