Magnetic Island

Sunday, March 7...
We decided we wanted to get out of Cairns, so we last minute bought a bus pass and booked a bus ticket for Townsville. Originally we were planning on staying at a hostel in Townsville for Sunday night because we had thought that the place we wanted to stay on Magnetic Island was full. However, when we arrived in Townsville at the ferry/bus terminal we decided we should just give the hostel on Magnetic Island a call, and turns out they had a spot for us, so we bought a ticket for the next ferry and were off! We LOVE this hostel. It's the Bungalow Bay YHA and it is set on a wildlife reserve. It's a big property with A-frame cabins scattered about, has a big pool surrounded by large trees and hammocks, and there's always lots of wildlife about. The first day we arrived, we came across about 30 brightly coloured birds - green, blue,red...looked like parrots. They had just been fed and were on the path right in front of us!


Everyone in our cabin is very nice. There are 2 English girls, 1 guy from Belgium, and a German guy. We have been hanging out with the German guy a fair bit, his name is Boris. Last night we went for a walk in the dark and found tons of animals on the hostel land! We saw a couple wallabies, numerous cool birds and over 10 possums (although we didn't know what they were at the time)...including a mother possum with a little baby hanging on to its back! She couldn't move that fast and so when we walked by she came very close to us - within 2 feet! SO CUTE. I don't see how New Zealanders could hate them! We have also seen a large toad, some small tree frogs, and a couple snakes.
Unfortunately no koalas yet...


Monday, March 8...
We have decided that we LOVE Magnetic Island and are very glad we are here for 3 nights. It's a gorgeous, small island (only takes about 7 minutes to cross it by car!) that kind of reminds me of the gulf islands, only tropical. It was originally formed by granite pushed up by volcanic rock, so it's very rocky, with huge neat shaped boulders everywhere. The whole centre of the island is made up of rocky mountains (although more like hills) and the roads and houses are around the coastline, so the only way to some of the bays are via hiking trail. Today we hiked over to one of the bays and it was GORGEOUS and remote, and when we arrived there was noone there! Fortunately we had rented a stinger suit so we could still swim there.

After a hot hike back we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the pool and relaxing in the hammocks at our hostel.

What else...some annoying things...somehow my watch didn't make it here :( I put it in my bag the night before I left but couldn't find it in my bag once we were on the plane! So far we have just been using my Ipod as a clock haha. Also...having difficulty uploading pics to the computer but hopefully will figure out soon!