We woke up early on Friday morning and had a bit of a scramble to get everything packed up in time to catch a ferry to Moreton Island, offshore in the bay. The Allens have a tough old(ish) Pajero 4 wheel drive car, that did a great job driving on some deep bumpy sand. Our rental, while supposedly also 4 wheel drive, was not allowed on the island, so we left it behind and walked on the ferry. It was a lovely hour long ride to the island.
As we arrived at the island, we could see The Wrecks, several shipwrecks (purposefully done) that give fish and creatures a reef-like area to live. We came to snorkel!
The view from the ferry.
The view from the beach. We spent a little time unloading the car and setting up camp, which was just a few feet from the beach but under tree cover, then we got in swim suits and sunblocked and headed out to the sand. It was GORGEOUS. (Yes, a little weird that boats also anchor right in the swimming area, but nobody got hurt so I guess they are careful.)
The girls made a big hole in the sand and were fascinated that the water filled the holes right up, even though the waves were down lower.
Oaklee was supposed to be bringing them water in a bucket, but I think she mostly just threw the water around instead. I loved getting to spend a little time with Oaklee - she really gets the maximum enjoyment out of life!
One of my favorite pics.
The wrecks were really so cool. They are now just big hunks of rust - they were sunk in 1963 to provide a safe harbor for boats in the bay, but they're not far to swim to. Matt and Mattie and Lex took right off to start snorkeling with the equipment that we had (on the first day we didn't rent any more gear).
The rest of us hung around in the sand. It was hot!
We decided we should teach the little girls how to snorkel - they had absolutely no problem, learning how in a minute or two.
Pierce had been feeling sick, we thought he had a stomach bug, but a short nap in the tent had him back ready to go in the water. Hooray! I was worried because snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef is a huge life dream for him. We weren't going to get to the reef (it's too far, we would have spent a full day just getting there) so this was as close as we were going to get!
Honestly it did look a little daunting. But the reports of how amazing the snorkeling was got all of us in the water, with various goggles, assorted snorkeling gear bits and pieces, and body boards to float the little ones on. Obviously I didn't take my camera out to the wrecks (I think Parker had an underwater camera) so I have no pictures to show for it. But we got out there and there were shallow areas where you could stand, and you could stand on the wrecks too if you were careful. There were oysters and mussels everywhere and they were sharp! We all got decently cut up (Matt's hand even got infected and he ended up going to the doctor for it later on at home) but we didn't mind (at the time). Most of us saw a wobbegong shark - it swam right past me, and let me tell you, that was one thing I didn't need to see again. The sun was getting low and it was getting cool, so we decided to rent gear early the next day so even the little kids would really be able to see the colorful fish while the sun was high. Also there is a brisk current between the beach and the wrecks, so we didn't want to stay too long and get too tired to swim back - only 2 sets of flippers between the 10 of us, and the dads were pushing kids on boogie boards.
Such a gorgeous day!
After getting dried off and finishing up setting camp, we were treated to this gorgeous sunset over Brisbane.
I was the only one with a camera handy (in fact I'd run out there for this reason, seconds late, just to see the sun sinking below the horizon), so these are for everyone. :)
The boats moored at night were absolutely gorgeous. Matt and I came to the realization that we are truly boat people, but we've been deprived of boats all this time. (He had a small sailboat growing up, but not me.)
Someday, it's boats for us!
The next morning we enjoyed watching this kookaburra eat his breakfast while we ate ours.
He pounded a pinecone thing apart and then ate a worm the same way, whacking it into pieces. Then he sat in a tree right overhead and watched us. I was especially thrilled because he sang to us quite a bit too. Amazing!
The kids sort of cooperated with pictures on the beach before we all snorkeled again.
One thing I loved about the ferry - no dock! They just toss the ramp down on the sand and you drive off. The Puget Sound guys would have a heart attack. Also, the people walk off next to the departing cars, they just have to be careful to stay out of the way. WADOT people would keel over in shock.
Again I have no snorkeling pictures, but it was even more amazing than the day before! The sun was overhead and we could see the fish more clearly, plus I think the brighter water brought them out of hiding. The wrecks had tons of caves, nooks, and crannies for fish to swim under and around. We found swimming pools full of fish. Some of us even saw more sharks (I was okay missing them). I don't think we saw anything else big (thankfully) but a million bright, even neon-colored fish. I loved the yellow and blue stripy ones and the neon blue ones the best. The little girls had life jackets on, which made me much happier having Zoe in the water. Zoe actually didn't love snorkeling, she was kind of cold, but she was glad to have seen the fish. Eventually the water got kind of rough and some people went back, but Mattie and Parker and I hung around a little longer and eventually got around most of the wrecks. On our way back, when we were pretty tired and getting cold, we saw this area with more stripy fish in every direction than we could see the end of. It was perfectly amazing and a great way to end our snorkel.
After a delicious lunch (some wonderful cheese and the sausages from the international market in the first post) and a little rest, Matt Lex and Parker went out snorkeling again. When they got back they returned the gear and started driving to the other side of the island in batches to set up camp on the opposite side beach. Jessi and I stayed behind (since we were all riding in just one car) with Oaklee and chatted on the beach a little longer. When we arrived on the other side, after an exciting 4 wheel drive journey across the island (which our rental would never have made), the sun was setting behind us and the sky and beach were this amazing color. The kids were boogie boarding in the waves (no waves to speak of on the bay side) and I was freaking out at the gorgeous light. So there are *just a few* pictures of the last wisps of daylight here.
The little girls were cold by this time so they were staying a little dryer.
It was really this pink color. No photoshop.
When the pink faded we were left with the last soft bits of light. The kids were pretty cold (I was cold and I wasn't even wet) so they trickled in from the water and hustled up the beach to the camp (a few feet away) and got dressed.
Mattie especially loved boogie boarding. She got great at it, even though the waves were pretty rough here and they even knocked her goggles off her head and lost them in the sea.
Camp was too dark to photograph, but I LOVED camping on the beach, with the roar of the waves and this huge gorgeous moon that rose just before (or after?) bedtime. We ate dinner around a fire and went on a dark walk in the sand. I would do that every night if I could!
This is the ferry ride home - I realized that I needed a few more kid pictures before we went home later Sunday night.
And here is Brisbane off in the distance. Now that we had realized what boat people we are, the ferry ride was even more fun than before. I bet I could even have driven the ferry myself, except maybe the docking part (there is a dock on the other side).
After we got back we reorganized our luggage, showered off, and hung around for a couple of hours before our evening flight to Melbourne. We stayed there overnight (cold!) in kind of a creepy, expensive hotel, and then flew on to LA in the morning. We didn't have any trouble, we even slept a bit (well, the kids did), and had an easy time getting home by Monday at noon or so. Jet lag was a little tougher coming home, but the kids went to school Tuesday morning as usual and they were just fine, though tired in the afternoon/evening. The whole thing is very dream-like now, 2 weeks later, as I try to remember what all we did. We all still dream we're in Australia a little. If we could live there we'd do it in a heartbeat - we really loved it. And we can't thank our friends the Allens enough - thanks so much for your amazing hospitality! We'll be happy to see them in Utah next year and we hope their move home is much easier than their move out there. :)
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