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Australia e-journal |
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Frasier Island, Aus |
Friday,
September 27, 2002 |
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Factoids: · Great ferry ride over to the
island from Hervey Bay · Frasier Island – world heritage
status · Entirely made of sand · Dynamic topography · McKenzie Lake – great for skin! · Jacob’s Creek wines – the swill of
Aussie wines |
OK – we’re at this place called Frasier Island – the eco-friendly resort. Let’s recap some of yesterday’s highlights… We stopped at this quaint little town for lunch. D & I ate this Vietnamese place – I tried to order “mong” but was sadly disappointed with a BBQ pork dish. It was A$16 – I had to supplement lunch with fish & chips (A$4). The tour members were impressed by my eating prowess. Two lunches?! (Wait ‘til I get to Singapore…) Looked around town – supermarket and pharmacy museum, but nothing else remarkable. We drove for a couple of more hours. In the interim, Andreas and Peter showed us coins from Venezuela and New Zealand, respectively. Robyn entertained us – she brought out “Millionnaire” questions. We stopped at Hervey Bay to crossover to Frasier Island. Nice place – I tried to help a vendor out with his Internet connection but to no avail. Stupid Windows ME! It was a 40-minute ferry ride over to Frasier Island. Somewhat bumpy (no barrier reef to hold back waves) but fun. We sat with Maurice and Kim – some people were getting wet up on the second deck! 
On the island and assigned rooms by 1800 hours. The resort and rooms are really nice! Took some photos of it and the view. Compared to yesterday’s stopover in Rockhampton, this place is vastly superior. If given a choice between this place’s view and that of Hamilton Island, the latter would win. I do give the room features of this place the thumbs up. This place is very environmentally minded. The architects to this place did a great job! We had a buffet dinner – Cajun theme. We sat with Nick and his wife, Georgeann. I had no idea this woman had RA – then looked at her hands. They told us about their grandchildren and their daughter will celiac disease (no gluten, please!) We went to a slideshow hosted by the ranger (it was about the island, its history, the geography, and its world-heritage status). We retired early for the night (9PM). Absolutely nothing on TV! Got up at 8AM to look around the island and had breakfast. Came back to the room and relaxed. Writing ths journal entry from the veranda (shirtless). Should have lunch soon before the SUV excursion this afternoon… _____ The SUV excursion left one hour late! Technical difficulties, they said. Not very reassuring since we are travelling numerous kilometres in this vehicle! I was hoping there would be no problems and luckily, we got home without incident. Quite a bumpy ride around the island – sitting behind the rear axle help things. ;) Saw McKenzie Lake – it’s a pearch lake, not to be confused with a window lake or a barrage lake. There was opportunity to go for a swim. Question: how do you get a lake 200m up on sand?! Answer: a layer of thatch to keep water in. The rotting vegetation makes this lake quite acidic but quite therapeutic to the skin. After a 15 minute dip, I have to say my skin felt smooth as silk! Also did a nature walk in the rainforest. It was an abridged tour due to the time, but nice. I fell bad for the tour guide – he missed his ferry ride back to the mainland. (He crashed at the staff quarters) On the tour, might I add, they served some darn good macadamia cookies! What I learned on the tour – Frasier Island has World Heritage status – environmentally recognized as something to preserve, along with the Grat Barrier Reef. There is another category for World Heritage status – culturally important (ie Great Wall of China, Pyramids of Giza, etc) Frasier Isalnd is also the largest sand island in the world – over ½ of the freshwater lakes on the sand island are here. The island has 6 dunes – mangrove – temperate forest - rainforest - ? – rainforest – sand. Plants of mention: foxtail sage, Frasier Island turpentines. We got back at 5. Enough time to realx a bit, get cleaned up and be poolside for 6:30pm! We had a seafood BBQ supper. Quite nice – fish, scampy, shrimp, scallops, beef, chicken, nice salads, baked potato, desserts. It was a feast! 
After supper, we went for a star gaze – saw Venus, Scorpio, Sagitarius, Hercules, (Capricornia?) and the Pointers. Not enough time to see all the good constellations, but it was cool. Our guide, Marie, was a new ranger and perhaps it was why she was so enthused with her job (good for her). It was a somewhat early evening. We watched Law & Order x2. Also drank the rest of the shiraz D bought upon our return from the SUV excursion. Busy, busy! It was tough waking up this AM. D didn’t want to get up at 6:30AM. The porter knocked at our door to gather our things but we only brought carry-ons. It was a rushed morning to clean up, pack and have breakfast. Thank goodness I evacuated before we went for breakfast! We’re on the 40-min ferry ride back to the mainland – another long day on the coach, I presume. _____ 
The drive to Brisband / Gold Coast was happy yet sad. Eleven (11) tour members parted their way. We went to the Australian Zoo first – Steve Irwin (aka the Crocodile Hunter) owns the place. His parents opened it – he’s expanded it and is exploiting his celebrity. The croc demonstration is the zoo’s main attraction. Steve doesn’t do it that frequently now. “His” croc, Monty, is still going strong. Other things / attractions at the zoo – 10 deadliest snakes (fierce snake / taipan is deadliest), birds of prey, koalas, wombats, crocs, casawarry (emu-like), asian small-pawed otters. D bought a “croc hunter” t-shirt for her brother. 
The drive to Brisbane was OK – I was feeling under the weather (mild headache, febrile, nausea – lack of sleep, malaise) so 1000mg acetaminophen was in order! Napped along the way but was awake in Brisbane. A nice city – went to the airport and then the train station to drop tour members off. Then we were off to the Gold Coast. We did pass the ‘Sunshine Coast’ on the way. But it’s Surfer’s Paradise that people know about. We got to the hotel and I took a 1-hr nap (still not well). But did expore. I felt good enough to go to the 7PM dinner. Food was buffet (Surprise, surprise) – good buffet. Had rice, chicken, shrimp, spicy tomato soup, bread, pasta salad, good ice cream (mango & strawberry). 
After dinner, we went back to Surfer’s Paradise, for sightseeing. Walked around – tried to change my CAD but they didn’t change it at the Galleria. (?!) Went to Hard Rock Café and got a t-shirt for Pat. Do got one her herself. We piced up a shirt at the Quiksilver store her her bro. Then we went to a café called café Italiano for drinks. Nice place at reasonable prices. We were back at the hotel by 10:45pm. Cleaned up and took some photos of the place. The ocean-view room is really nice, I must admit. Charging my Palm as we speak (thank goodness for the international shaver plugs!) Will charge my CD batteries before bed. Tomorrow, we depart at 08:30 so our bags have to be outside the room by 07:30. Have to pack our bags tonight such that we can sleep in a little more tomorrow. Need to find ‘net time in the near future! |