Impromptu

Saturday night, Drew and I received a call from Charity asking us if we would like to go to Moreton Island the next day. Details: We would leave at 6:40am, get picked up from the hotel, take a ferry, go 4-wheel-driving, snorkeling around some wrecks, sand-boarding, and be back by 6:30pm. Total cost for the day: $140 - everything paid for with a lunch provided. Last thing, make the decision in the next ten minutes. ok. After quickly assessing my work-load (i.e. the fact that I had not even begun to study for a test on Tuesday, and that going to the island would completely book my weekend) I decided why the hell not! I mean cyclone Ului was supposed to hit land at 4am, but whatever! I felt like it was the right thing to do, so I said yes. Drew agreed. I learned later that we didn’t have to be ready until 7am – so that was good!

Then I had to make a decision because I already had some plans for Saturday night. I decided to go ahead with my plans and end up studying all day Monday (which by the way, I am not doing at this moment, b/c I'm writing this blog). So Saturday night, I watched Finding Nemo with my buddies while we ate dinner. We have been wanting to watch that movie the entire trip but no one brought it and it costs $22 to buy – ridiculous! However, at brekky we saw on the TV that it was going to play at 6:30pm! Whoohoo! It was great! Then we went pub-crawling, again, b/c it was so much fun the first time. It was a little less busy, but we had a blast anyway! I went to bed around 2:30am.

Woke up at 6:30am, from Drew’s alarm, b/c I set mine for pm. (As a note, I set my alarm before going pub-crawling, so don’t make assumptions ;) I hurried to get ready, woke up Drew, who didn’t wake up to his alarm, and then rushed downstairs. I ran to the ATM to grab some cash, and then caught some breakfast all before 7am! Then we waited, and waited, until finally the bus didn’t come. At 7:20 we called the company who then told us that the bus died, and the tour was therefore cancelled. Ok. SO we had to improvise. We decided we could possibly still make it to the ferry before its 8:30 departure, so we called a cab. We were determined. We figured if we didn’t make the ferry, we were only down about $15 each. The cab driver didn’t know where to go, but thankfully Charity knew the address, and the cab driver plugged it into his GPS. We made it – with God’s help. When we made it to the dock, we figured out we could sign up for a tour there! And they gave us a discount b/c they didn’t have to pick us up from the hotel. So we paid $140 and got on the ferry.

The ferry ride was nice – I slept (except when drinking the free hot chocolate and Timtam they gave us). [Side note: Timtams are delicious. Anyone reading this should buy them at the nearest Target immediately, since they are only selling them in the US until the end of March. As far as I know, Target is the only store selling them. I suggest the original flavor. You’ll find them in the cookie aisle.] Anyway, Moreton Island was really pretty. Our first adventure was snorkeling, and it was excellent! We snorkeled over about 15 wrecks, and we saw a sea turtle! It was laying on the ocean floor as we passed over it and then came up to surface behind us. He was a young turtle, judging by its size (about 3ft length, head included). There were also sooo many fish! And they were beautifully colored! And we got to feed some of them. The guide gave each of us 2 balled up pieces of bread. When you held them underwater, the fish nibbled at your hand to get it. It was fun. We also tried holding the bread between our hands and then catching the fish as they tried to get the bread. I was not successful.

Then we went to a lake that had some therapeutic oil from the rain runoff – I forget what it was called. Regardless of what it was, it felt nice to lay in the lake. The guides said the oils make you younger. I don’t know if that’s true, but I felt younger when I got out! Then we went to a lighthouse and explored. There was a beautiful view of crashing waves, and ocean fading into a horizon mist of clouds! From there we went to “the Desert” which was really sandy. The desert has HUGE sand dunes! IT reminded me of the movie Sahara. We each got a 1x3ft plank of particle board that was finished on one side. This was our sand board. We hiked out to the highest dune – quite a hike uphill in all that sand! And then we got to go sandboarding! It had been sprinkling most of the day, so the sand was wet – not ideal for sand boarding. However, I think we did rather well! I went about 4 times. My last time, I didn’t quite reach the bottom, so I rolled the rest of the way with Aerin. I was pretty sandy by the end. (After each time, you have to hike back up the giant hill – it’s a little discouraging after a couple times.) After that I raced Drew up the hill one last time (he beat me) and then ran down it. It was terrifying! The hill was at about a 70 degree angle, so I felt like I would face-plant the entire way down. But it was fun! If I didn’t have to hike up the monstrous hill again, I would have run down it another time! At this point I was completely covered in sand, and there was no easy way to get it off.

We thankfully had one more stop: the ferry. We drove back to ferry and immediately jumped into the ocean. It felt so good! It was a lot of fun to run up to the water as fast as you could, sprint through the shallows and then dive into the ocean! Once I was de-sanded, I boarded the ferry for the trip back. On the ferry I saw some dolphins and enjoyed another cup of complimentary hot chocolate and timtam. Nom nom! We made it back to the hotel by 6:50, at which time I ate, relaxed, and then slept. Awesome day!