We Have Now Been To Moreton Island

I had a few more loose ends to tidy up for the Community Association on Tuesday and then we went into Caloundra during the afternoon. Luderick are on the run at the moment and for one of the very few times I saw actual 'buckets of fish'. They were bigger than plates size and reasonable eating.

It was a pleasant around the boardwalk area. Later that evening we ate at an Asian restaurant in Caloundra which had "Malaysian" in the name. The food quality was almost 'food court' standard for the couple of Malaysian menu items they had there. We won't rush back!

Wednesday saw us both up and about around 5:30 am for our trip to Moreton Island. Trish had bought the tickets on special and 'online' and the ferry would leave from the Port of Brisbane. Moreton Island is a large island off Brisbane. Very few people live there and it is best known for 4 wheel driving, camping and its Resorts. The trip to the island was almost 90 minutes. We arrived in plenty of time prior to departure. The ferry is called MiCat and is really a vehicular ferry carrying 4WD vehicles to and from the island. It takes walk on passengers as well. The photo here shows the ferry unloading vehicles onto the beach at Moreton Island.

As you can see from the photo the weather was sensational, early 20's and hardly any breeze. We were dropped off on the beach a couple of k's from the Tangalooma Resort with our supplied picnic lunch. This photo gives you an idea of how far we were from the resort. Click on the photos for a larger view. The place was called "The Wrecks' where a man made harbour had been created. It was a long and leisurely walk to the resort complex. We had around 5 hours until the ferry was due to take us back to Brisbane.

As you can see it was quite idyllic. We arrived at the resort area around 11 am and ate our picnic lunch, mainly to save us carrying it around. We were pleasantly surprised at our freebie meal.

Tangalooma Resort is the sort of place you would go to to relax and do little. There were 'water sports' (snorkeling, para-sailing) all designed to give tourists an experience and remove money from their wallets. There were 2 wheeled motorized stand up bike things, $55 for 30 minutes! There were limited places to buy food, a basic meal was priced around $20! A 15oz beer cost $6.

There were Japanese and Chinese tourists staying at the resort along with a large group of teenagers who were known as "American Ambassadors" on some sort of program.

At least we could sit and eat or drink under the shade and just watch the world go by!

There was several types of accommodation available and very pretty and in relaxing surroundings. These were hotel type rooms (photo left) but there were "Villas" as well.

We spotted a Real Estate Agency. There are 'private' homes around the Tangalooma area and some of these are for sale. Prices start around 1.25 million dollars! But you could by a cheaper Villa for around half a million!

We strolled around the resort complex and decided some of the areas were a little seedy and in need of upgrade. We found a small shop which would sell us litre of milk for almost $4. We had a stroll on the short jetty and took this photo of our ferry. It wasn't allowed to drop passengers off at Tangalooma as the resorts wanted to use their own boats to transfer passengers. However after dropping us off it sailed around to just south of the resort and did some minor maintenance work. As you can see the water is just perfect .. if a little cold.

The 5 hours were not easy to fill, we did a lot of sitting and looking.

Eventually it was back to the ferry for a 3:30 departure and we arrived back at our car on the mainland around 5 pm. We had previously eaten at "Sunnybank" some time ago, a suburb south of Brisbane and known as an Asian area. We travelled about 20 minutes south and ate there at a restaurant called "Malaya Corner". The Char Koay Teow, Salted Pepper Calamari and Lobak were just sensational, as good as any we had ever eaten! Despite paying $6 corkage for our bottle of $5 wine, the bill was less than $40 and the food was wonderful, especially the side serve of chilli!

It was around 8 pm when we finally turned into our drive way (and 120k's from Sunnybank)! It had been a long but pleasant day. We can now say we have been to Moreton Island, but we probably wouldn't go back there again just as a day trip!