It's up along the north east coast of Oz, just off Townsville and just a skip away from the Great Barrier Reef. I think it's a bit like the Florida of Australia -- easy to get to, guaranteed good weather, and quite touristy. Anyway, thanks once again to Nan Nan (who rejoined us from Sydney for the week) we scored a sweet condo deal and ended up hanging out in an infinity pool overlooking the Coral Sea.
There was a better shot, where Violet's arm wasn't obscuring Andrew's face, but I didn't look good, so it obviously wasn't really an option. If Andy wants decent photos of himself on this damn blog, he should do the damn blogging.
Just so you don't think I'm totally vain, here's a picture that Andrew took of me. I like to think of myself as just looking wonderfully relaxed here:
the sad truth though, is that I actually kind of look like an Eric Stoltz character, and I'm not talking about his romantic and sensitive role as Keith in Some Kind Of Wonderful:
http://www.pauldavidson.net/wp-content/themes/wfme/images/entries/ericmask.jpg
This is where we stayed. Kind of a lousy picture:
It had a great view of the bay where the ferry came in, and we spent a lot of the week pointing out the ferry to Violet, who really could not have cared less about the boat, and just wanted to spend some quality time sucking on the remote control.
It was a huge relief to actually arrive at Magnetic Island because the schlepping around Victoria in the car, with the buckling and unbuckling the baby into the car seat, into her stroller, into the giant backpack, out of the backpack, into the car seat, out of the stroller, make up her bed, undo her bed, really got tired. Not to mention the Herculean lugging of the two full backpacks, two rolly suitcases, car seat, carrier back pack, stroller, and bed from the shuttle bus,through the airport, from the airport to the hotel, from the hotel to the ferry and then up to the condo, was also intensely annoying.
Or at least, that's what Andy tells me. All I had to do was carry Violet... Have I mentioned that I had hurt my shoulder?
All that was forgotten (by me, anyway) once we got there Andy and Vi chillaxing on Geoffrey Bay, which was our closest beach:
When we weren't poolside or beachside, we were hiking in the very hilly interior.
Andy looking intrepid:
Violet looking cute -- even the beads of sweat on her forehead are adorable!
This picture is for Amanda, who commented on how impressed she was with our photo taking this trip. This is a picture of Violet. She is in the shot... but it's kind of a where's Waldo...
We rented a car one day and drove to the other end of the island (15 km away) to see the sunset.
We also went one day to feed the rock wallabies who have grown quite tame and hop out of the rocks to eat carrots.
There was a weird local there, offering tourists bits of bread to give to the little wallabies. After our experience with Peter, the potential skin flayer from Raymond Island, I was wary, but Andy was all about getting up in the wallabies' business with Violet, so he let the disheveled, shoeless man give him food for the animals. It all worked out okay and there was no flay-age, so obviously I should be more trusting of these odd Aussies.
Swimming with the baby:
If you notice that this picture looks a little dusky, it's because it is (dusk that is). We did a lot of our activities after 3pm when the oppressive heat was less oppressing. We are a freckled, pasty skinned family and like Edward, Lestat and Spike we avoid the sun.
There are beautiful birds all over the place.
This photo is actually taken with as much telescoping as our crappy little camera could afford, because while Andrew and Violet might be willing to risk getting pecked,clawed or swooped at by a bird, I was staying as far away as the camera would allow.
One glorious day my mum babysat and Andrew and I took a boat out to the Barrier Reef for some snorkeling.
There we are en-snorkled.
The water was incredibly clear and blue. We swam after a sea turtle -- harder than it sounds, for reals, those turtles are fast little swimmers.
Andy all wet-suited.
Mrrrow, ladies. He's all mine!
That's it for Australia, suckers! Next stop, New Zealand. The blog posts will be abbreviated, because , ahem, we might have lost the camera... La la.
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