Maggie Island

This past weekend I met Matt up in Magnetic Island off the coast of QLD. I was a little nervous going into the weekend, because it could have gone 1 of 2 ways - ranging anywhere from the best weekend possible during my trip to Oz to the world's longest and most awkward blind-date-style-of-a-weekend. I had never met Matt before, but he studied abroad in Copenhagen with one of my best friends, Brandon Potter. When I told Potter I was headed out to Australia for work, he introduced me to a couple of his boys down under via email, and Matt was nice enough to help me book some weekends up to Queensland, so I could see some more places other than just Sydney. Matt turned out to be awesome, and the weekend could only have been better had Potter been able to join us. We stayed at Matt's family friends, Rick & Candy's home in Picnic Bay, and enjoyed an amazing BBQ at their place Saturday night. I think they got a kick out of the fact that I could turn on a Midwest accent and have relatives who live in Fargo, as they had seen the Coen Brother's movie. Luckily, I ended up with a lot of pictures from the weekend, since other people from our sailing cruise sent some along, and we were able to borrow Candy's camera (as I forgot my camera battery charger, and think I took about a total of 10 pictures on my actual camera). Anyway, this post may be a little picture heavy, but it was so gorgeous up there, what better way to show you?
Rocks near Arcadia.

Arcadia Bay.

Horseshoe Bay - early Saturday am, we went back there Sunday afternoon, and it was buzzing with people - but it was very serene with no one on the beach.

Our sail boat, the Providence, that we jumped on at Nelly Bay. I assumed it was only going to be a 1/2 day tour for some reason, but we were out in the sun the full day...(only a mild sunburn once we made it back on land), We met a lot of very nice people though, Dane & Vanessa from the Gold Coast and Amy & Naomi from inland Queensland.

Matt helping to pull one of the main sails up...

Me, getting in on hoisting one of the smaller sails...I think I was probably singing Andy Sandberg and T-Pain's song, 'I'm On a Boat', as I had that song in my head all day long.

Matt and I - with our XXXX Gold beers on the beach, and the Providence in the background. (Goldies are a QLD beer - and I also got to try Bundaberg, a QLD rum while on the island). We stopped for lunch at Radical Bay after snorkeling in Arthur Bay. If I get some snorkel pictures from Dane & Vanessa, I'll be sure to post those too.

When we got back from sailing, we relaxed at Rick & Candy's house, and tried to learn a few tips from the grill master.

Had to show you our lemon chicken and grilled vegetables, as much like with Nat's blog, this has turned into somewhat of a food blog as well. :)

On Sunday morning, Matt and I cruised around in the purple mini moke he hired for the weekend. In the map above, you can see the island has one main road that you can drive on, and the rest of the island is made up of national park land.

View from the window of the moke. Me with the moke near Arcadia Bay...this was before I took my turn driving it, but Matt was brave enough to let me behind the wheel. You sit in driver's seat on the right side, but drive on the left side of the road, and making things even more difficult, you shift with your left hand, and 1st gear is then further away from you, rather than closest to you, and the gas, brake and clutch are all switched around too...needless to say, I'll be renting an automatic when I do my road trip in NZ.

Candy gave us some Wallabee food for when we were out on Sunday - we found a little guy who was hungry - not going to lie, was a little worried about him eating directly out of my hand, as this was in the wild, not at a petting zoo, and it brought back flash backs of the monkey attack in Cambodia last year (I think most of you know that story - haha), but things turned out just fine this time around.

Matt and I at Arcadia Bay - thanks for being my tour guide and planning such a fantastic weekend - looking forward to Noosa & Boreen Point next weekend!