A Place to No Where!

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After a short flight from Christchurch to Brisbane and a good night's sleep, we picked up our rental car and drove (5) hours North to Agnes Water. The sole reason for going to Agnes Water was to try our luck for a 2nd time to get out to the Great Barrier Reef. A month earlier we were unsuccessful from Port Douglas, so we thought would use our (5) day window between flights to give the GBR another go. As the local hairdresser informed me, Agnes Water is better known as "A Place to No Where". The only reason to come here is to drive down the road to the Town of 1770 where boats depart to the southernmost part of the Great Barrier Reef. Other than heading out to the reef, there is no other reason to come up here. Seriously, the town shuts down at 6:00pm, and why not, with only a population of approx. 2,000 there isn't much to be expected.



Agnes Water is also the last place to catch a good break for surfing. The beach here is absolutely beautiful. The beach is a huge horseshoe shape, miles and miles long and at low tide is very wide. There are a good number of surfers catching the waves that make for some good entertainment as you lie on the beach tanning the hide.



We were extremely lucky with the timing of this trip, as it happened to be the only one for the week, due to rough weather cancelling the previous day's trip and extremely low tides for the next couple of days that will not enable the catamaran to enter the inlet. After a 2 1/2hr ride on the catamaran we arrived at Lady Musgrave Island and Lagoon. The ride is in open water which meant (15-20) knot winds and some pretty good swells. By the time we arrived at the island the garbage bins were overflowing with recycled breakfast and eggs. I can honestly not relate to those that get sea/motion sick, but it certainly doesn't look very pleasant. The unfortunate part, is that once one person starts the heaving process the rest just follow - its like a gag reflex!



Moving on... The island is truly an awesome sight and the snorkelling did not disappoint. What makes Lady Musgrave Island and Lagoon so specially is that the island boasts a reef lagoon over (8) kms in circumference and is the only navigable lagoon on the GBR. The great aspect of the "Spirit of 1770" tour is that the company is now the only permit holder of this area, which means we were the only boat out there. The lagoon is just awesome, the water is turquoise in colour and extremely clear, and the marine life is just teaming with heaps of different types of fish and incredibly vibrant coral. The green turtles were awesome as well, and I did my best not to ride one back to the boat! On our way back to the condo, our Australian wildlife adventure was completed when Isabel spotted (2) kangaroos chilling roadside - what a great way to finish our trip!



From Agnew Water we made our way back to Brisbane by driving down the Sunshine Coast, which is absolutely beautiful. One thing is for sure, Australia has the most beach coastline in the world. Noosa was a stand out for us, a really happening beach community with loads of inlets that allow people to moor their boats up to their back yard - reminded us very much of Florida. Noosa is situated on the southern shore of Luguna Bay and on the far western side of Noosa Headland.

As we now make our way to Hawaii and back to Canada I must admit, the one thing I will miss in the next (4) weeks is the coverage of the ICC World Cup. Not much of a cricket fan, but the (1) day matches are certainly entertaining at this level - not to mention the commentary on the play of the "have-not" teams was brilliant.

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