Happy Australia Day
Trip Start
Nov 07, 2005
1
17
75
Trip End
Nov 04, 2006
Magnetic Island,
Australia
Friday, January 27, 2006
Our next stop was to be Magnetic Island, or as its known to Aussies, Maggie Island. We were really looking forward to spending a few days on a nice beach in the sun re;axing before Simon went back to work in NZ.
Magnetic Island seemed like a good choice, with its promise of 320 days of sunshine a year and crystal clear waters.
The first day was great and spent the day by the lagoon like pool and went to bed in our new tent pretty happy.
And then came the rain. Someone neglected to tell me that Australia had a wet season. So it turned out our new tent wasn't all that waterproof and so in the morning a very wet and miserable Sophie checked into a dorm room while stubborn Simon stayed in the tent.
We were greeted with signs saying "Happy Australia Day". It rained all day. And I don't mean drizzle, I mean torrential rain. The creek running through the hostel grounds which had been bone dry when we arrived was flowing in full force.
So we spent the day playing board games but found we were being stalked by a strange American kid with a dodgy moustache who kept watching our games. As soon as he disappeared we quickly tried to set up Monopoly before he noticed, but alas, he caught us and asked to play. We soon regretted saying yes. He insisted on not only being very cocky and buying everything in sight (this was his strategy, he told us) but also n regaling us with tales of his favourite monopoly moments ("this one time, at band camp..."). He also kept asking if I was trying to "monopolise" the game, which I found very annoying. But he soon became bankrupt and had to admit his "strategy" was lacking.
26th January 2006 was the day Simon became officially bored, for the first time in 2 years of travelling.
We decided to escape the island the next day as the rain didn't ease off and we were about to kill each other. Some guy said that the ferries weren't running and we wouldn't be able to get out for days but luckily he was an idiot.
