Thursday 16 September 2010

From one island to another

Yet again we've had a busy weekend. With only a few weeks left before we fly home, we're desperately trying to see everything worth seeing around Brisbane.
On Saturday night I dragged Dan along to see Mamma Mia! the musical at the QPAC theatre at South Brisbane. Well, I say 'dragged', but to be honest I think he was looking forward to it just as much as me (he's a bit of a closet Abba fan!!). I've seen the film, so knew what to expect, but I think Dan was pretty impressed with how the story and songs are tied together so well.
We got to the show nice and early and had a drink in the bar beforehand. A member of staff handed us a leaflet about a free photoshoot that was going on upstairs, so we headed up to check it out. As a promotional stunt the network Optus were taking pictures of theatregoers in front of a green screen, and then superimposing them into various scenes from the show. Needless to say Dan and I joined in...

The performance itself was mesmerising. I absolutely love musicals so laughed, sang and clapped my way through the entire show. As the 10th anniversary tour, many of the original cast had been drafted in, meaning that the standard was incredibly high. I literally could have watched it again, straight away!
After the late night it was up at 5am to catch an early train to Cleveland, as we were spending the day on North Stradbroke Island (or 'Straddie', as it's known to the locals). From Cleveland we took the 30 minute water taxi across to the island, which is the second largest sand island in the world. Like Moreton Island, it is located in Moreton Bay. However, unlike the island we visited a few weeks ago, Straddie actually has a couple of roads! The boat dropped us at Dunwich and from there we caught the bus up to Point Lookout, the hub of the island.
We found a cute little cafe and had coffee and toast for breakfast, before setting off on the Gorge Boardwalk around to Main Beach. The trail takes you high above the sea, with many purpose built viewing platforms for whale watching. However, we unfortunately didn't see any on our visit, although we were pleased to stand and watch hundreds of dolphins riding the waves. They are so cute!
The view as we came round the corner to Main Beach took my breath away. The white sand stretched so far into the distance that it just petered out and blended into the skyline. We sat on the beach for a little while before heading off on another walk, this time along the beaches back in the direction the bus had taken us.
When we got to Frenchman's Beach we stopped for a while to watch a surfer who was so good he had a guy on a jetski with him to take him out into the massive surf, to pick up waves.
From there we walked all the way round the headland to Deadman's Beach, where Dan's foot had a fight with a rock and came off worse! Luckily, in the massive bag that Dan had been complaining about all day, I had wetwipes and plasters so was able to patch him back up. He didn't moan about the size of the bag after that!!
Cylinder Beach is the most commercial of all the beaches, with lifeguards and a few holiday chalets. There were quite a few people here, as it was the only place where you were officially allowed to swim that day.
It was walking down to here that we saw a witchetty grub. It had fallen onto the path from a tree I think, and Dan accidentally kicked it! It was the most hideous looking thing I've ever seen so, even though Dan went mad with the camera, I'm not going to publish a picture of it on here! Anyone who's watched I'm a Celebrity will know what I'm talking about.
At about 3pm we caught the bus back to Dunwich in time for the water taxi home. Although we didn't 'do' anything as such when we were on Straddie it was so nice to spend some time just chilling out in the sunshine.

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