Alan and Amanda's Adventures in Oz: Lady Elliot Island and Noosa National Park

Have you ever been to a private island? One that's only big enough to land a small plane on? Where you can walk around it in 45 minutes flat, and need to watch for planes when you walk across the runway? Me neither! Until we visited Lady Elliot Island.

Lady Elliot Island

Lady Elliot Island is a small coral cay, located at the south end of the Great Barrier Reef. Our day trip to the island started dark and early (the sun wasn't even up yet!) because we needed to catch a plane from Hervey Bay, which is about a 2.5 hour drive from Noosa. And the plane left at 8:10 am. And we needed to be there 45 minutes before departure. So the alarm clocks were set for 4:30 am. The motorway between Noosa and Hervey Bay (the Bruce Highway) has seen it's fair share of accidents over the years, so the Queensland government has introduced a few unconventional methods of keeping drivers attentive and awake. They have roadside trivia! I love trivia! Although I think Linda was the only one in the car to get a correct answer (the state animal of Queensland is the koala), it was a neat way to engage drivers along the road.

Once we got to the airport, and were ready to board the plane, the pilot said "Oh it looks like a full plane today, does anyone want to ride up front with me?". I didn't even think he had to finish his sentence because Alan was already sitting in the co pilot seat at the front of the plane. True story.

Ready for takeoff!

The people on the beach to the right are following the island runway safety rules.

It's about a 30 minute plane ride from Hervey Bay to Lady Elliot Island, and once you arrive on the island, you get a tour of the island (including island runway safety "Always look both ways before crossing the runway and if you're on the runway when a plane is approaching we'll blow a really loud horn and everyone on the island will know you're an idiot. Got it?") and then grab some snorkels, masks, and fins and then head out for a ride in a glass bottom boat, and subsequent snorkel. Manta rays frequent the area, but we weren't lucky enough to see any when we were there. We did see a few turtles, lots of fish, some sea stars, sea cucumbers, and a variety of corals! And Linda even saw a shark! We headed back to the island for a quick lunch, and a tour of the reef at low tide. Then we decided to go out for one more snorkel session before our plane left at 3:45.

Loggerhead turtle. He was really big!

Getting out to the reef to snorkel from the beach was a comical experience to say the least. You need to wear reef shoes when in the water to protect your feet from stonefish (the most venemous fish in the world), as well as the sharp corals, but our fins didn't fit over top of the reef shoes. And we didn't really think it would be any easier to walk out backwards wearing our fins so as not to trip over them. So the four of us had to successfully remove reef shoes, and don fins, whilst standing in the waves and trying not to fall over. They need a hidden camera, because I'm sure we looked like complete fools while we were doing this!

It was sad to leave the island at the end of the day, but we had a great time and both Alan and I would like to go back sometime and stay a little longer.

Our last day in Noosa took us to Noosa National Park and the coastal track. (I've blogged about this before). No dolphins this time, but we did get to see a koala in one of the trees on Hastings Street and that was pretty cool!