We had 2 nights on Magnetic Island. This is an island 8 kilometers offshore from Townsville. On arrival we walked to Peppers which is near the ferry terminal, bought some supplies across the road at IGA and ordered a taxi for dinner. On arrival, we got the taxi to go to the bottle shop, take us back to peppers so we could take our purchases back to our apartment and then take us to dinner. A little complex but it worked. A fantastic tapas meal ensued for Kylies 50th.
For our full day on Magnetic we thought we would hire a car. We left our plans to the last minute as that is basically the theme of this holiday, and this worked out well as our original thoughts of a boat trip would have been a bit unpleasant as it was quite windy today. So we hired a car. Last time, we had hired a Barbie Car which was fun if not scary at times, but there were none of these left. Instead we hired a brand new convertible Mini Cooper (must be the only car hire company in QLD to have new cars). Anyway, the car was lovely.
We drove all over the island, and stopped for a while in Horseshoe Bay - for coffees by the beach and then the Marlin Bar for some beers.
And then Shellis for lunch which wasn’t the best actually but the atmosphere was great.
Back then to our marina view apartment for a few drinks and then we took a taxi to a Thai restaurant for dinner. It had a lovely outlook over a garden with lights and the food was good.
Our final morning we headed to Scallywags for breakfast - a very eclectic place with a cool vibe - and skulls etc everywhere. We went for a final drive around the island in our Mini Cooper and then returned the car. We had a later checkout at 11am before heading to the ferry to return to Townsville. It was overcast today and quite cool.
Pandemic wise - they treat it very seriously in the places we have been here in QLD (apart from the ferry to Magnetic Island which really stands out as an example of where it isn’t adhered to at all). Social distancing is very obvious in venues and hand sanitizer is everywhere...it’s far more prevalent here than at home. As I write this, Queenslanders everywhere we go are vocal about and rather concerned about the women who returned from Victoria and lied on their border declaration pass and also visited many venues in Brisbane whilst symptomatic.
On top of this, the residents in Melbourne Victoria have had stage 4 restrictions imposed. These restrictions are tougher than Australia has yet seen and it truly is awful. It isn’t lost on us how very lucky we are to be able to have a holiday at the moment.
We checked into a really nice hotel in Townsville for a night. The hotel has recently been renovated and it is gorgeous with lovely outdoor areas and is very popular. It feels like a resort with new pool and swim up bars.
Our first stop was a backpacker bar with a deck and pool area which was very cool. And then back to our hotel. Mark and Kylie caught up with some friends and Tim and I went to the on-site casino where we played roulette. I did win $175 but Tim told me I didn’t win much so I lost interest. And then we headed to the Longbar Hotel which because of social distancing was very quiet and we were only allowed to be there for 90 minutes. But the pub across the road was packed which was very confusing.
Monday morning was spent with the girls lying by the gorgeous resort pool (omg got so sunburnt - so stupid), and the boys played golf. Except it took them forever to get a taxi. Taxis are really hard to get in Townsville at the moment as many taxi drivers are not working. So the wonderful staff at the hotel drove them there personally! (And a surgeon who was late for scheduled surgery as he had been waiting for ages we well).
They also gave us a late checkout at 1.30pm which was so great. And then we went to the bar on site to have lunch and few beverages later before deciding to avail ourselves of our Qantas club memberships at Townsville Airport. Except this was not to be. Despite confirming with Qantas that the lounge was open and we could access it, we were denied entry as the flight was only marketed by Qantas but the flight was not Qantas metal. This is contrary to our membership terms and conditions which states that we have access with a QF flight number, but they said that they had made a local decision based on capacity for Covid (the lounge was empty so this wasn’t accurate - I got a photo!) and failed to reflect this on the website. Anyway we were all annoyed with this.
As a result we had to sit in the terminal with everyone else and pay for food and drink (haha), whilst we looked forward to our next destination of winter heat!
Suey
2020-08-06
I loved that you travelled to Magnetic Island. Great place!! Nice car that you were able to hire!!