On Tuesday, we took the ferry to the famous Magnetic Island. About a 20 minute ride from Townsville. Once on the island where half of it is world heritage area, we walked about 20 minutes outside of the ferry terminal to a rental place. We decided to rent mopeds to ride around the island instead of the busses (which came every 3o minutes, so a long time). I was a bit nervous about the mopeds because I've never driven anything like it especially on the left side of the road. But we geared up; I took Courtney a pink moped while Ariana took a yellow moped. We rode them along the block to get the feel for how to use them and it was pretty smooth sailing and they weren't hard to drive. But as soon as we got to the parking lot and were ready to take off again… I fell off the moped onto the middle of the road. Nothing happened as it was a side street so hardly any cars used it. I only bruised my legs a bit and thankfully the bike was okay! Then we were off… but not for long as we are crappy navigators and soon had to pull over to decide which direction. Only my bike decided to break down not even 5 minutes into our trip. I waited on the side of the road while Ariana went back to tell the woman who owned the business. Turns out my fall had twisted a wire so it wouldn't start. Luckily it was an easy fix! Then finally we were off to explore the island. I went pretty slow as there were quite a few windy roads and I was still nervous after my fall about riding it. Our first stop was at a lookout where we saw the tiniest wallabies I've ever seen! People were feeding them carrots and they were a breed of rock wallaby. Then we headed off to the next stop and the most popular destination on the island for bushwalking. On the map it looked like maybe 20-30 minutes return. But nope it was more like 1.5-2 hours and we hadn't brought our waters with us on the walk. We were able to spot 2 wild koalas near the fort lookouts. One was carrying a baby in her arms while she slept. The forts were used in World War II as a look out point and the island had a number of inhabitants including families during the time. Now the forts are used for lookouts for the scenery and sights of the island. It was stunning! After walking back down to our mopeds we continued our journey to Horseshoe Bay. We took some photos of our mopeds and then walked along the beach admiring the many many beautiful seashells and coral pieces. The scenery on this island is just magnificent and about 10,000 people actually live on the island. Then it was time to take our mopeds back so we took them to the rental place but not before taking a wrong turn again…. Where Ariana went the wrong way in a roundabout. So that was really really scary! Luckily the locals are all aware so she was safe and they looked after her. Then we went back to the ferry terminal and waited for a bus to take us back to Horseshoe bay for dinner. The sun was setting over the bay and just wow it was one of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen in my life! The sky was just incredible lighting up the bay as well. Once it set we settled on a pub as it had the cheapest meals. Then it was back by bus to the ferry terminal to catch a ferry back to Townsville where our hostel was located. The days were hot but the nights were very cold!

On Wednesday, it was another travel day. We went to the ferry terminal again but this time for our 1:30 pm bus ride to Airlie Beach-heart of the reef and home to the beautiful Whitsundays. The bus ride was about 4 hours with about 3 stops. Once at Airlie Beach we checked into our hostel (a very tropical looking one with huts and cabins). Then we ate local pizza and set off for bed as we had an early start in the morning.