Moreton Island

When traveling in a foreign country, should someone offer to take you out on his yacht to a beautiful island for the weekend, your answer should be simple. Heck yes.

On one of the most memorable weekends here in Australia, we went to our friend Jono’s parents’ house in Cleveland, not too far from Brisbane. They live in beautiful Raby Bay, which is about an hour boat ride from Moreton Island, an Australian must-see. In addition to living in a neighborhood much like Newport from the O.C., Jono’s parents own a 50ft boat, which we went out to sea in for the weekend. The boat sleeps 8, but most of us ended up sleeping on the upper deck beneath the stars. It was miraculous. The only issue we ran into was a giant bat swooping down at Liam and our Indian friend Daryl in the middle of the night. I’m quite sure Daryl’s screaming woke up the neighborhood in its entirety.

After a less than peaceful night for some, we woke up at 5am to set sail into the sunrise. Jono’s parents were incredibly hospitable, and served us snacks, lunch, and cider during our journey. Although it’s my dream to sail around the world, unfortunately my sea legs haven’t quite developed and I got pretty seasick on the way to Moreton. It took an hour to sleep it off, during which I apparently missed more than 30 dolphins swimming around the boat… drat.

Once we finally arrived, we anchored ship and took the dinghy (baby motor boat) out to a giant manmade shipwreck by the island. Jono’s dad said it was made to create a reef for marine life and to attract tourism. It worked. There were many boats and snorkelers in the area taking advantage of the beautiful weather and epic scenery. We went snorkeling around the shipwreck and saw oodles of tropical fish and coral. I was scared spitless when one of the girls spotted a stingray, which naturally Jono provoked, causing it glide toward us. Here’s my rationale: If the croc hunter Steve Irwin can’t handle a stingray, there’s no way I was about to take one on. Luckily, I think the ruckus I made was enough to scare him away. After snorkeling, we beached the dinghy on shore and played cricket on the beach. I’m a pretty lousy cricketer and won’t bank on being recruited any time soon. The rest of the afternoon was spent diving off the top deck of the boat, swimming in the electric blue water, and soaking up the sun.

After checking out trips in the travel center at Bond, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that Moreton Island tours cost more than $300, one expense we were happy to avoid.