Blue Water Adventure
Moreton Island is a natural playground that’s perfect for action and distraction, writes Bernard O’Shea.
When Mother Nature decided that the people of Sydney would get beaches while Brisbanites would have to make do with messy mangrove swamps, she wasn’t being entirely mean. As a consolation, she gifted Moreton Island to the latter – all they had to do was cross 40km of ocean to get to it.
That’s easily done nowadays, and Brisbane seems to be having the last laugh, for the island has become a big drawcard for Australian and overseas visitors, and P&O Cruises has even started doing four-night escapes from Sydney to Moreton Island and back so that Sydneysiders can have what Brisbanites are having. How the picnic tables have turned!
Moreton’s appeal is obvious the moment you step off the ferry onto the wharf at Tangalooma Island Resort, which is handily situated in the middle of the 44km-long island. The sea’s so blue, the sand dazzlingly white, the water so clean, your immediate urge is to kick off your shoes and wade in.
Tangalooma is the main hub of activity on the island and there’s plenty to do. A top attraction is snorkelling or scuba diving at the artificial reef formed by the Tangalooma Wrecks – 15 ships scuttled between 1963 and 1984 to form a sheltered anchorage for recreational boats. As well as the ample fish, you’ll spot dugongs and turtles if you’re lucky. You won’t need any luck to see bottlenose dolphins, though – a couple of pods appear by the jetty each evening for a feeding ritual that started in the 1980s, and visitors can now take part, under controlled conditions.
This is also whale-watching territory – until 1963, Tangalooma was a whaling station. Now, thankfully, conservation is all the go and humpback whales are honoured guests in the Morton Bay Marine Park as they pass by on their annual migration north around June to October. This year Tangalooma had 1086 whale sightings: 815 adults, 212 juveniles and 59 calves.
Moreton is mostly national park, and has some of the best dunes in Australia. You can explore them by quad-bike or sand tobogganing (great fun), or more sedately on 4WD bus tours that also take in places such as Champagne Waterfalls, Honeymoon Bay, Dolphin Lake and Blue Lagoon – all as idyllic as they sound. Water-based activities
include kayaking, paddle-boarding and all sorts of boat rides. Be inspired, as we were on our visit, by the woman who treated herself to parasailing on her 60th birthday and loved every minute of it. At 70 metres in the air – the equivalent of the 23rd floor of a building – you get awesome views of the island and bay. Helicopter scenic flights are also available.
The best way to appreciate Moreton Island, though, is to spend the night. For when the daytrippers vanish and the boat engines shut down, as stillness descends, as the sun sinks and as it rises the next morning, Tangalooma takes on a calmer, gentler personality. The busy resort turns into a secluded tropical hideaway where you’ll be soothed by the sense of solitude and the swish of the waves caressing the shore, and feel at peace with the world and yourself.