by Andy
TOP of our list of things to show any visitor to Townsville is the place which helped us to decide to live there: Magnetic Island.
So the second part of the schedule for Adrian and Gill (Gem's mum and dad) was to spend a week on the island.
And, unsurprisingly, they loved it!
We stayed at Bright Point, one of the new luxury apartment complexes, for six nights, and showed them all the sights we could fit in.
Apart from just enjoying the sea views from our balcony and eating at yummy restaurants nearby, we also took them for a day at one of the secluded bays - Florence Bay, which has super coral reef and crystal clear waters off a wide arc of beach which can only be reached by a few clever people who know exactly where it is.
The beach, maybe 500m from end to end, had about a dozen people on it, and we had a great day swimming, snorkelling and playing frisbee.
It was a great day until we got back and realised I had not put enough sunscreen on and had turned a violent shade of red. This led to great amounts of ridicule when I turned up to work.
We also went swimming in Alma Bay, which is a smaller beach hemmed in by rocky promontories on both sides, and had lunch at Horseshoe Bay on the other side of the island.
Maggie is also home to the largest colony of wild koalas in Australia, and they managed to see four (!) of the furry creatures when Gemma took them to do the rugged Forts Walk - more than Gemma and I had ever seen before.
The animal theme was continued when we took them along to Arkies pub for the weekly night of Toad Racing, something which has been raising money for the local surf lifesaving club for almost 30 years.
There are eight toads which can be 'bought' in an auction before each race, with the winnings going to 'owners'.
The toads are released from a perspex case in the centre of a chalk circle, with the first toad to make it out of the circle being declared the winner.
Though we did make several bids for the toads, we didn't end up getting one - but we did have a couple of drinks and a lot of laughs.
But perhaps Gill and Adrian's favourite activity was feeding the rock wallabies which congregate near the old barge terminal - they did this almost every evening around sunset and saved up all their fruit and vegetable peel for them during the entire week.
It was enough to make Gemma and I seriously think we should move back.
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