QLD Trip 2011: Our day at Great Keppel Island.

Hi everyone!

We've had a great day today, spent most of it at Great Keppel Island. The Island itself is rather run down, mainly due to the Government not letting the people who had the major resort on the island up-grade it once they closed it for the purpose of up-grading it. Bloody Peter Garret! We were told though that in time they think that something will happen because there has been so much pressure on the government to make it a great place to be again. In saying all this, there is some accom. there in the forms of cabins or self contained units. There was a souvenir shop, which mainly had rip curl supplies and not all that much in the way of GK merchandise! There was a Pizza restaurant also, but apparently the man there needs encouragement to open! We ate at the Great Keppel Bar and Bistro. They people there were friendly enough and happy to answer any questions we had. That's about all that we could find.
We took the freedom fastcats boat over to the Island. It took about half hour to get over there. Once there we then got on a glass bottom boat and headed over to North Keppel Island. We saw lots of lovely coral and fish. We fed the fish and this made for some more fun activity under the water and above at times! The kids thought this was great, even Flick was impressed! Once off the glass bottom boat we had the rest of the day to do what we wanted on the Island. We sourced out our lunch as I explained earlier and then we spent some fun time at one of the many beaches at the Island. The water is so clear, really lovely. The kids had so much fun swimming in the water. Trent and I still thought it was a little cold, but managed to have a fun time with the kids. Maurice swam nude all afternoon, he didn't want to get into his togs! He had no care in the world what so ever, so we just let him go. Pheobe was just so happy to be in the water. Felicity is still getting use to the beach and the water going in and out (which makes you a little unstable at times), but she was happy to paddle along side us or clinging to us at times too!
After everyone had finished swimming, we dried off and got dressed. We then headed back to the bar for a cool drink and then made our way back along the beach to have a look at where the resort once was. They just have a fence up all the way around it, such a shame that it's not being used. Back we then went to the beach where the boat was picking us up from and spent some time playing in the sand and just taking it all in before heading back home. The boat ride home was good, Flick slept in my arms, she was so exhausted after such a busy day.

Back at the van, we unloaded, then took the kids for a bath. Back to the Children's bathroom we went. Guess who was there? The Frog, so we took his picture this time and then Trent managed to get him out of the toilet and release him. So we hope that he's all good now. Had a BBQ and Salad for dinner. Kids are all in bed with no convincing, I've had a shower and feel much fresher without sand all over me! So, it will be a pretty early night considering. The wind is getting up tonight and they say that there is rain and storms to be expected, so we will do some driving around tomorrow and head into Rockhampton for a look around and I'm hoping to find the Great Western Hotel for perhaps lunch or something.
Anyway, I've included some photos from today's events that I think you will all enjoy. Take care until we blog again, Love The Guye Gang! xoxoxoxoxo