Lady Elliot Island

We heard about Lady Elliot Island from a woman at Legoland. We were standing in line and starting talking about Australia. She mentioned that she had been there and had spent a few days at this little island. Luckily it was easy to remember, since our nephew's name is Elliot. As we were planning a trip to the Australian east coast we looked into it and decided to give it a try. We are so glad that we did, it was absolutely beautiful.
We got up early that morning, flew to Brisbane, rented a car and drove three hours to Hervey Bay.
We flew out of Hervey Bay on a very small airplane. R was a little nervous on the plane. He kept saying over and over, "This is fun, Mommy.", but it was more of a question than a statement. Then he fell asleep (I think it was a coping mechanism).



We landed on a grass runway and were greeted by the tour guide. He showed us our rooms, took us on a quick tour of the resort, gave us the rules about the coral, and a quick lecture on which creatures were dangerous.

C near the reception building.

We were soon down at the beach, which was right outside of our room. The beach was covered in dried up coral, which R loved throwing into the water. I think his mission was to return all the coral back to the ocean- he worked endlessly at that task the entire time we were there. There were also tide pools to explore and the education center had viewing tubes to use. The tubes had a clear piece of plasic on the end, so it was like looking through a pair of goggles into the water.

C with his viewing tube.

A crab we found in the tide pools. We also found some hermit crabs that evening.

R would collect coral in his bucket, then throw the pieces into the water. He was so happy.
We had gotten to the island around 4:30, so after exploring a little it was time for dinner. There was only one place to eat on the island and they had a buffet dinner. They were good about providing vegan meals for us. The kids ate a LOT of peanut butter and jelly that week, but they didn't seem to mind. Kids prefer the same foods over and over anyway.
That night we all went to bed early, since we had gotten up at 3 am to make our flight.
I have a lot more pics of Lady Elliot Island but have to break it up over several entries. And I am being a bit harassed by the grandparents for photos, so I need to get this out. (I think I have spoiled the grandparents with photos- the photo expectation is very high!)
Thanks for checking on us.