Island Time!

This week, our house mate Illy told us she is pregnant. The next day, our other house mate, Marina, was up at three am to catch a last minute six am flight to Newcastle to see her sister who had just given birth to a baby girl. Its baby-tastic in West End!
I knocked off early on Friday so we could get the two pm ferry to North Stradbroke Island. It's a half hour drive across town and then a one hour ferry across Moreton Bay. The island is nothing special compared to Auckland's Waiheke for example, but for what it is, a low-lying sand island, it's remarkably pretty. We bumped into our West End neighbour, Chad on the ferry and were able to follow his conspicuous truck to the Island Time festival site. Once there, the most conspicuous thing was the complete lack of organisation for the volunteers. I pitched in, while C pitched the tent. C ran me back to the campsite for dinner, and we saw a dolphin couple playing in the Moreton Bay sunset.
After a traditional Minjerribah welcome ceremony, the festival proceeded in a friendly, small scale vein. None of the acts were stand-out to my taste, but I enjoyed the vibe very much. I didn't have much work to do as a volunteer (they never did get my name on the rota) and the Adder Rock beaches, less than five minutes walk from the festival site, are absolutely spectactular - tree line down to the beach, pristine white sand, picturesque headlands and the Brisbane lights in the distance after sunset.
On Saturday, We used a lull in the program to head inland to Stradbroke's Brown Lake. So called because of the colour of the water due to the infusion of tea-tree oils from the tea-tree plants around the edge, it made a good picnic spot, but seemed in part to be populated by refugees from the reggae festival, who were regretting booking their family camping trip to coincide.
By Sunday morning, we were having such a good time on the island that we drove to the ferry office, and changed our tickets to Monday so we could stay an extra day and catch Chad on stage with SchoolFight, sneak in some body-boarding and (of course) the obligatory post-festival doof on the beach.