Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/142338
regionalstopover Best of bo While Townsville now sprawls far and wide, asserting its place as the fastest growing city in Australia, Magnetic Island is still the quiet paradise she's always been – with a touch more tourism slipping into the mix, writes Michelle Hespe. There's a little girl standing on tiptoe at the bow of the ferry in front of me, gazing excitedly across the blue expanse of the Great Barrier Reef. The olivegreen, undulating form of Magnetic Island is in clear view and she has a question that thousands of others ask every year: "Dad, why's it called Magnetic Island? Where are all the magnets?" Her dad is perched on a ferry seat sussing out the approaching landmass through his binoculars. "There are no magnets, honey – Captain Cook had a bit of a dodgy compass, and he thought it went nuts because there was a magnetic force on the island. People have tested it since and no-one can find anything magnetic. His compass was just having a bad day, I guess." The little girl looks satisfied as we glide through the still waters, closer to port. "Oh, I see," she says. We pull into the ferry terminal on Maggie (that's what XVIII Queenslanders affectionately call her) and, disembarking, I head to the little shack of an office that has something piercingly bright pink on offer. The little girl arrived there before me and now she's jumping about in manic delight as she clocks the hot-pink Barbie-style 'Tropical Topless' cars that are the island's choice of transport for tourists sans vehicles. They fit five, in a very cosy cluster, and they are the most incongruous things on the island, their hotpink bodies standing out starkly against the abundance of nature – all shades of green in the rainforest, bushland and super-green lawns; and all hues of blue in the surrounding oceans and inlets. From high above, I'm sure my car looks like a fairy in her most daring get-up, zipping through the picture-perfect painting of a tropical island. Still, I'm off at a leisurely pink pace and with no roof to hamper the view, these cars are the ideal way to see what Maggie has to offer.