All Access. All in one subscription. From $2 per week
Subscribe now

All Access Weekly

From $2 per week
Pay just
$15.75
$2
per week ongoing
Subscribe now
BEST VALUE

All Access Annual

Pay just
$449
$49
per year ongoing
Subscribe now
Learn more
30
NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • Deloitte Fast 50
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Travel

Queensland: Sand island escape

By Tim Roxborogh
Herald on Sunday·
29 Jun, 2013 11:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
Take a dip in the impossibly clear Lake McKenzie, one of the many beautiful fresh-water lakes that punctuate the island.
Take a dip in the impossibly clear Lake McKenzie, one of the many beautiful fresh-water lakes that punctuate the island.

Take a dip in the impossibly clear Lake McKenzie, one of the many beautiful fresh-water lakes that punctuate the island.

Tim Roxborogh spins his wheels on a picturesque Queensland retreat

Despite having watched a vaguely alarming 4WD safety video, startling both for the presenter's Hawaiian shirt and for its grim 42 minutes outlining all the pitfalls of driving on the world's largest sand island, we still didn't really expect to get stuck. Me and a buddy had just checked out Fraser Island's most visited site, Lake McKenzie, its clear water ringed by white sand and framed by dark green rainforest.

Running out of adjectives, we also ran out of traction. En route to another of Fraser Island's postcard-pretty freshwater lakes, Lake Wabby, we finally succumbed and found ourselves immobile. What should we do? Luckily we'd watched the video.

The roads on Fraser Island are bumpy in a way that makes Vietnam's or Guatemala's seem autobahn-tastic, but being a sand island, the roads are just that - narrow sandy grooves, gouged through forest, connecting various lakes and villages. Well, we did want an adventure.

Truth be told, getting down on your hands and knees and digging your car out of the mound it's lodged in, while flagging down other drivers for help, while a downpour unleashes itself from nowhere, while you speculate you may never get freed is precisely the sort of stuff you know you'll enjoy in hindsight.

All Access. All in one subscription. From $2 per week
Subscribe now

All Access Weekly

From $2 per week
Pay just
$15.75
$2
per week ongoing
Subscribe now
BEST VALUE

All Access Annual

Pay just
$449
$49
per year ongoing
Subscribe now
Learn more
30
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

And that we did. Eventually, the churning wheels gripped, the rain stopped and we kept on exploring an island I'd always wanted to visit, but one that remains curiously overlooked by Kiwis in search of Aussie sunshine.

Queensland's Fraser Island is probably bigger than even most Australians realise, roughly three times the size of Singapore and almost entirely covered in rainforest, some of it surprisingly dense. Surprising because you don't normally associate lush foliage with plants growing in sand, and yet the sand on Fraser Island also happens to be some of the whitest this side of famous Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays. Add to that the quite stunning fresh-water lakes that dot the island and the purest bred wild dingo population in Australia, and you have a place that isn't just beautiful, but unique.

As for where to stay, there are plenty of camping options on 75 Mile Beach on the eastern side (a beach highway on which you need to heed the warnings of the video to avoid high tides, sand-breaks and the danger of dingos), but without question Kingfisher Bay Resort on the western side of the island is Fraser's premier accommodation.

The resort is really a village and is blessedly criss-crossed with tarsealed roads to link it all - but best of all is the overall design. The bulk of the resort's many awards have been related to its status as an eco-resort and, despite it's substantial size, the rooms, suites, lodges and houses all blend with the bush, lakes and pools in expert fashion.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It's a family-friendly resort, and if hiring your own 4WD is a little intimidating, there are plenty of cross-island tours the staff can arrange for you. If you're wanting to stay within the resort, there are canoes for hire, Segway beach tours, tennis courts, restaurants (you can even learn how to cook using ingredients from the Aussie bush), bars and two of the most imaginatively designed hotel swimming pools I've swum in. The pools are made to look like natural rock pools, and are curved and shaped among subtropical vegetation. There is also a small lake with a beach to link the two pools, all set about 100m back from the main beach.

During my five-night stay at Kingfisher Bay Resort, one of my favourite things to do after inland 4WD adventures, bush walks and epic tennis battles was to sit on the deck of my room and just look at the view. I had a lake, trees, a beach and an off-shore island to admire, as well as the setting sun. This is what an eco-resort should be like - beautiful and yet almost hard to spot amid the surrounds that made it beautiful in the first place.

Info

Fraser Island can be accessed from Hervey Bay, three-and-a-half hours' drive north of Brisbane. A 50-minute ferry ride will then take you to Kingfisher Bay Resort. Flights also operate from Brisbane and Sydney in and out of Hervey Bay. If you have a 4WD, you can take it on the ferry, though 4WDs can be hired on the island. For further information, visit kingfisherbay.com

Discover more

Travel

Queensland: An unexpected love affair

22 Jul 11:00 PM
Travel

Queensland: Friendly cobbers and croc warnings

31 Jul 02:00 AM
Travel

Queensland: Tough track to 'The Top'

08 Aug 03:30 AM
Travel

Queensland: Bulldust in every crevice

16 Aug 12:00 AM


• Tim Roxborogh stayed courtesy of Kingfisher Bay Resort.

• Hear Tim Roxborogh on Newstalk ZB's The Two (with Pam Corkery) on Friday and Sunday evenings from 8pm, and solo on Wednesday and Thursday mornings from midnight to 6am. Or read his music and travel blog, roxboroghreport.blogspot.com.

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Travel

Travel

Completing NZ's Great Walks with kids: One family's epic journey

Travel

Best places to take a toddler in the Alps

Travel

Why I travelled to Ibiza with young kids for a holiday


Sponsored

Family-built tours, Fiordland soul

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Recommended for you

'Ambition and ingenuity': Rotorua Business Awards finalists revealed
Rotorua Daily Post

'Ambition and ingenuity': Rotorua Business Awards finalists revealed

Air New Zealand appoints new CEO
Business

Air New Zealand appoints new CEO

How a secret recording brought justice in historical abuse case
New Zealand

How a secret recording brought justice in historical abuse case

Actor suggests Robin Williams as 'voice of AI' for smart tech
Entertainment

Actor suggests Robin Williams as 'voice of AI' for smart tech

Ranfurly Shield journey holds key to provincial pride
Sport

Ranfurly Shield journey holds key to provincial pride

Lydia Ko set to defend Women's Open amid fresh talent showdown
Golf

Lydia Ko set to defend Women's Open amid fresh talent showdown



Latest from Travel

Completing NZ's Great Walks with kids: One family's epic journey
Travel

Completing NZ's Great Walks with kids: One family's epic journey

For quality, screen-free family time, a Great Walk really delivers.

29 Jul 07:00 AM
Best places to take a toddler in the Alps
Travel

Best places to take a toddler in the Alps

29 Jul 02:25 AM
Why I travelled to Ibiza with young kids for a holiday
Travel

Why I travelled to Ibiza with young kids for a holiday

29 Jul 12:05 AM


Family-built tours, Fiordland soul
Sponsored

Family-built tours, Fiordland soul

27 Jul 02:00 PM

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
All Access. All in one subscription. From $2 per week
Subscribe now

All Access Weekly

From $2 per week
Pay just
$15.75
$2
per week ongoing
Subscribe now
BEST VALUE

All Access Annual

Pay just
$449
$49
per year ongoing
Subscribe now
Learn more
30
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search