Fraser Island cruise with Pacific Aria

Eli Creek, Fraser Island.Credit: Darren Jew

It's an absolute cracker of a morning when P&O's 'new' ship Pacific Aria edges its way along Great Sandy Strait to anchor off Fraser Island. The largest sand island in the world and honoured with UNESCO World Heritage status, Fraser Island is one of 17 new ports the veteran cruise line will visit this year.

Making this inaugural port call might seem like standard shipping fare: head off from Brisbane, cruise north up the coast and arrive a few hundred metres off the island and drop the anchor. But in reality the task of getting the ship to its anchorage is a huge exercise in logistics.

In laymen speak it requires exact navigational precision, as the waters around Fraser Island are extremely shallow — in fact, shallower than the draught (depth) of the ship itself.

Lido Pool on the Pacific Aria.

The narrowest section of the strait, Fairway Beacon, is just 6.2 metres, while Pacific Aria's draught is 7.6m.

"So how did you do it?" I ask the pilot as he and officials from the cruise line, together with a handful of local politicians, gather on the beach at Kingfisher Bay to welcome Pacific Aria on April 2.

Michael Lutze, a former harbour master at the Port of Gladstone for 23 years who was especially commissioned for the job, says the difficult manoeuvre involved extensive study of hydrographic surveys and ocean tides. Fairway Beacon's 6.2- metre depth is at zero tide, which means the ship has to adhere to strict arrival and departure schedules to correspond with the tides, otherwise it's likely to get stuck.

Whale Watching, Hervey Bay, Fraser Island.Credit: Vince Valitutti/Tourism and Events Queensland

"Everything went like clockwork," Lutze says, a sentiment echoed by P&O Cruises' president Sture Myrmell, who is heading the official welcoming party.

Pacific Aria's April visit marks P&O's first call at Fraser Island, but it's not the first cruise ship to visit the island, a huge 1840-square-kilometre mass of sand, located 30 kilometres off the coast of Hervey Bay and 200 kilometres north of Brisbane.

I've been to the island by cruise ship before, in 1993 aboard the Cunard Crown Monarch (a much smaller ship than Aria), which did a brief tour of duty in Australia in the early 1990s. Other passenger vessels have also called at Fraser over the years.

The inviting waters of Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island.Credit: Darren Jew

However, at 55,820 gross tonnes and carrying 1500 passengers, Pacific Aria is the biggest to date.

Getting passengers from ship to shore by tender craft can be a long process and feels even longer when the deadline to be back on board is tight.

However, a third of the passengers are ferried ashore within an hour of the ship's arrival, I am told, with priority given to those with shore excursion bookings.

Although not on the cruise itself, I hop aboard one of those huge 4WD buses and head off to explore the island with 40 cruise passengers. This is a heavy-duty vehicle with massive tyres, but Fraser Island's terrain is still a challenge for it and we passengers are not in for a smooth ride.

I'm asked to give up my front-row seat for an elderly but remarkably sprightly couple in their 90s and instead get to sit with the driver in the cab. Once we find a milk crate to help me hoist myself up into the lofty space, we're ready to rock and roll.

Fraser is a sand island, make no mistake. Independent travellers need to either bring their own 4WD vehicle over on the ferry, or hire one on the island; those booking rental vehicles undergo a mandatory one-hour briefing on how to tackle the terrain.

On our jaunt, we're lucky to have the services of driver Peter Meyer, who has not only worked as a guide with Kingfisher Bay Resort for 22 years but is a renowned photographer with his own gallery and a book of stunning Fraser Island shots to his name.

He's also a relentless comedian and within no time we're all laughing at his jokes, which certainly takes my mind off the back-jolting potholes and deep furrows we plummet into as we slip and slide over the seriously sandy terrain. Once clear of the beach and out of sight of the resort, Fraser Island is a maze of narrow trails hemmed in by high scrubby bush. That is until we reach Lake McKenzie, the first stop on our half-day tour.

I'd been there 20 years earlier but this time I pick up a few facts and am surprised to learn that this aqua expanse of fresh water is actually 100 metres above sea level. The contents of the 150-hectare lake are pure rain water; there's no ground water at all as nothing can penetrate the rock-hard base of compacted sand on which the lake has nestled for thousands of years. Peter tells us the super-fine sand is perfect for exfoliation, so as I loll in the slightly chilly, crystal- clear water, I grab handfuls from the bottom and rub it over my arms and face just like a cosmetic body scrub.

After the refreshing dip and cheap beauty fix, it's time for Peter's legendary morning tea, a great spread of tasty and sweet muffins, which he's laid out in the picnic area. We tuck in, but keep an eye out for the lace monitor lizard that is hovering a few metres away in a glassy clump, waiting to pick up the crumbs once we decamp.

It's then back on the huge bus for more rocking and rolling over the sandy trails to Central Station, the former hub of the island's logging industry, which operated from 1863 to 1991. While the trains and train tracks are long gone, Central Station is now a picnic and information centre, with boardwalk trails looping through the rainforest. The huge staghorn ferns clinging to gigantic trees and the clear waters of Wanggoolba Creek are the standout attractions.

While many passengers take organised tours around the island (be they bushwalking, jet-skiing or paddle-boarding trips), everyone is free to use the Kingfisher Bay Resort facilities (swim in the pools and eat and drink at the cafe/bar), or just while away the day on Sunset Beach, a calm stretch of shoreline perfect for families.

The ship itself is looking smart after a multimillion-dollar renovation last year, just before it joined the P&O fleet in November. Formerly known as Ryndam when part of the Holland America Line fleet, the 22-year-old ship certainly doesn't look its age. The month-long facelift added six new restaurants and 10 bars and lounges, along with an adults-only pool area, the Oasis.

What is unusual about Pacific Aria and sibling Pacific Eden are that their two elegant speciality restaurants, Angelo's (Italian) and Dragon Lady (Asian), are included in the cruise fare and that the traditional idea of set dining times has been completely scrapped. All passengers dine whenever and wherever they like and with whomever they wish.

And as all the Fraser Island itineraries feature three days at sea, there is plenty of time to test most of the on-board dining options.

TRIP NOTES

MORE INFROMATION

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CRUISING THERE

P&O's next cruise to Fraser Island departs from Sydney on December 10, 2016 (four nights) aboard Pacific Eden. Fares range from $549 a person quad share. Other cruises to the island depart Sydney on January 17 and May 17, 2017.

TOURING THERE

The 3.75-hour Fraser Island Explorer 4WD bus tour visits Lake McKenzie and Central Station and includes morning tea and is priced at $159.99 a person.

Other shore excursions include a bush tucker cooking demonstration ($60 a person); a beach and mangrove guided walk ($29.99 a person) and a tour of Maryborough and Hervey Bay ($89.99 a person).

MORE CRUISING:

Other new ports for P&O in 2016 include Gladstone in Australia and the overseas ports of Wewak (PNG), Stewart Island (New Zealand), Langkawi (Malaysia) and Gizo Island (Solomon Islands).

Caroline Gladstone was a guest of P&O Cruises