We arrived in Airlie Beach with little to no plan of what we were doing next. We knew that the Whitsundays were most people's top destination on the East Coast, so we were interested in getting on a boat, but with no clue which. There are what seems likes hundreds of possiblities, so we went to see a nice lady at Peter Pans Travel agency and she gave us a bargain deal on our boat and Fraser Island 4WD tour thingy. The only thing was, there was a four day waiting list. Now to all you home folk, four days probably doesn't seem like long. For us however when the Oz clock is ticking down and theres not much to do in Airlie, it seemed like forever.

We did however wait patiently, wasting time at the lagoon. The lagoon is similar to the one in Cairns but much bigger and better. Its pretty much a man made beach, but without the sand and with helpful signs to tell you the depth! Its very beautiful there in an artificial paradise kind of way.

The day finally arrived, I think it may have been a Thusrday. We rocked up at the harbour to find lots of nice looking, happy people. Turns out the nice, happy people were a group of five girlies from Kent; Harriet, Sam, Jen, Sara and Zoe. There were 20 something people in total on the beautiful Tongarra, a large-ish Catamaran. The crew were Andy, the guy that did everything, Eddie who drove it and a guy whos name escapes me, but he was an idiot who didn't seem to do anything, so he doesn't matter.

The first day was spent just getting to know everyone and getting as far away as possible. We 'dropped anchor' in a beautiful lagoon and settled in for a night of very relaxed drinking, yummy food and great company. We were all pretty knackered for one reason or another so ended up bedding down pretty early. And by bedding down I mean sleepign abgs on the deck, looking up at the stars. I saw 5 shooting stars that night, it was AMAZING! The lads put up a tent thing, just in case it rained, it didn't.

We were woken in the morning by a beautiful sunrise. A quick brekkie and we were off to Whitehaven Beach, iconic Whitsundays!

Whitehaven beach is the beach on all the postcards. It is breath takingly beautiful. We treked to the lookout and then back down to the beach. The lovely lads on the boat had handed out stinger suits which amount to a thinner version of a wet suit, equally as attractive! We weren't too bothered though, so we donned our sexy suits and launched into the not too warm sea. After some wave jumping and diving we decided it was time to loose the suits and go for a walk along the beach. The sand at Whitehaven is the purist in the world. It is practically glass. They used it to make the hubble telescope, so its great for cleaning jewelery, which Dave demonstrated perfectly.

Back to the boat for lunch then off to Andy's 'favourite' snorkelling spot in the islands. It was extremely cool. The reef is so vivid and beautiful. It is such a shame that it is being destroyed through tourism. We got our photos and waved at nemo, then decided we were pretty knackered and a drink was in order.

That night was a little messy. Lots of GOON. (Goon is cheap wine in a box. you can get 4 litres for about 5 quid and every backpacker drinks it, but its evil!) Lots of drinking games and even more laughs. The next morning we woke up as the tent was being taken down and dropped on our heads! And if that wasn't lovely enogh we then had to put the wet suits back on and snorkel again. Don't get me wrong, it was fantastic, but I've felt better.

After that it was pretty much just the journey home. It's hard to describe how much fun we had and how beautiful the Whitsundays are, I do them no justice. But just trust me when I say it was fantastic. And what better way to celebrate a great few days with dressing up nice and getting smashed back at Airlie with the girls. They let me borrow a dress, make up and straightened my hair, I was a girlie to! We had a mad night which ended in incredibly embarresing dancing, quite right to. The grils from Kent are LEGENDS, we will definately be keeping in touch.

The next day was.. interesting. I woke up to the alarm and turned it straight off, so when I woke up later 20 mins till check out it was a little bit of a scrabble to get EVERYTHING back into our bags and get out. Our bus wasn't till 11 at night so we had the day to kill, which we did, very well. It mostly involved food. We put our bags in storage at the hostel before venturing out for the day, then promptly forgot about them and the fact that reception shuts at 6 or something. We didn't notice till an hour before our bus and after rushed goodbyes to the girls we ran back to the hostel to find everything locked up and no way of getting our bags. Good job I was hungover, otherwise I would have been panicing, as it was I found it hilarious, not helpful. Eventually we spotted a door behind which we were sure someone lived who worked there, low and behold there was and he did. PHEW! got to the bus stop perfectly on time.... for our 12 hour bus journey to Bundaberg!