After a very long overnight bus journey to Airlie we finally arrived!! After sitting next to some very annoying and loud girls who were SOOOOO hungover after their Fraser Island trip because all they did was drink - This is exactly why we didn't book with Dingoes and went with a Premium tour. Curt who we all know by now can not sleep anywhere but a bed so didn't managed to catch some zz's, whereas of corse I managed to get a couple of hours kip. Luckily our hostel was only a 10 minute walk from the bus station but we were very envious of everyone who's hostel had a shuttle bus to pick them up - considering it was a staggering 33 degrees and we were lugging the beloved backpacks!

Airlie Beach itself was made up of one road parallel to the beach littered with backpacker hostels and souvenir shops. There was also a man made lagoon just off the beach as it wasn't advised to swim in the ocean because of Jelly Fish. We checked into Magnums, a rather large 'party' hostel of which we were informed otherwise. However the 8 bed dorm wasn't too bad. We had a fairly chilled rest of the day after hardly getting sleep, grabbing a Dominos for $5 (£2.50) and eating near the beach.

After a much needed sleep we woke up and packed our bags ready for our sailing trip, dropping off our big backpacks at their office. We were not due to meet at the Marina until 12 noon so we ventured to the Saturday market there. It was rather small will lots of crafty and organic stalls, with Curt particularly taking a fancy to the sand sculpture man who was building a dragon. After talking to the guy we learnt that it takes him 5-6hours to complete!! And he relays solely on donations in order to pay for his permit and carry on with the job he loves. We happily gave him a few dollars in return for some pictures. Deciding we needed to grab something to eat before we started to head to the Marina we stopped at one of the stalls which sold breakfasts and coffees with a nice view out to sea. We were greeted by a little boy who was happily shouting 'I am your waiter', presumably the owners son before he decided he was bored of standing around and went running around the beach. A delicious waffle with ice cream and syrup and a cheese and ham toastie was consumed before walking around to Abel Point Marina.

As we came round the corner the marina was filled with heaps of luxurious yachts and sailing boats, as well as hundreds of tour boats. It wasn't difficult to spot ours which had Wings II largely painted down the side, it was a high speed catamaran unlike other typical sailing boats used on other tours. While we waited we met a few people who were also on Wings II - a lovely lady from Sweden who was travelling the East Coast on her own in a motor home. She was looking after a huge crate of ciders for a couple from Canada (Scott and Michelle) who had been waiting at the Marina since 10am as they were informed this was check in time. Only to find out at 11 once ringing the office that they needed to be at the office the other side of town to fill out necessary paperwork before being able to go on the boat - with an hour until the boats departure. Luckily they made it practically running there and back before we were greeted by the boat boy - Clayton.

Clayton was in charged of making sure everyone was happy, diving and snorkelling etc. he was a great laugh, joking around all the time and generally just a great guy who could fill any room with his presence. We signed some more necessary paperwork, getting our SCUBA certifications assessed in case we wanted to dive and placed all our alcohol into a big trailer for Clayton to whisk down to the boat for the esky to start chilling - I think a few of the guys especially were concerned they were never going see their crates again. Before long we all piled onto the boat realising how little space we actually had, there were 24 passengers and 3 crew - Clayton, Kirsty (our chef) and Rich (the skipper).

After a rather boring but obviously very important health and safety briefing and the description of the trips itinerary - all of which were made more bearable with the huge pizzas we were sharing before we finally set off into the big bad ocean. Also getting shown to our rooms - of which consisted of 6 beds, 2 doubles within one room. There was a coffin style bunk bed at the end it the .... of the catamaran, two double beds next to each other although partitioned with a plinth of wood and one slightly raised compared to the other and then another smaller bunk bed opposite. Safe to say is was rather a squeeze if we all wanted to stand in there together - but was actually ok.

Our first stop was Blue Pearl Bay just off Hayman Island. This was the first snorkel/dive site. Curtis and I were debating whether to do some SCUBA diving while on the boat, while discussing with Clayton we decided we were going to check it out by snorkelling to decide whether it was worth gearing up, and paying the extra cost to dive while Clay took out some divers for their intro dives. This site wasn't terrible, we were able to see a lot of the coral (although rather greyish) while snorkelling as it was quite shallow, with the visibility being quite poor - unlike the diving conditions we've had in Thailand and decided that snorkelling was enough. As we were swimming back to the boat Curt and Scott carried on swimming around in the hunt for turtles, after a couple of minutes Scott came up, shouting to his girlfriend Michelle who was on the boat that he had dropped his go pro! Even though he had it attached to a pole made for underwater but for some reason it also had a quick release button of which he had accidentally knocked - stupid design if you ask me! He was absolutely devastated as you would be - he said it was more the fact that he hadn't backed up the pictures for a couple of weeks and they were now gone, the camera itself is replaceable. Clayton did go out before we left to dive around where he thought he had dropped it but with no luck :(, it was also 30m deep and with the currents it would of been quite hard to find but at least he went and gave it a shot. We then made our way to the Hook Passage between Cook Island and Whitsunday Island for the night.

A clear sky made for a stunning sunset over the water, and of corse plenty of photos! Before Kirsty presenting dinner - can't quite remember what it was but what we can remember is that we enjoyed it! Before long the esky and goon (known as the casks of wine - costing $12 for 4L approx. £6) came out and a few drinking games were played. This is when we got to know the majority of people we were going to spend the rest of the trip with, especially Chris, Jess, Fay and Georgia, a bunch of great people of which we had many laughs with! The evening itself was very beautiful, with clear skies and plenty of stars glittering above us, as well as the smooth rocking of the boat and islands that surrounds us. Curtis and Fay were lucky enough to see the "most amazing" shooting star.

We decided to get up for sunrise as you're not on a boat sailing around the Whitsundays everyday. So an early start for us, venturing out on the deck just before 6am, even though it was difficult following the night before. This was well worth waking up for, seeing the sun rise just on the horizon was beautiful signifying a new day and new adventures. Rich was making our way to the Whitsunday Island, home to the famous Whitehaven Beach before high tide - planning to get to Hill Inlet lookout for 7.30 to be able to see the stunning scenery, however, as there were many lazy people on the boat unfortunately we were later than expected. Some of the early risers were the first to board the rib that Clayton would take us over to the island on, after some of us was aboard Clayton spotted a shark fin closer to the island - we were all amazed at how big this fin was that penetrated the water, dancing around in the waves. Clayton quickly untied the rib from the catamaran and raced over to see if we could get up close, predicting it was a tiger shark. Unfortunately we weren't quick enough, however we were lucky enough to have seen the fin at least as Clayton said he hasn't seen on here for a few months!! By the time we got back to boat the majority of the boat was up and we were ready to make our why over to the island. Also a lot of the other tour boats were also arriving and we wanted to make it up before the majority of them. Once we got to the island we spent the next 15mins taking pictures of the Whitsunday Island sign - a famous sign where many people (especially girls) pose topless behind it! The group did some of the well known photos however we were fully dressed just tactically positioning our clothing so they couldn't be seen so it looked like we were naked - the photos are pretty funny and are definitely worth a look! We also took some more appropriate pictures too.

Finally we made our way to the lookout, a fairly short walk through some forest but made longer by the fact we went barefoot and it was rather rocky. However, when we approached it it was worth the agony. Although it was getting to high tide it was still just as picturesque. The sea was different shades of blue, with a swirl pattern running through - no description justifies how incredible it was. Of corse we spent a while here taking pictures, selfies, group photos, cheesy photos you name it. After our cheeks were aching we ventured down onto Whitehaven Beach - the sand is known to be the finest in the world and if it gets in any camera or phone buttons they will never work again so we had to guard these with our lives - forgetting our dry bags to protect them! And the sand really did feel amazing, like walking on a firm cloud, with your feet looking like they've been dusted in flour! The sand was so fine that it would squeak underneath your feet.

We spent a couple of hours here, chilling, sunbathing, reading, chatting, swimming, playing etc. Kirsty also came out with us and was in charge of taking as many pictures as she could - a popular picture was used with a Vegemite glass. Some may know that Vegemite is a famous Australian sandwich spread similar to Marmite and for those of you that know me I LOVE marmite, also loving Vegemite! On a side note on the boat we are all meant to 'sign on' when we get back after snorkelling or swimming etc so Rich knows if he has 'lost' anyone, if you fail to sign on then you are punished with a spoon of Vegemite not that I would mind but others would hugely dislike! Anyway.... These pictures worked out really well with us 'sitting' on the Vegemite jar, getting pulled out of the jar or getting trapped in with the lid 'closing in on us' - also worth a gander through the pictures to see.

The majority of the time here was spent in the crystal clear ocean, either chatting with our new friends or playing catch with a skim ball. With a curious sea friends casually swimming past - baby black tip sharks. They were no harm to us just gliding through the water considering we were only knee high deep in water it was amazing to see them swimming around. We did try and chase one down with a go pro to get a video of it however, being a born swimmer the shark clearly could get away quicker than we could reach them! Unfortunately before long it was time to venture back to the boat to continue on around the islands and enjoy some more snorkelling, dive sites.

Next stop was Luncheon Bay and Maureen Cove both next to Hook Island, which we both still decided to just snorkel as the visibility still wasn't great. I can't remember if we saw anything worth mentioning here so it obviously wasn't amazing. However it was still nice to get into the water and have a swim around on the search for sea creatures. At one of our stops there were also some other tour boats here. Some having big inflatable slides off the sides - although they looked fun these were the 'party boats' where everyone on the boat just has a massive piss up! A particularly well known boat is called The Clipper - it carries something like 60 people on board, mainly guys as they are sold by tour companies as having lots of girls on which they can 'have fun with', however turning up and finding out there's only about 15 girls compared to the 45 boys! Ha. There is also a well known game they play on the clipper on their last night - known as the naked sex position game, this is egged on by the seedy boat crew and done after consuming plenty of goon! I'm sure everyone can probably work out what this game entails. Hence again why we decided to spend a little more on a premium tour where we could enjoy ourselves and not be surrounding by complete idiots!

Our stop for the night was at Langford Reef just off Hayman Island. This was a beautiful spot. On Hayman Island there was a huge resort that cost $2000 a night to stay and we have literally just rocked up and anchored ourselves in the middle of their view! Sucks to be them. The sunset was yet another beautiful scene slowly setting over one of the islands and leaving an array of orange and yellow in the sky. Our evening was spent much the same as the previous night under the starry sky - chilling on the deck having a drink and playing a few light hearted games (no naked sex positions on this boat!). This time I witnessed a shooting star dart across the sky, happy that I also got to witness a magical moment, and definitely making a wish in the process. At this point we began to get to know everyone quite well and it was sad that the following day we were having to say bye and going off in different directions - like the Fraser Island tour it would of been nice if the tour was 3 nights rather than 2.

The next morning we decided to have a little bit more of a lay in and miss the sunset. However we were waking up to a famous turtle sight which Clayton had promised us we would be able to snorkel early in hope of being able to swim with some. We had seen a few turtles on our journey around the island regularly swimming around the boat however only a few of us on board had actually seen one while snorkelling or diving. We got wet suited up eager in finding Curts favourite animal, fingers and toes crossed! After about half hr in the water we hadn't seen any, getting pretty bored of staring down at dull coral with no turtles out to play. Quite a few of people were heading back to the boat however a small group of us was adamant to find one. Thinking patience is a virtue. Unfortunately Rich needed us to get on board so we could make our way back to Marina in time. We all climbed onto the rib quite disappointed - Me, Curtis, Chris, Georgia, Scott and the Swedish lady. Everyone on the boat had spotted a turtle swimming around, so Clayton being a great guy he is went to chase him (or her - who knows) down. Spotting him we didn't have time to put our fins on and jumped in, managing to catch a sort glimpse of him before again being a natural in the water swimming off! We clabbered back on the boat, while Chris found him and again and was following it, this time we had time to put on our fins, while Clayton took us over, this time slowly lowering ourselves into the water. Finally we saw him, pretty close and managed to have a little swim with him, capturing a glimpse on Curts go pro. At this point Rich was getting rather frustrated as he wanted us back on the catamaran so we could get back to the marina, however we were very thankful of Clayton pushing on and letting us have a swim with the turtle. It was beautiful watching it slowly glide through the water and off into the blue. We all had massive beaming smiles on our face! Definitely a perfect end to the trip.

So we got back on board (of corse signing on so we had no Vegemite punishment), and started to dry off on deck while we made our way back to the Marina. The boat was due to go out the same day so the crew had a quick turn around - quite a stupid thing to do in our eyes as we are then stuck to a time limit rather than enjoying the sailing around the islands. Oh well suppose that's how they end up making all their money. The whole group came together for an end of tour brief and to go through all the photos Kirsty and Clayton had taken of us during our 2 and a half days. Some were pretty epic. They of corse used this as another way to make money by allowing us to purchase a CD with them all on for a price of 30 bucks, although in hindsight it wasn't majorly expensive a group of 10 of us all chipped in together and then one person (Fay), would kindly upload them to a private facebook album where we could each personally save them - with us putting them onto our hard drive when we got back to shore. The last half everyone just sat enjoying the views as we sailed past all the islands arriving at the Marina just shy off 11. The boat crew had planned a night out for everyone who was staying in Airlie Beach for the night at the Down Under Bar - for discounted food and 'free drinks' and then onto Pheonix Bar a renowned club/bar in Airlie.

When we got back we were pretty hungry after having an early breakfast. A group of us trekked back to the main strip in Airlie Beach with some of going our separate ways for the day. We decided to grab all the photos from Fay and upload them to our hard drive to save time and effort later on, heading to Peter Pans to use their computers. Of which Fay and Jess ended up staying for a few hours uploading the pictures to facebook on their very slow internet - hands up to Fay though :).

As a side note, we were due to check back into Magums for the night, however after the first night before our Whitsundays trip Curt seemed to be rather tasty to quite a few bed bugs - resulting in Curt being covered in bites all over his back and arms. This looked quite painful and was very itchy for him, as well as looking rather unpleasant (Sorry Curt)! Luckily I was unaffected ;). So Curtis demanded that we get some sort of good will gesture off Magnums - we were shocked to have got bed bugs in what we thought was a clean hostel compared to quite a few of the places we have been staying over the past 7 months - especially in Asia. Nevertheless to cut a long story short after much debating we managed to get a free upgrade to a private room - result :). However, we needed to de fumigate our bags and clothes before we were allowed to check in which is understandable really as the hostel didn't want us to take them into a new room. So after an hour of messing around, washing ALL our clothes, spraying both our backpacks and leaving them in the sun for an hr or so we checked into our private double room, grabbed a much need warm shower and took a little nap after our busy day and eventful evening to follow.

We turned up at Down Under Bar to find a huge table reserved for everyone on the wings II boat, and it wasn't long until everyone arrived and we ordered some food and drinks. There was a live band playing (can't remember the name), who was made up of such a mismatch of people, however they did play some popular songs which we all enjoyed. After some time we were beginning to wonder where these 'free drinks' had got to. Clayton, Rich and Kirsty all arrived and said hey but after a quick greeting we didn't really see them again for the night! Luckily our free drinks turned up, some jugs of this blue cocktail - not entirely sure what was in these jugs but it did not stop us from drinking it all up! However, not getting us remotely drunk as they probably only had a shot of alcohol per jug. But hey ho they were free!

The night then progressed and we ventured down the street to a bar called Phoenix bar which was more like a club! Fay and Jess didn't fancy it as they had an early start so we reluctantly said our goodbyes, however we had planned to meet back up in Cairns before we fly to Indonesia. The rest of us went inside to find a rather loud, full of drunks and quite rowdy place! We all decided we would grab a drink in the hope the evening would get better however this was not the case. Before long after getting pushed and shoved, stood on and drinks spilled on us we decided we had outgrown this scene and decided to call it a night. Nevertheless it was still a great night and was good to see everyone off the boat and have a few drinks with. It was quite sad to say goodbye as we all went out separate ways (some continuing North, or going South). Ready to catch ANOTHER bus to Cairns (also our final bus journey in Australia!).

C & E x