Our bus up to Airlie Beach was an overnight trip, so we were pretty tired when we finally arrived. Luckily our cabin was already ready for us when we arrived at our accommodation so we could dump our bags and freshen up. We then went to the shopping centre to get some food, and found a coffee shop that did a coffee + cake deal for $6, and the coffee was huge! I don't think either of us had ever seen a coffee cup that big before, so it certainly woke us up. We then went back to our accommodation to relax by the pool, and later in the afternoon we got to see loads of lorikeets and cockatoos when the owners fed them - they flew in from everywhere and weren't at all afraid of people! After the best nights sleep we had had in ages, we got up the next day ready to explore the area. We started off by walking along the Bicentennial Walkway, which started right opposite our accommodation, and headed towards the main town. We walked past the Abel Point Marina, which was full of loads of expensive looking boats, and carried on along the coast up towards the Airlie Beach Lagoon and the main street - the scenery along the way was gorgeous, the sea was bright turqoise and really inviting, although you can't actually go in it because of marine stingers that could kill you! So we headed back to our cabin and went for another swim in the pool to cool off. On our last day we finally did what everyone comes to Airlie Beach to do - went on a tour of the Whitsundays. They are a group of 74 islands surrounded by coral, and while most people go on 2/3 day cruises aboard yachts we decided to do a 1 day trip on a rib - much faster! We started off with a 45 boat ride out to our first snorkelling spot at Langford Island - the sea was full of all different types of coral and there were loads of different fish too - a great taste of what we'll get to see when we dive on the outer reef next week! After 45 minutes exploring, we then got back in the boat to go to our next spot, passing by the most expensive of all the islands on the way, Hayman Island - it can cost up to $22,000 a night to stay there, and loads of celebs stay there - apparently Katy Perry was there a few weeks ago! Our next spot for snorkelling was Mantaray Bay, which is apparently one of the most famous spots for snorkelling in the whole area. We were some of the first people in the water, and at first didn't know what all the fuss was about as all the coral was really deep down and we couldn't see anything, but very soon the fish started to appear. This bay is a no take zone, which means no fishing at all, so some of the fish grow to be extremely big. It started out with some schools of fairly small fish, but our guides on the boat were throwing in some fish food and very quickly some huge wrasse appeared! They were the biggest fish we have ever swum with in the wild, and they were coming within a metre or two of us and swimming right underneath us! They were there for pretty much the entire time we were snorkelling, and as we explored the bay we found some more coral that was quite near to the surface for us to explore as well. Once we'd finished snorkelling it was back in the boat for a ride to perhaps the most famous place in the Whitsundays - Whitehaven Beach. This beach has been voted the best beach in Australia, and one of the top 10 in the world, so we were expecting big things from it and luckily it didn't disappoint! It has some of the whitest sand we have ever seen, apparently made from pure silica quartz, and it runs for about 7 miles with a little stream running into it from the island. The water was also some of the clearest we have ever swum in! Once we got off the boat we did a walk up to the lookout at Hill Inlet, which had some great views over the beach, before heading back down to relax on the sand and eat our lunch (we'd brought a packed lunch because we didn't want to pay $30 for a buffet of sald and pasta!). After eating we still had around an hour to relax on the beach, so we did some sunbathing and cooled off in the sea, before getting back on the boat for our hour long ride back to Airlie Beach. It was some of the most stunning scenery we have seen in our travels so far!