Well we've moved onto Airlie Beach - arrived via a night bus which is always fun! We decided to stay at Koala backpackers again as it had been ok in Hervey Bay...well the standard wasnt quite the same. Firstly we werent allowed to check in for hours as our room wasnt ready, however, when we were allowed in, it still hadnt been prepared. Apparently they are the last rooms to be sorted. Moving on...Airlie itself is nice. There are excellent views over the harbour and there are some good restaurants and bars. We sorted out a day trip around the Whitsunday Islands which we can also do a dive on - exciting stuff! 20/08/06 Up nice and early...mainly because Koalas will only put lugguage into their storage every hour, on the hour. what a joke! Anyway we were picked up and taken to the boat. The weather wasnt looking to hot but we were told it was going to improve. It took us about 1.5hrs to get to our first stop and i think we were all fairly thankful for it. The sea was a little choppy! Our first stop was a walk up through the bush to a look out on top of one of the islands...and boy what a view! I've never seen anything so stunning! The sea is different levels and the sand swirls throughout it (pretty hard to describe but I will get the photos up asap.) We then boated over to Whithaven beach - which we had to ourselves. The sand is bright white and the sea is an amazing aqua colour (once agian, you'll have to see the photos!) We stayed there for just over an hour and then got back on board for lunch. While eating, we moved around to our dive site. Tash and myself were really lucky as we were the only two beginner divers on board that wanted to dive, so we more or less got a private dive! The colour of the fish and coral were amazing. We stayed down for about 30mins and dove to just under 10m. They normally only take beginners down to 6/7m but apparently we were quite good! Diving around the islands is supposed to be better than diving in the open sea as the islands protect it and you dont end up getting pushed around by the strong currents. I would definately recommend it! We got back to our hostal and were told that we would have to wait to get our bags out...as it wasnt on the hour yet!! This was getting a little ridiculous now as we had limited time to get showered and catch our over night bus to Cairns. Thankfully we made it...though never without a crisis... ...tash lost her purse just as we were waiting for the bus. She had to get driven back to the hostal. Thankfully it was just sitting where she had obviously left it to pick up her bags - very lucky!!! Onto our final destination in Oz - Cairns!