We spent the whole day travelling from Maggy Island and arrived in Airlie at 6pm, ready for our 2 day, 2 night boat trip on the Whitsundays the following day. We went to the local boat agency and checked in without any problems and were told to meet at the harbour the next day at 1.30pm. Nikki and Ben M had been on a slightly earlier bus and had arrived ahead of us. They had found a cheap place to eat and had text and invited us to meet them later on. We dumped our bags in our 17 bed dorm (largest we've stayed in yet) and set off up to the "Down Under Bar". When we arrived we were surprised to find Nikki and Ben M sitting with Rachael (from Cairns). She was staying in the same dorm room as them and they had figured out that they all knew me and Ben J. So the 5 of us ate together and then joined in with the bar games going on that evening. This resulted in Rachael winning us a $20 beer tab. She claimed her prize and handed it over to the rest of us saying that she didn't want it as she didn't drink. We didn't turn it down and continued the night with more free beer……we seem to make a good team when it comes to getting free drinksJ

The next day we crawled out of bed and quickly got ourselves organised for our boat trip. We packed our smaller bags with essentials and asked the hostel to store our bigger bags for the 2 nights we were on the boat. We were all ready to go and looking forward to the trip when we got a message to return to the boat agency immediately. This did not sound good, we walked round to the agency where a lady informed us that the gear box on our boat had exploded that morning and so we couldn't go out that day. This seemed like bad news until the lady told us that if we were willing to wait a couple of days she could upgrade us to a really nice boat. We were in no way limited by time and so agreed immediately. She booked us onto the "Whitsunday Blue" in a private double cabin with gourmet meals provided. Wonderful. We returned to the hostel to retrieve our big bags and booked to stay there for a couple more nights….we opted for a 4 bed dorm this time rather than the 17.

As we now had free time on our hands we decided to look around Airlie. Airlie is a small seaside town with just one main street, a lovely harbour and a big lagoon. We ate lunch by the lagoon and spent the afternoon sunbathing and reading. We text Nikki and Ben M and explained that we would be about that evening and arranged to meet them again for food and drinks. We spent the night in down under bar again and enjoyed pizza and beers. The following day Nikki and Ben M had their boat trip and so we had another lazy day around the lagoon and later on went for a walk to the local supermarket for "supplies" to take on the boat the next day. We returned to the hostel to organise our things and had an early night in preparation for the boat trip.

As we didn't have to be at the harbour until 2.30pm, we spent the next morning enjoying breakfast in a local café and then wandering around the local Saturday market. At 2.30pm we were met at the Marina by Natalie, who would be our guide and chef for our time on the boat. We were shown on board the Whitsunday Blue and given cake and juice as we were briefed about the boat and trip by Toby, the skipper. The boat itself was an impressive catamaran with 4 private double cabins. As it was there were only 4 passengers (including ourselves) and 2 crew members. So there was plenty of room for all of us. We set off sailing into the afternoon sun and Ben and I sat on the large nets at the front of the boat admiring the view. Natalie was on hand to provide our afternoon snack of nachos, celery, carrot sticks and dips, which we washed down with the Bacardi and pineapple juice we had brought along with us. The sun began to set and we got some amazing pictures of the sky. At around half 7 we had broken into the wine and Natalie and Toby had served us up a delicious meal off BBQ chicken, potato wedges and Greek salad. Dessert was cheesecake, cream and strawberries….which went down very quickly! We headed to bed feeling extremely full and drifted to sleep with the gentle rocking motion of the boat.

During our BBQ feast we had unexpectedly ran of gas, which meant no gas stove and so no brew for the next morning!! Disaster! So the plan was to start the boat up early the next day and meet a second boat to pinch their spare cylinder. This meant that at 6am we were woken by Toby lifting the anchor and starting the engine. Being in the cabins at the bottom of the boat, as soon as we started to move we felt like we were sailing through a storm. We didn't stay in bed too much longer and by the time I made it up on deck I was feeling a bit sick. I still managed breakfast, of course, and then Toby let me drive to help calm my stomach - I started feeling better right away, plus I got to drive the boat! At 8.45am we pulled into a small bay next door to Whitehaven beach and Toby took us to shore in a smaller motorised dingy. Natalie lead us up through a small windy path and out onto a wooden platform, the Whitehaven view point. The view was stunning. We were looking out across the bay to Whitehaven where the sand is pure white due to its 98% silica content. The sea is a bright pale blue and mixes and swirls with the sand so producing beautiful patterns that look amazing from above. After marvelling at the view, Natalie took us back down and explained the way down to the beach. She then gave us a walkie talkie and said to call when we ready to come back and Toby would collect us. We walked down to the beach and out onto the soft squeaky sand. Most of the sea was flowing up onto the beach in shallow rivers and so we walked out quite far without reaching any great depth. We came to a section that was deep enough to swim in and despite the cold wind I waded out and dived into the clear, cool waters. Ben took a little more convincing but we were soon both in and were amazed as large stingrays came swimming up around us and gliding around our feet. After walking along the length of the beach we returned up the path and Toby met us back on the other side and navigated us through the coral back to the Whitsunday Blue. We set sail again and Natalie served up a lovely lunch of bread rolls, tuna salad, sliced meats, cheeses and spinach, sweet potato and feta salad. In the afternoon we pulled into a small bay where we went snorkelling and saw lots of big wrasse fish. We got back on board and welcomed the hot drinks Natalie had prepared, we sailed out of the harbour heading around to a bay where we would anchor down for the night. As the sun began to set and we pulled around a large island, we suddenly spotted whales in the distance. It was a mother and her baby. Toby stopped the engines and we watched as they made a huge loop around the boat and continued out into the sea….amazing! After another amazing bright orange sunset we sat down for dinner. Tonight's meal was BBQ steak, sweet potato mash, veg and mushroom & onion sauce, finished off with chocolate cakeJ The following morning we were up by 7am again and were greeted by a lovely breakfast spread of fruit salad, yoghurt, a selection of cereals, pancakes (plus toppings), orange juice and tea or coffee….I was truly in heavenJ After fruit and yoghurt and 3 pancakes loaded with Nutella, Toby informed us that we had arrived at our next snorkel site and it was time to get our wetsuits on. As it was still only 8am and we had just gorged ourselves we weren't feeling too energetic. Toby encouraged us with the promise of turtles. We got our wetsuits and fins on and Toby took us out in the dingy boat. He instructed Ben and me to sit opposite each other and on the count of 3 we were to roll off the dingy backwards and into the water. He counted to 3, we both pushed off, we hit the freezing cold water and came up to the surface gasping at the shock. Toby shouted "good morning!" and the sped off back to the catamaran leaving us to search for turtles. As soon as we dived down we immediately spotted a turtle and then another and another. They were everywhere and they weren't shy. It was amazing, just me and Ben snorkelling around and in between lots of turtles of all different sizes. We returned to the boat cold but ecstatic about what we had seen. Natalie served up another delicious buffet lunch and we began to head back to Airlie Beach.

Back at Airlie Beach we decided we would stay for a bit longer and booked 2 more nights at a hostel. We spent the next couple of days relaxing and enjoying the sun. Our next stop was to be Rainbow beach, which was 14hrs away by bus. We had booked a night bus, which we boarded at half 5 on the evening of our departure. We settled down and prepared for yet another long bus journey.