The Whitsundays

The last part of our package booking was a 2 day, 2 nights sailing trip around the Whitsunday islands where we got to see some beautiful white beaches, dabbled in scuba diving and snorkling in the Great Barrier Reef and had some good nights where we partied and slept on the boat.

1. The crew - We first were introduced to one of the crew members (David the volunteer) when he strutted past us introducing himself to the ladies in a Fonse esc fashion. He turned out to be hillarious and got us doing drinking games and generally just being good fun.Andy was the dude who tried to be the cool guy and was alright but his bant was worse than mine! The main speaker guy was Beni who was a cool guy and kept us safe during scuba diving so Ill always be very grateful for that! The cook was a really nice lady whos name I have forgotten but she played a cool game one night where the forfit for a wrong answer was a spoon of vegimite (Aussie Marmite). The boat captain was a guy called Bluey who was an old, mad, crazy sea dog who probably drinks his own urine because its sterile and he enjoys the taste.

2. The beaches - On the first day we stopped off at an Island in the Whitsundays which had pure white sand with the highest amount of silica in the world. Me and Han played American football with 3 cool guys from Denmark who said that Han could be a pro (showoff), we took some pictures of the beach, walked up the most jagged sharp path barefoot to a viewpoint, and paddled in the sea where Rich found a lemon shark which swam up to him and some guys saw a few sting rays.

3. Scuba diving - We hadnt planned on doing a scuba dive until we were on the ship and saw how many others were giving it a go for the first time so me and Rich found our cahooners and Hannah plucked up the courage (no cahooners fortunately) and signed up. It was really scary when we had to wait on the beach for our turn. We were there for ages and everyone kept telling stories of how they chickened out, or it hurt their ears or made them feel clostrophobic! We were wearing our stinger suits since it was still stinger season and that meant box jellyfish allert! When we all got geared up it was quite uncomfortable and the tanks were a lot heavier than I remembered. Rich and Han were relatively calm to say it was their first time and to say that Rich is susseptable to a perferated eardrum! When we went under water for the first time we were all concentrating to make sure we kept breathing, then Beni (instructor) threw fish food in all our faces and within seconds we were surrounded by blue and yellow fish! It actually helped calm the nerves! The visablility under the water wasnt the best but we could still see the reef passage that we swam through and the fish. We found Nemo in a little coral area and I monged out flapping around near it on my back, we all patted a big Mauri Rais fish who was massive, Rich, Beni and Han spotted a quite rare fish that isnt often seen on the tour and just before the end of the scuba dive Han panicked and went upto the surface because she thought she had lost everyone (which was sensible in heinsight since a scuba diver died the same day in the Whitsundays because she got lost from her group). It lasted about 25 mins and afterwards we all sighed a large sigh of relief.

4. Snorkelling - In our sting suits we went out snorkelling around two reefs. The first was where we did our scuba dive, then the second was at a different site which was home to an even larger Mauri Rais fish who went by the name Elvis. Unfortunately we didnt see Elvis but we saw more really nice coral and fish. Also, while we snorkelled around one of the areas, there was a girl who got left behind by her boat! How embarising! We took her on board and after a very thorough man count from our crew, we set off after her boat to give her back.

5. Nights out - We played pose master, 21's, plus many other games involving the consumption of alcohol is vast quantities. The alcohol that we took on board was GOON which we were well and truely sick off by the end of the trip because its horrible and gives you a cronic hangover! It also contains fish eggs! Dave was shouting 'Get it doooown ya' in his Scottish accent and one night poured GOON into everyones mouths from the bag....but missed and ended up pooring it over everyone in a 2 meter radius. Han got everyone wasted one night, especially Fraser who performed a lovely dance for us to avoid having to drink anymore, but fortunately noone was sick apart from Rich (alledgedly).

6. Airlie Beach - This was the a really nice town on the mainland coast and was where our Whitsundays adventure began. We stayed at Nomads hostel and met some nice guys who tried to tell the difference between Hannahs strongbows (sour, sweet and original)...but failed miserably! Han had been given the strongbows as a present from a group of guys on the Fraser Island trip for lending them her ipod speakers which was really nice. At Airlie we spent most of the time chilling out by the 'lagoon', which is a giant outdoor swimming pool with cool views of the sea. Also we ran our buts off on a marathon trip to Coles one night, where we heard about an Irish guy beating the crap out of someone. Finally we had a mammoth night out after the trip which was filled with pizza, beer and photos of us all pulling deranged expressions with flames coming out of our heads!

Overall, we really enjoyed the Whitsundays because we got to try something new, in scuba diving and sleeping on a boat, and despite the not perfect weather, we saw some nice views.....plus we got to meet Patches.