We are so very excited. We arrived in hot, humid, tropical Queensland two days ago and we have two trips booked to take us out to the Whitsunday Islands and out to the reef.

Thursday was somewhat challenging, as we had to be up at 3.30am in order to get going by 4am and get to the airport for our 6am flight. The cycle there wasn't too bad, as traffic was minimal, but once we got to the airport and relaxed a little, it was difficult to get going again. It was a smooth flight to Sydney and then a quick transfer for another smooth flight up to Hamilton Island. By the time we'd got there it was lunchtime and to be honest we were both so far beyond exhausted that the boat trip to the mainland (that should have been rather spectacular) was somewhat un-appreciated by both of us. We got to our accomodation at Kipara Tropical Rainforest Resort by just after lunchtime, and so our first move to was to stroll to the nearest supermarket and get some yummy things to laden our fridge. It was blindingly hot and combined with the exhaustion we were extremely grumpy. We decided to have a short power nap at about half 2, and didn't wake up until almost 6pm. We had a lovely BBQ that evening and explored our surroundings. Where we are staying is lovely, although on the first night we spied a snake and a cane toad.

Yesterday was a more active day. We got the bus to Airlie Beach, which is only about 1km away from where we are. We looked around the shops and cafes and eventually had some lunch by the beach. The beach is beautiful but completely deserted, obviously, because it is currently stinger season here in the tropics. It's rather disconcerting to be sat at the beach next to a big sign warning about the nasty ways in which a jellyfish can kill you. Nevertheless, even as we sat on the shore, we still spotted a turtle swimming close to the beach. We spent the afternoon at The Lagoon, which is a fake beach that makes up for the fact that you can't swim in the sea. It's a bit surreal; it is, in essence, a big swimming pool, but it's all graduated so it's quite like swimming in the sea. It's obviously the central focus of the town, because everyone and their brother seems to be there all the time, lazing around on towels and occasionally taking shelter from the intermittant rainshowers. We also booked our boat trips yesterday, about which we are very excited. Howie worked his Irish magic (thank goodness he's kissed the Blarney Stone) because he managed to wangle us an amazing deal from an unsuspecting lady in the booking office. So, tomorrow we're off on a sailing catermoran to cruise round the island, including much time spent on Whitehaven Beach. On Wednesday, we're off on a rather larger boat to Knuckle Reef (which is on the Great Barrier Reef). We fully expect to see many clown fish and amazing corals.

Today we've been mostly hanging around by the pool. It's a very taxing holiday and has meant that I've read a disturbing amount of Harry Potter. I'm re-reading book 7 (again), just after re-reading book 5 (again) and have started to have strange dreams about Sirius Black and invisible thestrals. Howie has mostly been having dreams about interweb applications, so nothing different there.

Next stop: Whitehaven Beach.