We left Cairns on a high from finally getting to wiggle our toes in the sand. Little did we know that the best was yet to come! A six hour drive to Mission Beach was a pretty short drive to be honest. We are so used to driving extortionate distances a six hour drive is a little drive now. It still doesn't quite hit home that although we are on the last three pages of the map now it still takes six hours to drive a quarter of the page. Australia is BIG.

Having heard about Mission Beach on many occasions we half expected the place to be heaving with tourists, loads of bars and cafes and honey traps to rinse us backpackers of our money and send us off on incredible excursions. What we found was actually the total opposite - a sleepy little village with a few bars and cafes dotted between the beach shacks and surf boards. That and the biggest, emptiest white sand beach lined with palm trees. Vick and I took our chance with there being no people to get rid of some of the ridiculous tan lines we have acquired and sunbathed with the bajungas out for the rest of the afternoon.

Despite Mission being virtually empty there is still a big thing with freedom camping so unfortunately Vick and I couldn't just pull up on an empty patch of beach. Our campground was about 25km north of Mission in a place called Bingil Bay. We could park in the carpark of a hostel called Jackaroo, which was virtually a giant tree house atop the the rainforest. It was nice staying there because we got to meet a load of seriously chilled out people who spent most the day lazing in hammocks and becoming insanely bronzed. The two nights we were there they put on film nights, a true luxury for us! Vick and I find that not seeing a TV screen eveyday like we may do at home we've ended up glued to the most pathetic programmes just to get our fix of the big box. Therefore films were definately called for, especially as they happened to be two films I really enjoy, and not like the awful film the bus driver played us when we were on the way to Adelaide.

Speaking of Adelaide it seems like we were there MONTHS ago (not just 4 weeks). Despite only being away for just over two months now it really feels we have been away for about eight. New Zealand is fast becoming a distant memory and we often find ourselves just scrolling through all our pictures to relive the memories. Like the one where we met Faulty in the middle of nowhere and the random old nature man took us on those bush walks up the river. Sounds very dodgey but there wasn't exactly much else we could do but trust him when we were ten miles away from any civilisation!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, from a few days lounging about on the beach, the pool and hanging about in hammocks listening to Bob Marley (it's a hard life) we headed south for a long drive to Airlie Beach - the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. We reached Airlie on the Thursday avo with the plan to go and book a boat trip out to the islands. Turns out that was also most other peoples plans and most trips were booked out! Thankfully there was one sailing boat "British Defender", very apt, that had five more spaces, so Vick and I didn't hesitate anymore and whipped out the magic cards to go in the cash stealing machine once more.

Now being in the bright lights, loud music, heaving bars and pretty much backpacker central I don't know what possessed Vick and I to think that the cops wouldn't be patrolling each nook and cranny for freedom campers. Technically, before I say anything else, the car park didn't say ANYWHERE that camping wasn't allowed. Besides, every other campervan seemed to be camping there....so at 11.30pm when Vick and I had been dozing off for a good few hours (we were saving the money for going out after the boat trip) BANG BANG BANG on the car boot door. Another BANG BANG BANG whilst Vick and I stared at each other in the darkness mouthing 'what do we do!?!?!?!?!'. Having just shipped out a few hundred bucks for a boat trip, neither of us were exactly in the money position to pay a hefty camping fine. Thankfully the coppers left and Vick and I made our speedy escape. We drove around till 1.30am in the morning trying to find a free place to camp. Turns out, for the next three nights we had a whole waterfall to ourselves each night - and there were even proper loos!

Because our trip wasn't until Sunday we had the next few days to, 'sigh', lie the beach and do nothing. Again, what a hard life - especially as we found a place that did five dollar cocktails to sip away at when it got too hot to bathe like a seal once more. We topped up our tans, ate like rabbits and had enough beauty sleep to keep the panda eyes at bay for a very long time. Basically a perfect way to prepare ourselves for our boat trip of a lifetime.

The day came to walk down to the harbour with our bottles of booze, sunnies and suncream. One thing you find yourself doing before a trip is looking around at the people waiting with you and wondering who you would befriend on your trip. A bit like eyeing up all of the toddlers and brats before you board a plane...apart from this time most folks were our ages, also carrying bottles of booze and so it looked like it was going to be a good trip.

I must say I think it's my favourite part of Australia so far. I want a sailing boat, and I would quite happily sail round the Whitsundays for a full time job for a very, very long time. Our sailing boat happened to be a racing boat and had won quite a few sailing races. It's big white sails acted as much needed sunshades as the constant breeze you get at sea doesn't make you aware of the fact there is a huge big burning ball of fire in the sky. I am seriously impressed neither of us burnt at all - my bottom was still pretty fried from a few days before. There were 28 of us and 32 including the crew and we all quickly became pretty close - the sleeping quarters were erm, preeeeetty cosy not to become friendly with people.

Our first day we just sailed to a cove where we anchored for the night. Two Londoners (finally someone southern) and a guy from Houston (I was very excited to meet someone from the same place as my name) joined us for a sunset drink and we all merried into the night and collapsed into bed way past our bed time. Well I say bed, it was more of a plank of wood that if I rolled one way I would fall off the bunk, and if I rolled the other I hit the wall, so at around 5am I headed up onto the deck and curled up in my blanket. This meant I was woken up by the sun when it popped it's head up from above the horizon -I'm not complaining it was just stunning. There is something very peaceful about being at sea, especially when you are the only one awake, sitting on a sailing boat on a mill pond of a sea, watching the fishys come up for food and the sunrise over the ocean - b.e.a.utiful.

The crew were up shortly after sunrise at around 6.30am, and being on a smallish boat the other people downstairs didn't have much of a chance to stay asleep. We had set sail by 7am and anchored by Whitehaven Island by 8 o'clock. Now when an island has the word Haven in it it tends to be saying something. I think I have found paradise. The sand is so pure with the highest silicon content in the world that it is the softest, whitest, cleanest sand I have ever set foot on. We did a bit of a bush walk to get to this beach that I'm pretty sure most people would call perfect. Despite smelling a bit vocanic at times the water was as blue as Daniel Craig's eyes and as clear as a bathtub, the sand as white as I was when I was in New Zealand (pretty much a snowflake), and as empty as swimming pool with a great white shark in. Vick, myself and the folks we drank with the previous night played in the shallows all morning, buried each other in the sand, and did a pretty spectacular human pyramid.

Our fun didn't end there, after leaving Whitehaven we headed to a coral spot for a dip and snokelling. Again being jelly season we donned our wetsuits (they were slightly more attractive than the last ones) and splashed about against the currents following some big fish about. Back on board the boat we took turns to sail and headed to another cove to spend our final night. Across the sea from us there was a private island with a five star resort on - $800 a night with a minimum of a three night stay. I certainly wouldn't pass sleeping in a clean, comfy, cushiony bed, but if I'm honest with you I was perfectly happy sitting ontop a sailing boat, sleeping under the stars and waking up with a seagull sitting on my behind.

More people joined in the drinking games that evening and we all had a right old laugh - if you know the game of chicken goggles then you get the idea of how silly we were all being. For those of you who don't, then I or Vick will teach you as it's a guarenteed laugh. I didn't bother heading down to the cabin to sleep that night and I made myself a nice little nest on the deck. Despite hearing a scarily large fish - pretty sure it was a big sharky at around 3am in the morning I slept until sunrise again. After everyone had had breaky we headed back to Airlie Beach to find our feet on land once more. I do miss the light swell and constant motion you get on a boat - there's something very peaceful about being rocked about like a baby!

That evening we headed out with our new friends and partied and danced the whole night. Vick and I did a serious work out on the dancefloor and our legs are now very stiff, but a great night nonetheless! We have now acquired a new person to join us for the next few days - Jeremy - who we are giving a lift down to Rainbow Beach and the start of the sunshine coast.

And as we have found in Australia so far they don't find complicated names for things. A brown snake is called a brown snake. A spider with a red back is guess what, called a Redback. So I'm kinda guessing that the sunshine coast, is well, going to be a very sunny strip of coast.

Hope you're enjoying November :P