Airlie Beach - Whitsunday Islands

After a lovely time in Cairns we flew to Hamilton Island which is in the Whitsundays Islands. We then got a ferry to the mainland ready for our pick up the next morning from Arlie Beach. Airlie Beach is a small but bustling town right on the beach with a big mariner and port. It is the gateway to the fabulous Whitsundays Island, the unofficial 8th natural wonder of the world. We dropped off our big back packs and made our way to Abel point mariner to get on the yacht that would be our home for the next 3 days. The boat we boarded used to be a racing yacht, so it was certainly not built for comfort! Coming from the live-aboard dive boat in Cairns we were a bit shocked as it was a lot more basic. We would not be having hot showers on this, no showers at all in fact! Luckily the man at the reception of our hostel had advised us to get a bed at the front of the boat. We made sure we were first to accept a double bed as we didn't mind sharing. We ended up getting a top bunk double bed at the bow of the boat, above the bed were huge sliding slats that opened the bed up to the outside. This meant that as we slept we were able to see the stars from our bed which was just amazing! The stars were so bright and vibrant as there is less light pollution out at sea. We definitely hit the jackpot with the beds!

The Whitsundays islands are a group of islands off the coast of QLD, the trip we went on took us all around the islands and stopped off at the best snorkelling sights there are. One of the reefs we stopped at was voted the number 1 reef for snorkelling in the world by National Geographic. It was really cool and the reefs were beautiful but i did sometimes wish i was diving again when i saw a cool fish but couldn't follow it as i needed to go back to the surface to breathe!

The main attraction of the Whitsundays islands is Whitehaven beach. This was voted the best beach in the world and officially has the whitest sand of any beach in the world, the sand is so white due to the high levels of silica found in the sand. It certainly did not disappoint. We arrived there at 7am, the skipper told us the reason they go so early is because the beach is at it's best before the hoards of day trips get there and it's full of people. We were the first ones on the beach and it was so pristine, the sand is white as paper and the water is bright turquoise, There are also huge sting rays that bury themselves in the sand and swim away when they feel you walking near them. It was amazing. The beach is actually an inlet into an estuary and the way the tide goes in and out it leaves big swirls of sand above the waters. This makes for absolutely stunning views from a lookout. It looked just like a postcard, utterly breathtaking. I had never seen such a beach in Australia and it reminded me of the beaches in Fiji that i had seen a year or so ago. We spent three hours on the beach swimming and sunbathing and making human pyramids for some great photo ops.

After we got back on the boat we went to two more snorkelling sights and then anchored down for the night. We watched the sunset from the boat and had some dinner, it was so calm and really beautiful. We had a few drinks on the deck and then headed to bed to watch the stars for a second night. The next day the winds had picked up so we got to see what the boat can really do and helped the crew raise the mast and sail the boat. It was a lot of fun, but also a bit disconcerting when the boat listed really far over. The skipper reassured us it had never capsized yet and luckily it didn't for us either! After some more snorkelling and sailing we headed back to the port and back to Airlie beach for some chilled out days of sunbathing and a lot of catching up on sleep!

After the past two weeks with most of my time spent on boats exploring the gret barrier reef and surrounding islands i'm feeling pretty great and can't believe this is my life at times! I'm having a great time and am excited for my next stop of Melbourne before heading on to Asia!