Tues 16th
This is paradise!

We had an early start to have breakfast, collect our snorkels and stinger suits and be ready for the sail boat by 8am. Once on the boat skipper Steve gave us our strict do's and don'ts (he's clearly used to having to play the bad cop whilst looking after a boat full of mainly 18-20s). The boat trip to Whitehaven beach took about 3 hours, which we filled by sunbathing and enjoying the incredible views, including watching turtles swim by. Arriving at the infamous Whitehaven beach was honestly like seeing paradise! We have never seen such dazzlingly white sand or crystal clear sea, there were a few scattered palm trees just to confirm you're somewhere truly beautiful. We were told the sand is 98% silicone, which apparently has come from Antarctica (not quite sure about that one), we heard from a number of sources you can use it to clean your jewellery, sunglasses and ever your teeth. The intense tranquility was interrupted slightly but having to shimmy into our very fitted, very unattractive stinger suits, but once on we jumped off the back of the sail boat into the 30'C sea (I sat down and shuffled off, Jay did a back flip off). Once ashore we were really surprised to see how few people where on the beach just our group and the odd other couple, many of whom where flown in on their private helicopters that landed on the beach itself. Jay and I walked almost the length of the beach and took some incredible photos. After our fill of paradise we headed back to the boat for lunch. For us this meant some tasty food to refuel before snorkelling, for a large group of young lads on the boat this meant it's midday and therefore we can get smashed, this clearly hit a nerve with the skipper who confiscated a large chunk of their drinks 'so they didn't kill themselves or the coral when snorkelling'. An hour or so after lunch we were ready to snorkel, again we donned out stinger suits and jumped/slithered in. The coral was great and we could see a good number of fish but the waves where churning up the sand a little meaning visibility wasn't amazing most people got back on the boat pretty quickly, we stuck it out for over an hour. Once back on the boat everyone starting drinking pretty heavily so we figured if you can't beat them...join them! It was actually really lovely to again enjoy the view, the blazing sun and a CHILLED glass of vino. We overheard the big group of noisy lads (the ones who had their drinks confiscated) talking about where they came from 'Southampton Portsmouth way'....we asked them and it only blimin well turns out they all live between Whitely and Titchfield! Anyway we all laughed about how small the world was and enjoyed the sail back to the island. In the evening we teamed up with our new roommates (the Danish girls) and headed to the bar for some sangria. We enjoyed the evenings entertainment of karaoke, and when I say enjoyed I obviously mean enjoyed watching. Most of the 'singers' where Europeans who didn't even know the tune/timing of the songs let along the lyrics so it was pretty awful....but isn't awful karaoke the best kind?

Wednesday 17th
We had a later start today (thankfully), after breaky we headed out on a 'trek' with the group, although about half of the tour where too hungover to make it. It was shorter than our other walk on the island but the morning heat and the size of the group meant it took almost twice as long. On the way up we were told about the history of Whitsunday's, and how Captain James Cook found the islands around the time of the Whitsunday's Christian holiday, we were told of the horrendous reasons why the Australian aboriginals only make up 3% of the population (I'm sure you can imagine). The trek was totally worth it for the amazing view. After the walk we were shown how to break the coconuts out of their outer shell and then crack the inner to get to the delicious milk and fruit, It is actually a lot more tricky than it looks and Jay was the only one who managed it without help, as you can imagine he was super modest about that....hmm. We did a little bit more snorkelling just around the island before heading back to the mainland.
Back on Airlie beach we headed straight to the lagoon and there we stayed for hours. It was so lovely and warm, heated purely by the sun the lagoon was warmer than the air temperature, which was 34'c! We swam and chatted for ages, making plans for the rest of our lives, jobs, houses and of course more travels....we have so much to look forwards too. We ended our perfect day by having a BBQ on the beach before heading off to a free campsite for the night.