After a reasonable journey on the Greyhound, we arrived in Airlie Beach early evening. Accommodation was much needed therefore we looked around a couple of hostels and managed to check into one called Magnums; which we decided would be for one night only. After a quiet night in, we checked out of Magnums and moved on to another hostel called Koalas which was a lot nicer!

We decided to do a little bit of exploring and wandered down to the local lagoon which was very similar to the one in Cairns. We spent most of our day here and then returned back to the hostel. Earlier on in the day, we had booked our Fraser Island trip and Whitsundays from the local backpacker travel agent and as a result we had been giving a load of tokens for free bits n bobs throughout the east coast. So what was planned as a chilled night out with a couple of drinks, actually turned out to be a bar crawl down the strip and familiarising ourselves with all the local bars and clubs.

The next day was HALLOWEEN!!! We were all very excited about this however none of us had invested in sacry costumes. Therefore Jordan and Tom were nominated as hair and make-up for us all and we decided to all wear black and go with the 'goth' look. The day was spent relaxing in the room as unfortunately the weather wasn't too good. By evening we had made a new friend, Meg, whose parents own a pub behind Pandas house!!! Small world!! So off we all went out, again down the strip to all the local bars. Encountered many 'interesting' halloween costumes and managed to meet up with the Lukes (Pandas friend from work + his mate who we'd met at the beginning of our Oz trip). Yet again, another messy night, but was enjoyed by all.

Morning time which only meant one thing...WHITSUNDAYS!!!!!!!!! It all began from here. We left our luggage stored at the hostel, all took one small bag with us and headed to the lagoon for a couple of hours before we had to be at the port. Goon shopping was done just before we embarked on the walk to the boat. We were all very excited and not sure of what to expect. On our way, we met two people, a guy from Austria who we named 'Austrich' and an english girl Sarah. This was the beginning of a fantastic friendship.

We got to the meeting point and met all the other 40-odd people who would be joining us on our 'cruise,' along with the crew. Our boat was called the Clipper and once all the paperwork was done, we were off. The boat itself was a sailing boat with a spa and slide! We all had our rooms (a 2 and a 3 bed) which were small cabins, not the most comfortable but better than the other boats it would seem. From here we went sailing to the spot where we would anchor overnight. As we waited for dinner to be prepared by the cook, the boxes of goon were opened and we all enjoyed watching the sunset over the ocean.

After a beautiful dinner of smoked fish, mash and salad, the drinking continued on into the night. We had, by this point, gained a few people, including a wel;sh boy who was 'volunteering' on the boat (but was actually just after a free ride) and the cook who is a fellow southerner!! Many of the people who were on board had bailed out by 7:30pm without even socialising with the rest of us. Therefore, we had the deck pretty much to ourselves. This is when the drinking games began.... Sarah introduced us to the amazing card game of 'horse-racing' which got everyone extremely excited, with a lot of screaming and shouting. Fun was had by all for the first night of our trip.

The wake-up call was far from friendly at 7am. The crew took great pleasure in knowing how much goon had passed peoples lips throughout the night and therefore thought it would be hilarious to wake everyone up by banging a metal spoon on a saucepan. If no-one responded to this, they were physically dragged out of their bed, much to Jo's complete disgust and horror!

Breakfast was served and then we were dropped off at an island called 'Whitehaven', which is claimed to be the second most prettiest island in the world. We walked up to the lookout point and the view from here was stunning. The sand was white and the sea was crystal blue, we were desperate to get down to the beach so once the photos had been taken, off we went.

The beach was beautiful. We all dumped our stuff and headed to the ocean. We had been briefed beforehand about the stingers (jellyfish) in the waters and that it was essential for us to wear full body stinger suits in the water, even if paddling. Obviously this made us all, especially Panda, a bit wary, but all of us were keen to cool down and experience the sea. So we all kitted ourselves up and got in, jumping the waves as they crashed down. Katherine had left the sea after a while to take some pictures of the view and was shocked to turn around back to be greeted by screams and everyone moving out of the water towards the shore quicker than anyone had ever seen them run before. The culprit was a huge stingray floating along, inches away from the shore!! No-one was hurt and once he had gone, everyone returned to the sea.

We had been told by a few people that because the sand was so pure, we could use it to clean our teeth and it would make them glisten!! All of us were a bit skeptical but when in Rome and all that.... So we all tried cleaning our teeth, with the sand which worked a little bit but most people were generally more interested in trying to get the sand out of their mouths afterwards rather than what their teeth looked like!!!

We then headed back to the boat for lunch and moved onto the next place for snorkelling and scuba diving. On the way, turtles were spotted in the water; Panda could hardly contain herself with excitement of witnessing this. We eventually got to where we were anchoring up for the night, early afternoon and got boats across to the shore where the scuba diving and snorkelling would take place. Jo, Panda and Sarah went out to do some snorkelling leaving Jordan, Tom and Katherine on the beach. Casual chat was happening whilst the girls were snorkelling until hysterical screams and laughter were echoing around the beach. Panic set in for those on shore who'd presumed one of them had been eaten by a shark! But no, it was one of the crew members throwing pieces of bread onto theor heads so that the fish would come right up to them!!! The fish were big, but no sharks were present so all was well. Jordan and Tom were then called for their scuba dive which they both enjoyed and said the colours of the reef were amazing.

After all the excitement of the world underwater, we deided to go back to the boat and sort ourselves out. By this, we mean a short shower and then back up on deck. Much to Jordan's disgust, it was suggested no make-up was to be taken on board because it wouldn't be needed so it was the au-natural look for all of us. Once back on board though, the slide was opened and so Tom, Jordan, Panda and Jo all had a go off sliding down into the ocean.

Evening time consisted of yet another nice meal of Spag Bowl with garlic bread and this time, a lot more people were sociable. Once again, the dreaded goon began to flow and the crew came out to play. Two other crew members from another boat paddled over to join in with the fun also. The crew then organised some drinking games after a huge session of team charades. These drinking games successfully got everyone on their way and included the goon box game, popping balloons in various 'manners,' and team relays. Some people retired to bed after these games but not us. We were all still in love with the horse-racing card game and therefore demanded a pack of cards. The cards that belonged to the boat had gone missing and the only cards that were avaiable were being used by a bunch of about 5 swedish people sitting down below deck. We suggested the crew pulled rank and get the cards off them, which did not work, leaving it down to the rest of us. After some reasonable bargaining done by one of the girls, we had successfully managed to retrieve the cards and the games beagn!!

As more goon began to flow and people began to flake, it was suggested that the party was moved to the Spa. So everyone moved on down and the crew member emphasised the current record for the number of people in there in their 'white bikinis' was 18. This was clearly a challenge! We managed to get 17 people in the spa which meant we were still 2 people down to beat the record. Tom was nominated to go and retrieve people. However, due to many choice words being said by the people he asked, we were unable t beat the record. Sob sob. But the fun continued with games, plenty of stargazing and dolphin watching!

Morning time and fortunately the wake-up call was slightly tamer with just door banging. All of us except Jo got the boat across to shore and did some early morning snorkelling over the barrier reef. After a couple of hours here, we returned to the boat and prepared to set sail back to mainland. We knew it wasn't going to end there. We'd heard about the after-party and consequently decided to make it a bit more interesting and encourage people to dress up in togas! So on our final sail, plans were being made for the evening. We were all satisfied that the trip had been exceptional, the only down fall of the trip was that Pandas i-pod had been stolen!!

Much of the afternoon back in the hostel was spent relaxing, and then preparations for the toga party began. We made our way up to the club where veryone was meeting and free pizza was dished out. Everyone from the other boats were there also and it would seem that word had got around about our boat and everyone was asking if we were from the 'party boat!' So the party continued as drinks flowed. We met another welsh boy who was friends with our welshie from our boat, so we nicknamed them welshie 1 and welshie 2. Everyone had a fabulous night, the games continued and everyone partied til the early hours of the morning.

The next couple of days was spent with our new family from the Clipper. We spent lazy days around the lagoon, chilling out in our group and reminicsing about our Whitsunday trip. On the second day we had booked our greyhound for the evrning and therefore we would be travelling at midnight down to 1770. None of us saw the point in paying for a room so we used Megs shower in exchange for a haircut by Tom, and then dumped our stuff in the Welshies room. We also made the executive decision that the overnight trip would be easier after a few drinks, so off we all went as a Whitsunday crew, had some dinner and drank back at the Welshies room. Time flew by and before we knew it, it was time to say our goodbyes! It was all very emotional, the cook (Tory) had tears as we left her, but we all knew it wouldn't be the end. We would see them again. So, now family-less, the 5 of us made our way to the bus stop and embarked on the greyhound ready for the next part of our journey.