Well, I can't believe I am now over 1/2 way through my trip, the time has just flown by. I arrived in the Whitsundays (on east coast of Australia) last Saturday and I was looking forward to a week of sun, sea, sailing, snorkelling etc etc.  For the first 2 days we had tropical downpours and very high winds, which meant some of the activities were cancelled, or you had to have a good stomach to take the chopiness of the seas! On Monday, I braved the seas and went on a boat trip around some of the islands. It was in parts a bit of a white knuckle ride as the winds were still 25 knots,  but the views and beaches were worth it.  The first stop was Daydream island, which is just how I imagine paradise to be, although without the cheeky colourful birds that land on peoples'shoulders and heads.  The next stop was Hamilton Island - a big resort island where the only form of transport on the island is a golf buggy.  The final destination was Whitehaven beach - the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.  It is 7km of pure white silica sand which is so white it reflects the sun and is cool to walk on.  I donned a very fetching purple and brown stinger suit (and did the appropriate trekkie impression) before heading in to the beautiful turquoise sea for a swim, but which was actually much colder than I was expecting! Yesterday was spent soaking up the sun, which finally poked it's head around the clouds.  I spent most of the day either wearing a long sleeve t-shirt or sitting in the shade, but somehow I still ended up getting sun burnt. This morning I faced my fears and went up in to the skys on a very small seaplane for a scenic flight over the Whitsunday Islands and then on out to the great barrier reef.  This was amazing.  I have never seen colours or textures like that before, the great barrier reef really is the most colourful and amazing natural phenomenon I have ever seen.  We did a sea plane landing (apparently it was called a 'touch and go') out at the reef, before heading back to the little local airfield.  I can't wait to put my photos on the web page (www.offexploring.com/martinehamilton/)  but it may have to wait until the weekend, as a lot of the internet cafes here do not have the facility to upload photos. Tomorrow I have signed up for a full day's sea fishing, I will probably be the only girl on the boat, but I am still hoping to catch a big one (fish that is!) I fly back to Sydney on Friday and I will hopefully be going to the Blue Mountains for the weekend, before flying on to NZ on Tuesday. Hope you are all well and not working too hard? Take care hug m x Ps  - for all those wanting to know about man action ... you should know me by now, I don't do tour talk ..... what goes on tour, stays on tour!  Although I can tell you that I seem to be a hit with the older local men only, and as I tend to prefer the more fresh faced cheeky chappy, there may not be any tour talk anyway! PPS - I am still not smoking - it has now been over a month since my last cigarette, so Loopy, Duds and Mark - get yourself on that Alan Carr course if you are all still smoking, because if I can do it, then anyone can!