Hi all. We are in Airlie beach at the moment and came back from our sailing trip yesterday. On the first day of the trip we sailed out to a place called hook island to spend the night. We didnt get off the boat once, which, combined with our incredibly claustrophobic cabin, made me feel pretty sea sick by the morning of day two.

The second day was amazing. We went to a beach called 'Whitehaven' which has been voted the third best beach in the world. It would have looked a lot better if we hadnt visited it during the worst rain storm any of us had ever witnessed! Despite the rain, however, we still ventured out into the water in our 'stinger suits'. After a few minutes in the sea, i looked over laurie's shoulder and saw an ominous shadow swimming up behind him. After a brief moment of panic, it turned out that it was in fact a shark, but only a small leopard shark which was easily scared away when we moved towards it. On the way out of the water, we also managed to spot a few stingrays, which we cautiously walked around!

Once back on the boat, soaking wet, with almost nowhere to avoid the rain, we made our way to the first snorkel spot. We had to swim over about 50 metres of deep water from the boat, to the coral, which at first was pretty terrifying, but worth it. Snorkelling on the great barrier reef was amazing, we saw loads of different fish, (luckily no jellyfish) and some incredible coral. We did two snorkels on the first day, both very similar.

The third day was no where near as eventful, we lazily rolled out of bed, had some breakfast and went snorkelling again before leaving to head back to Airlie beach. Typically, we had really nice weather just as we were coming home!

Airlie beach itself is pretty small. There is a big swimming pool called the 'lagoon' which everything is cented around, and a few shops. There isnt much to do but swim here, but that is ok because we have spent most of our budget already!

We are heading to Cairns tomorrow which is our last stop in Australia, before flying early next thursday morning. It is a twelve hour bus drive, which none of us are looking forward to!

Sorry it has taken me a while to update, the internet here is very expensive! I will update again in Cairns. I hope you are all ok and having a good weekend, love Mat x