About 4 hours on the greyhound coach and we were in Airlie Beach. We had booked on a Whitsunday's boat tour but we weren't going out till the 5th of April so we had seven days to fill before we went out on the trip. We were staying at Nomads hostel again and the prices are getting noticeably higher as we go down the coast, so they did us a deal of $90 each for three nights and get the fourth night free that works out at $22.50 each for an eight bed dorm. When we got to our room we were they only people in there. As the hours passed we thought we might be lucky and get the whole room to ourselves for the night, but at 9.30pm, came six muscle bound lads charging in and swigging beer and chanting to each other! It was evident that we weren't going to get much sleep that night, so after they had all gone out we decided to get an early night in the hope we would at least get a few hours sleep. 2am the first couple came back.  Light on, shouting, light off, light on, slamming the door and then an hour or so later a couple more came back. Same again. Then around 5.30am the last pair came back only this time they all woke up again and went outside together with their crate of beer. It was obvious they had been taking something because Mel was woken up by one of them stroking her arm!! She was asking him what he was doing but he didn't answer and kept touching her. The noise woke me up so I shouted at him to leave her alone and he shuffled off back outside. 5 mins later he was back again and did the same thing this time Mel shouted at him and he went away. After that Mel came and got in bed with me and we managed a couple of hours sleep until around 7am when they all got up again,  grabbed a beer each and went off on a snorkelling trip! Needless to say as soon as they left we went down to reception and requested to be moved to another room. 
Due to fatal box jelly fish and massive saltwater crocs the sea is a no go but there is a huge man made lagoon which everyone sits round and swims in during the day, and with the weather being so nice that's what we did too pretty much everyday. We met up with some girls we shared a room with on Magnetic Island and arranged a night out with them. They brought a couple of lads with them from their hostel who I got chatting to and they were saying they had been fishing that evening and would take me with them the next day. So we met up that afternoon, stopped off at the Thirsty Camel bottle shop and went to Shutes Harbour. When we got there it didn't look like much, just a little floating jetty going out into the harbour, although it was set up for fishing as there was a sink with running fresh water for gutting fish on. These lads had told me stories of a huge grouper fish that lived under the jetty that was the size of a mini and that people catch 3 meter long sharks off there all the time!! I couldn't see it myself so we caught a few bait fish and popped them on a hook, cracked open the beer and waited. There was a bit of pressure on us to catch something as we had left the girls back in Airlie to sort out some BBQ stuff, so when we got back we could all sit on the beach and take advantage of the free BBQ's they have dotted about, our job was to supply the fish. I was sat watching the sunset thinking the day couldn't get much better when my rod started twitching so I struck and hooked into something BIG!! My rod was bent double and whatever it was stripped about 50 meters of line off the reel in seconds, then snapped the hook off!! Before I'd even reeled in my snapped off line, the lad next to me hooked into something else which did the same to him. An hour later the same happened again to another lad. I had obviously under estimated the place and made sure I put some thicker line on for the next fish, which typically never came, so we had to go back empty handed, much to the amusement of the girls. Luckily they had thought ahead and bought burgers, sausages and kangaroo steaks, (which are awesome by the way) so we all had our fill of BBQ and 'goon', all for $5 each. It was the perfect end to the perfect day. The next day we went for walk to the marina to see if we could find the British Defender, the boat we were going on around the Whitsundays. On the way we bumped into Kirsty and Charlie who we'd met in Cairns. They had just finished their trip and loved it. We found the boat, she was a big racing yacht with a 35 meter mast, and apparently Prince Charles sailed her, and she was raced around the world where the mast ended up snapping in half!! Now she has been totally refitted and can sleep up to 25 passengers and three crew. Following the near success of the fishing, Mel and I went back that night, but this time I was prepared; not that it made a difference because I had no bites but we did see the giant grouper and it is the size of a mini. After a few more days and introducing Kirsty and Charlie to the delights of the cheap beach BBQs it was time to go on our trip. We had two days and two nights of sailing, snorkelling and chilling out in style. We got on the Defender at half one an set sail to our over night spot. There were 25 people on board and only five of us were male. The crew got us involved in actually putting up the sails and sailing the yacht, it's hard work! I still have sore muscles from pulling up the sails. Just before the sun went down we anchored up next to an island and went ashore in the mini defender for a bush walk to the peak of the island which had amazing views, then went back to the boat to find a calm bay to spend the night in. The food we were given on the trip was awesome, its the best we've eaten in a while. The sleeping arrangements were cramped to say the least, we only had 2ft of head room above our bed and it was sooo hot at night, but it is a boat after all. They woke us up at half six the next morning to set sail to Whitehaven beach; apparently the second best beach in the world. The sand is so fine that you can exfoliate your skin and clean jewellery with it, and NASA used 10 tonnes of it to make the lens of the Hubble Telescope. We just chilled on the beach and played with the baby lemon sharks in the shallows. By midday we were all back on the boat and on our way to a snorkelling spot. We all had to wear stinger suits due to the rare chance of jellyfish stings as it is stinger season. After the snorkelling we went to an exposed sand bank to watch the sunset with a glass of goon and a rugby ball. Another hot night and early morning we were back in the sea snorkelling. This time there were a few big Maori Wrasse resident to that area, then back to the port and Airlie beach. That night everyone met up and we went out for a big night on the town seeing as it was Easter Saturday. After a hangover day we are off to Rockhampton and Emu Park.