Mission Beach was our starting point for our White water rafting on the Tully river. Straight away we were asked if we wanted to upgrade for free to the Extreme Rafting as they needed an extra 2 people on the rafts, so we did! There are 2 companies that raft the river which basically means during the day it turns into rush hour traffic at every rapid, but luckily with the extreme rafting we got to get on the river first. Basically you raft the same rapids as the other rafts, you just get to do more activities on the river. Our rafting instructor's name was Fish, and I think that was actually his real name! He was an expert rafter but was determined from the start to capsize us, I wasn't too keen! We got the chance to float down some small rapids, it was surprising how fast the current takes you. But the first real extreme activity was to jump out the raft and float down some grade 2 rapids which sounds easier than it looks. Fish told us you only have a few seconds to breathe here and there, I quickly decided it wasn't for me. I was glad because the rapids were pretty harsh, and everyone spent most of the time pushed under the water, lets just say no one wanted to do it again. The next thing was jumping off a cliff, and after my Thailand experience there was no way I was doing that! And lastly there was a natural water slide. You get pushed down a sloping rock under the water and we were told you could possibly be under there for up to 9 seconds, 9 seconds without breathing, errr no thanks!! Obviously I am just a big baby and Chris did all of this! The rafting itself was excellent, but it was a shame how busy the river was, rafting in Thailand we never saw another boat the entire day. The rapids were grade 4-5, and he finally got us thrown over the side on the last rapid, I tried to hang onto the side of the raft but the boat nearly came over my head and then I shot down the river with the current but I had 2 other rafts to pick me up. The rafting was excellent but the extreme activities were a bit wasted on me. Next was our sailing trip on the Whitsundays (made up of 74 Islands). We were really hoping for good weather as they had predicted rain, but we got lucky and had sun everyday. The boat we booked got cancelled, so we were forced to change to a big boat- The Atlantic Clipper. It was a massive boat with lots of room, but this also meant there were a lot more people, 53 in total. First we went straight to Whitehaven beach, pure paradise, probably one of the nicest beaches I have ever been to. The sand is 98% silica and was used to make the Hubble telescope. The sand was so soft in places I felt like I was walking on a carpet. We saw a small shark out in the shallow water. We went snorkelling and saw so many fish and coral, I saw a small sting ray. I searched for some turtles and I got brave and decided it would be cool to find some small sharks, but I couldn't find any. One of the crew came out on a little boat and threw bread in around us and all the fish crowded around us, one tried to bite my mask. There was one huge fish that was hand fed by one of the crew. After we got back on the boat we jumped into the spa, which was great and watched the sun start to set. At night the light from our boat shone out over the water and the fish were attracted to it, it wasn't long before some small sharks came to feed on them. Apparently the night before some dolphins came up to the boat but we missed them. We had one last snorkelling session in the morning before we went back to Airlie beach. The Whitsundays are just beautiful, but we got lucky with the weather. Although our boat turned out to be a bit of a booze cruise party boat in the end, which we weren't really looking for, but we still had fun. Hopefully we can get our paradise photos on the net as soon as possible to make you all jealous!