Just finished the whitsunday tour and I must admit it's one of the best experiences I've ever had out here.

Monday morning, nursing a hangover after watching the derby game I got packed, left base hostel and had a backpack with two shirts, two pair of pants and swimming shorts with a towel, sun cream and a box of goon, all the essentials for this trip.

We got on the boat, named broomstick, which was a lot smaller than I imagined and I couldn't believe it would fit 20 odd people. But it used to be a proper sailing boat and you could tell because as soon as you go below deck it's literally two bed tiny bed areas that would fit 8-10 people on packed like sardines but it was bunk beds and unfortunately for me where the last 4 people including me would sleep was in the kitchen area, literally I was next to where the food was served which was difficult since the crew get up at 6am to start breakfast, but to be fair you wouldn't spend any time below deck unless you were sleeping.

Apparently the crew area didn't have a spare bed so at night one of the crew slept on the top deck, in the ship mast thingy or whatever you call it.

After we got out to sea, the first thing we did was some snorkelling after about an hour or so of sailing, since it was getting a bit cooler by that time and I only had my glasses so I would be blind in the water I just said that I would skip the first session. Good thing really since apparently there was nothing around at all except a bit of coral.

After the snorkelling we set up For the night, had some food the started on the goon. Joel, one of the crew thought it would be a good icebreaker to try and get a game going for everyone called 5 questions.

Question 1 - what's your name.

2 - where are you from

3 - turn on and turn off

4 most embarrassing story or interesting fact about yourself

5 favourite sexual position.

There was quite a few funny and interesting stories along the way, a French guy called Martin said that after nights out drinking instead of fatty foods and a kebab he would eat snails, another guy called andy was a professional championship kickboxer. My story was the travelpack story which everybody loved and by the next day that was pretty much all I was called as instead of Chris.

The next morning we were woken up nice and early at 6am for breakfast and an early start because we were going to Whitehaven beach. We arrived at 8.30am and we dropped off at the other side of the beach, this way we could take a little bush walk then go to the top of a lookout to see from a vantage point where photographers have used the place to make postcards.

We walked down to the beach straight after and were told we had 3 hours to chill so everyone took their cameras out and took plenty of pictures, walking up and down the beach, the water was so clear and shallow in places you could see little manta rays swimming next to the shore and also little fish.

The sand was so fine, it was a much lighter colour, White almost in some cases, the sand was 98% silica so you could technically brush your teeth with it or if you had rusty jewellery. Constantine, one of the crew, had brought down a football and rugby ball, we made a small match of 2 teams made of 3. My team was obviously better since I had a Dutch and brazilian while the oponents where two Irish and a french. So cool playing on the beach!

After dinner we were taken to another snorkeling spot, it was nicknamed the aquarium on account of all the fish that hang around. They said to look for elvis, this massive docile fish that hangs around here too and is given the name because just above his head it looks like he has his name sakes hairstyle and also the mouth has a bit of a pout.

I thought I should give the snorkeling a shot this time since it's meant to be full of fish and even if I can't see well without my glasses I'll definitely be able to see elvis.

I was last out the raft since I had to go back and get a snorkel that worked but when I came over everyone was laughing around being amazed at all the fish that was surrounding them. When I was just about to jump in elvis turned up at the raft and I nearly jumped on top him.

When I was in the water it was an unreal experience, in terms of fish it was better than when I went to the reef, I wish I bought a disposable underwater camera because of how cool it was, you would be swimming along in a direction and turn your head and fish would be either side following you and with elvis around it was great because it was so slow you could go over and touch it and it was literally a massive fish.

We went sailing again for a little bit and it's a really good experience I had no idea how it worked until I got on the boat but basically nobody can be inside the boat you must be on top, you all sit to the opposite side of where the mast is or whatever it's called and you can dangle your feet off the side or lie back and chill but the boat does turn sideways a lot. At first I looked over and the otherside of the boat was practically in the water, pretty awesome and it's fast and if it's choppy water everyone gets sprayed by the waves which happened a lot on the last day.

We saw some ospreys (big birds) on our travels and the captain guy would get a piece of meat out and dangle it on the edge of the boat then whistle and swing it round, the osprey would come over and actually take the meat out the guys hand which was cool.

So some people decided to have a go and get some ham, we only attracted seagulls but they would still try an get the ham, they wouldnt take it off our hands they couldn't get close enough so you had to throw it and in one case the bird wasn't ready and basically got ham slapped in it's face.

We stopped for the night next to an island, there's 74 islands around so your pretty much surrounded anyway. Had a BBQ with steaks then it was time to get drunk. We played a few drinking games and I even showed them the dancing move the lawnmower which i learnt off someone back home which is hilarious. The example I showed them was if you see a nice girl, stare then pretend to rev a lawnmower then start walking with your hands in front like your driving a car, but making lawnmower noises then go up behind the person and dance with them, there was people taking pictures and videos of it so god know what else I did that night I don't really remember.

Woke up massively hungover at 6am again, but we had to be back by 11, so most of that was sailing. Got off the boat and since people were either staying in airlie or going straight to fraser island, just like me, we all hung around in the lagoon for the rest of the day.

It was one of the best experiences I've had in australia, did some really cool stuff and met some awesome people. The only crap bit was there was an older german couple with their friend. They didn't talk to anyone, we didn't even get their names, and they hardly talked amongst themselves, just sat and stared at everyone like they were grumpy all the time, apparently the guy was stealing beer off one of the Irish lads and the couple got caught having sex! Dirty germans.