A very early start today to get down to Cruise Whitsundays terminal by 6:30am.

The cruise vessel was much bigger and flasher than I expected. We chose to sit indoors on the upper deck. Once settled on board we headed off for Whitehaven Beach. We stopped briefly at Hamilton Island to pick up more passengers. Along the way we sighted several humpback whales playing in the ocean which was an added bonus. The skipper provided information on the Whitsunday Islands, their history and the Whitsunday region.

The weather was a beautiful 28 degrees and the stunning turquoise coloured ocean was quite calm. At around 9:00am we anquored just off Whitehaven Beach. A smaller boat then ferried us to the beach. The beach itself is stunning. The 7km stretch of stark white sand is very fine. It also doesn't get hot like normal sand. It is very unique to Whitehaven Beach. It is so fine NASA have recently used it to make glass for their telescopes.

Alongside other passengers we had two and a half hours to enjoy the beach. This was the perfect amount of time for us to swim, play beach cricket, relax and just soak up the arguebly nicest beach in the world.

We had lunch on board the cruise vessel on the return trip back to Airlie Beach. The skipper took us a different way back which was reaaly great. Again we were spoilt by a few more sightings of humpback whales. We arrived back in Airlie Beach at around 2pm. Everyone was quite tired, but no sooner back at the caravan park and it was time to hit the pool again. A really memoable day!