The commercialised bay town of Airlie was next on the agenda with a trip planned to cruise around the Whitsundays and get into the water for some quality snorkelling. Airlie beach was really touristy and we weren't too keen to stay long so booked into another Big 4 caravan park for the boys and tried to spend as much time out of the park as possible. This place wasn't as "Truman Show" as the last big 4 we stayed at but what it lacked in cheesy uber happy camp staff it made up for it with blood sucking midges that treated everyone like the local Jam Boy. The family got savaged during the 3 days we were there and it looked like we all had chicken pox by the time we left with so many bites on our legs and arms. Despite the midges the place was pretty but quite pricey and a rare treat out for lunch at a restaurant got the debit card all hot and bothered so we decided not to drink flat whites for a while to make up for the cost. The first day was hot so we just hung out at the man made lagoon and swam. We also spent an hour on this really cool inflatable "it's a knockout" style course in the harbour, which had Fi and I laughing our heads off with the boys as we jumped and fell and climbed our way around the inflatable obstacles. We had an ice-cream in the arvo and walked around looking at the massive boats in the harbour and listened to Bailey explain that he now didn't want to live in a house but live on a massive multimillion dollar yacht instead. Fi and I didn't have the heart to tell him that was unlikely to happen whilst living with us.

The following day the Ocean Rafting crew picked us up in their mini bus and dropped us at the Marina for our day's tour of the Whitsundays. The suitably tanned and attractive staff greeted us and we jumped on the semi-inflatable raft and headed out of the bay. The wind was up and the trip was bumpy, but with the boys holding on for dear life onto the side of the boat it turned out to be a huge thrill and a non-stop roller coaster ride for them as the RIB sped through the waves and bounced and flew through the water. First stop was Daydream Island where we picked up an annoying loud family from New York and then we headed to White Haven beach, Australia's third most photographed location behind the Sydney Opera House and Uluru. It was very pretty despite the 100's of Chinese tourists who were clogging up all the nice vantage points and taking about 1 million photos each which was iritating to the point that I actually pushed one aside and explained that there are other people who'd like to see the beach before the sun sets in 6 hours……. Hitting Whitehaven for lunch was nice and we all had a laugh as the plucky and very clever seagulls swooped over the hapless New York family and stole all their food right from the plates they were holding. It was very funny and Bailey couldn't stop laughing. I should have stopped him as it was a little rude but the American family were quite annoying so I let him point and laugh a little longer. The afternoon was spent snorkelling on some pretty impressive reef and coral with a huge Napoleon Wrasse hanging around the boat whilst the Ocean Rafting crew threw fish food into the water to attract it. Jennifer, the very fit and tidy Belgian guide was super informative and was constantly bending over at the front of the boat in her tiny shorts which had all the men entertained and their spouses/girlfriends/partners a little annoyed. When I purposely dropped my snorkel for the 3rd time to see if Jennifer would pick it up Fi just looked and me and told me to stop being immature.

We packed up the following day and bid Airlie goodbye to head back to Cape Hillsborough, the camp site we first hit when we got to the coast and the boys where pretty keen as we promised them there would be kids to play with which turned out to be true. Parking up in a site next to the one we were at previously, we set up amongst the fug of midges and sat down for a coffee and proceeded to get eaten alive. The weather was hot and lovely and with a full moon and not much wind forecast it was apparently the ideal breeding ground for these miniscule flying piranha. By day 2 we had to head into town to pick up more insect repellent as the 3 cans we arrived with where gone and the amount of CFC's spewing from our tent was creating a micro-hole in the ozone layer above our site which must have been adding to the heat. Weirdly, the boys didn't get hit so badly this time but Fi and I certainly did which was a tad annoying. Despite this we really chilled out and spent the days casting at the secret spot along the beach and getting to know a South African family who now live in Mackay who were camped next to us. They had a boy a little younger than Bailey and a sister who was 4 and louder than a jet engine when she talked but a smile as wide and shiny as a double decker bus which she used to full effect. The little girl, Savannah, latched onto Harry with gusto but true to form he was very good with her but kept explaining that he had a girlfriend in the UK who was a little older and they were getting married so she couldn't be his girlfriend. We did have a slight drama with Meg's battery again and received some pretty appalling service from Ford Mackay mechanics. They tried to pull the wool over our eyes and chance it with us but given our recent knowledge of all things battery related on our car we weren't having any of it. A quick call to our mate who sold us the car to ask him to put pressure on the dealers in Queensland and some polite, but assertive discussions with the staff again we look like we will be actually getting the service we asked for and a refund on the bill which they charged us to look at our car and scratch their balls, which was basically what they did.

A total of 8 days at Cape Hillsborough was a bit too long but we needed to be somewhere with a big telly to watch the Grand Final which the Eagles where playing in and so we stayed the extra days, much to Bailey and Harry's delight. The park was pretty well set up for kids with a daily activity and an outdoor movie every night at 6:30pm. They had managed to form a posse of about 10 kids and each day they just flitted between the beach and the pool with some fishing action thrown in and a game of beach cricket in the afternoon with the dads. As it turns out Australia needs to have a look as itself if it wants to compete as the kids here can't bowl or bat for toffee so Bailey and Harry looked like super stars and dominated, much to their old mans delight.