Saturday and Sunday night we stayed in the spa suite at the Coral Sea resort in Airlie, the suite included a Jacuzzi and hammock on the balcony over looking the coral sea, well you do have to treat yourself every now and then.

It was nice to have a bit on luxury after 2 days at sea. Don't get me wrong the boat trip was amazing but there's only so long you can share 2 toilets and 1 shower with 12 other people. Saturday night we made the most of the hotel, we ordered room service and caught up with Family on Skype.

Sunday, Stephs 31st birthday, we went on a scenic flight over the Whitsunday islands and out to the great barrier reef, a present from Stephs family. Seeing the reef and marine life in the water is amazing but seeing it from above is breath taking, espceially the heart reef, which is within the conservation area so can only be seen from above. The sheer size and distance room the coast is hard to get your head round. We flew across a couple of the islands Whitsunday (Hill inlet and Whitehaven beach, where we had been on friday) and Hook, and then for a good 10 minutes before we reached the reef. The pilot was fantastic he gave loads of information above the reef system and Steph even managed to spot a couple of sting rays as the plane descended to 500 feet over the reef. We flew back over Hayman Island which is home to resort called One & Only, the cheapest room is AU$800 a night, glad Steph only found out about that after her birthday!

Certainly a birthday to remember!

We left Airlie on Monday and drove to Mackay, the next city about 120km south, where we have spent the last 2 nights at Mackay Marine tourist park, about 5km from the harbour. Mackay is quite a large industrial town, and like most of the East coast towns has a large port. We drove to Slade Point and found a house we liked the look of au$349,000 for 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms and a pool, not bad price really and quite a nice area. Tonight we have been to Mackay show, imagine a smaller version of the great Yorkshire show with cattle on show, exhibitions from the local area, lots of stalls selling all sorts of rubbish and throw in peel park fair with more fair ground rides than you would know what to do with. The show is on for 3 days and the town has a public holiday on the last day, so it's quite a big deal. The night ended with a fantastic fireworks display, glad we stayed to see it.