Hana awakes nice and early (4.45AM!!) to start her morning shifts and guess what its raining again!! Oh well its all okay as we are leaving today to tick off another 'must do on the east coast' - WHITSUNDAYS here we come!!!

I awake a few hours later, and start to prepare our bags ready for our trip I turn on the TV and freeze!!! Now unless you live under a rock far away from civilization (well TV) you will understand why I froze. An emergency news report was bombarding every channel regarding the terrible flash floods that had occurred over night killing residences and damaging a whole town. It struck silently in the night after a natural phenomenon occurred dumping 300mm of water in ½ hour on saturated land sending a 8 meter high inland wave through the town of Toowomba (only 7k outside of Brisbane CBD!). This was devastating news but the knock on effect meantt that the powers to be had to open Wivenhoe dam, the look on their faces as they broke the news was of deep sadness for thismeantt Brisbane City would flood but there was nothing they could do. I listened to the list of suburbs that were under threat and was horrified when I knew so many, then the panic set in when they mention Fortitude Valley this is where work was and more importantly where Hana was. I didn't know when the flooding would begin but when my phone signal went down and Hana hadn't returned from work when she said she would I decided to go down to meet her and check everything was OK.

I was relieved when I arrived to find her cleaning up wet patches happy as Larry, she had stayed on while our duty manager Gemma went home to sort out her house that was in a high risk area. However there was an air of panic among everyone, the pool was certainly going to close but would it be flooded. Everyone was beginning to be affected our manager couldn't get home as roads were blocked or flooded, the city cats weren't running anymore stopping a few getting to work and then the call came the city was closing and we had to close to stop people risking coming out for a swim. We suddenly realised that with the city closing down, chaos on public transport system and rumors the airport may close we decided we needed to get a move on and leave quickly and arrive at the airport early if need be as soon it may not be possible to reach there.

Luckily Shereen returned home at the same time of us, she was still a little unaware of the circumstances as she had been at an interview she had exciting news..... She had a Job starting straight after Whit!! This was perfect and a great start to our few days away but we didn't have time to celebrate as we needed to pack ASAP and more importantly get some needed supplies from Woolworths before the shelves ran out. It was chaos in the supermarket everyone was buying in serious bulk, the fruit & veg had all gone, water bottles were spars and the queues were massive. After our quick shopping spree we left for the airport, the railway station was packed with people desperate to get home to protect their valuables and family from the looming floods. On our train trip to the airport we saw some of the devastation already caused by the floods and we started to worry about our friends and housemates left behind in Brisbane. The floods were scheduled to hit in a couple of hours and here we were fleeing. The airport had only just reopened when we arrived and they were trying to clear the back log, a thunder storm had grounded flights but with the all clear, planes were taking off in all directions taking families to safety but us to our glorious trip to Airlie Beach and Whitsundays. We had to wait around for a while as we had arrived super early we watched the devastation unfold on the TV until are flight was called.

As we left we decided we had to leave the worries behind and concentrate on having a good time in one of Australia's wonders of the world. It was strange flying through the dark rainy sky's breaking through to beautiful sunshine, as we flew along the coast a break in the clouds showed us the flooded town of Rockhampton one of the worst hit towns. Landing in Proserpine Airport was like arriving into Bournemouth airport but smaller, luckily for us we only had hand luggage for all check in luggage arrived outside the airport still on the little cart that takes normally takes it from the airplane to the carousel. It was just a free for all, very scary.

Airlie Beach town was just as we imagined, a small little place that if it wasn't for backpackers and tourist would probably have a quiet life. There was a mixture of local little shops, nightlife and hostels!! We settled into Magnums Backpackers checked into our room, then we started to hear the horror stories that if we hadn't been so lucky and had a bottom room we would be riddled with bed bugs. That night was a restless night of worry and freezing air con with only a sheet.

That morning we decided to cancel our second reservation and head to the backpackers next door that had a special on. We then hung out by the man made beach lagoon (strange that a country that has so many nice beaches but everyone just uses these beautiful man made beach lagoons, that's what you get when you have so many lovely but dangerous animals in your seas as well!!) before it was time to board our boat 'the maid of Airlie'. It was a large catamaran and had sails, we were very excited about our next three days. We had to take off our shoes and were introduced to the others and explained the safety rules as we left the harbour. The skies were clear blue and it was refreshing to have a cool breeze as we baked in the sun, the motion was very soothing and I spent most of the time dozing on the decks. You could see rain clouds in the distance, scattered between the islands. Now a little information on the Whitsundays they are a group of island just of the East Coast of Australia, there are 74 all together only 8 are inhabit and all our surrounded by the famous Great Barrier Reef. This is a great location to dive the Barrier Reef, unfortunately due to money and overcrowding Hana & I have decided against diving here until maybe a return trip.

Our boat is taking us to South Mole Island one of the 7 in the Mole family cluster, it only has one resort and this is where we will be staying for the next two nights. We check into our rooms, learnt some history about the island and meet a new friend called Yasmin a IOW girl who has traveled South East Asia and we grill her for lots of advice. We didn't have long thou before the hike up to the highest point on the island 'Mount Jeffery' to have some stunning views over the island and to meet a local spider that likes to hang right over the pathway so you have to duck under her web!! Not a pleasant experience! The view was fantastic and the weather was sunny so we could see for miles. We took our tourist pictures but however much we wanted to stay up there we had to rush down for dinner. After our dinner we had a few drinking games and enjoyed an evening bonding with the group, but it was an early night really as an early start to ensure we were out on the boat sailing away to our first snorkeling point.

We awoke nice and early ate our breakfast and boarded the boat ready to set sail, getting a little too excited when we hear rumours that a shark was spotted swimming under the jetty. The boat journey was relaxing and a good time to recharge batteries by sleeping thanks to the soft rocking on the deck while sunning ourselves. Oh it was a hard life. We arrived at our little cove for our snorkeling but we had to change into our super sexy stinger suits first as it was blue bottle season and they pack a lethal sting, but I was still slightly concerned that my feet,hands and more importantly my face were still exposed! That however didn't stop Hana & Shereen who were quick to jump overboard and into the deep blue sea. The sea was instantly cooling which was refreshing. Peering into the deep blue sea was always a scary experience, you couldn't see anything but I'm sure anything that was down there could see you!! We swam over to the cove and the coral and it was beautiful. I love swimming around with all the fishes, I had my camera and was set on taking lots of photos of my favourite fish. We dove and swam in between the corals completely at ease in and under the water, pulling faces for the camera making sure all can see the thousands of fishes that surround us. It was the first time I started to appreciate the colours of the corals, I loved the different colours that were so vibrate even thou colour is distorted underwater. As you dove underwater you could hear the munching of the parrot fish on the coral, it was so loud and clear as if you were right next to them. We were so lost in the underwater world that we didn't realise we had been swimming around for over an hour and we needed to get back to the boat for some lunch. Being quite confident swimmers we weren't picked up by the little speedy boat, we had to swim back to the boat through the deep blue sea sending my mind into overdrive again about little fishes that get eaten by bigger fishes.

Back on the boat and on our way to our highlight to the boat trip, we got settled back into our lazy lifestyle until the call for lunch. We had moored up into another little cove known for turtle sightings so we grabbed some lunch and sat up on deck with our eyes peeled. The gentle rocking this time was not helping my food go down one bit, but at least out of the corner of my eye I saw this little head pop up above the water. It was a turtle, a hugh turtle a small tiny head peeped up out of the water but you could see his hugh shell floating on the water behind him. He took some deep breathes before he sunk effortlessly back under the water, but he had us hooked and everyone was over the edge looking across the waters waiting for him to pop up to say hello again.... which he did again and again appearing to get closer and closer until he just disappeared :(! We go ourselves suit again in the sexy stinger suits and boarded the little speedy boat that we had to borrow from another boat as ours was now broken and whizzed off to the shore of the little island that lay just in front of us. From our side it didn't look anything special, actually the beach was a little stoney but we were told this is the second most photographed place in the world. We were off to 'Whiteheaven', we set off on the short walk through the jungle terrain to the viewpoint. WOW is all I can say when we arrived at the top... it was beautiful. I am trying to think of words to explain the beauty, you really must look at the pictures but here I go.... from the viewpoint you looked over the beach below. The sea was crystal clear just like paradise, you couldn't see where the sea finished and the sky began because they were so blue. Even from up so high we could see the sting rays below swimming among the others. Looking across to the right the water snaked its way with such soft turns in land, the sand was as white as white could be and the jungle was a lush ripe green (a positive to the amount of recent rain!). It was a setting that you could only imagine seeing in a picture but here we were seeing it for our own eyes. We spent time absorbing the views, the colours and the experience before we started to sweat enough that it was time to run through this white sand and bath in the greeny blue sea. When we walked down through the jungle and reached the spectacular beach it was just as perfect as from above and I loved the fact it was called Betty's Beach brought it back to home.

We joined our group on the beach, jumped into our suits and ran into the sea. It was super shallow but it was nice to just float around cooling down from the heat. Remembering we had seen stingrays from the look out we thought about going hunting for some but were reminded about how Steve Irwin died and advice to leave them alone!! After a few hours it was time to say goodbye to paradise island and head back to the boat :(!!

We arrived back on the island just before the rain began, but being wet and having some time to kill we all splashed around in the swimming pool before a quick shower and back for dinner. Again we played a few games as a group, some drinking, some just plain old school (we all remember passing the spoon down your top and trousers before passing it on!!). Left to ourselves but with a reminder of another early start we enjoyed a few happy hour drinks, but not before the boys on our tour turned into cave men after finding a few raw coconuts they set to work banging and bashing the round hard coconuts trying to get to the good stuff inside. It was a sight to watch but as usual myself and Shereen didn't want to be up stage by the boys and cracked our own open too!! It was an interesting way to end the evening!

Sad that our trip was coming to an end we packed our bags and set sail to our final snorkeling stop, which we had been promised was better than the first. Again I think we were the first to jump into the water and again were totally at ease taking photos as we dived between the marine life trying to blend in. It appears that we have learnt a little from all our dives about marine life other than sharks and showed Shereen some funny things you can do, mainly closing clams and spooking other coral life. Again even though the first in we are the ones left still bobbing around, however we are being called and need to swim the long distance back to the boat so we can return to the main island.

As we approached and our trip draws to an end our group that arrived as individuals are now united and luckily are all staying in the same hostel so we plan our evening out splashing out on having discounted dinner. I think to be honest it was the lure of free jugs of beer for all! We didn't stop at the free jugs though and continued moving from one bar to the next before ending up in Big Mamas nightclub. It was a great end to our trip and a much needed escape from the stress of Christmas, but I think that even though we had forgotten about the troubles in Brisbane the reminder that the others travel plans were being altered and in some cases canceled due to the Queensland floods we remembered that our home city had and was flooded and we didn't know what to expect.

We had a late flight to catch which gave us an extra day in Arlie Beach to buy our tacky tourist souvenirs, chill out and enjoy some more cremating sunshine at the lagoon before heading back to Brissy and back to normal life. I enjoyed another amazing wrap from the local sandwich shop and we said our goodbyes to new friends.

At the airport we bumped into one of the french boys on our trip and although his friend scared about the floods had completely changed his flights to avoid the rest of Queensland he was still going to head to Brisbane and continue his plan. Although he said he wasn't worried when we arrived in Brisbane you could see he was nervous and it was very late for him to be taxing around Brisbane looking for accommodation. Plus we were nervous too we didn't know what was under water and what wasn't so we did our bit shared a taxi and let him kip on our sofa for the night. Glad to see that not only our home was safe but our girly housemates had survived we all caught up, jealously all over their faces at our gorgeous tans. We wanted to go and explore but it was late and we were all tired with work looming the next day, so we let them continue their partying and went to bed smiling.

The following morning we awoke ready for our mammoth shift at work still unsure what to expect as we were opening Valley Pool for the first time since the floods had hit. Luckily the floods hadn't reached the pool but the signs were all around as we walked to work, sand bags lining doors and quiet roads. When we arrived at work everything had been put high up in the grandstand, signs they had predict flood waters it didn't stop the regulars that were happy to see us reopen so they could continue their normal training. The most ironic thing was as soon as the floods had hit the rains had stopped and the Queensland summer arrived maybe not as hot as usual but still better than what we were use to.

The following day Hana & I had the day off and we took to the streets if a little morally wrong but with our camera to see the Brisbane River and surrounding areas. Even though the waters had receded the cornered off roads, walk ways and closed shops showed the evidence. It was a strange feeling seeing the devastation the river waters had left (even though in the grand scale of things this was minimal compared to other towns in Queensland!) and we were so sad to see beautiful spots we had enjoyed swamped under water or covered in thick mud, I cant imagine how others felt who's lives had been completely destroyed. A boat that had obviously been washed up the bank at South Bank was a clear reminder of what has been left behind, City Cat board walks had disappeared either down the river or under it, the water removed from our lagoon with tractors removing the sand and everywhere you went you heard the faint humming of pumps trying to remove water that had filled car parks and basements leaving a scent in the air that was indescribable and skips full with peoples processions that were fit for nothing. It was a sad day but ….....

"We battle the winds, the rains, the floods and we still stand!! That's because we're from Queensland!!"