Airlie Beach Hotel

... was premier night so there was a red carpet and paparazzi but it was all australian stars so we didnt know anyone! we did a booze cruise too which was fun. it was a lovely evening and really nice to sail around the harbour. we got involved in one of the games too and we came second! dean was down to his boxers but shira hadnt taken off any clothes like the girl in the other team so they won!! on our last day before our flight up to the gold coast we took a trip to the blue mountains ...

... settled for patting the camels and having a chat to them. Jav and I got distracted by Fish Devine and the adjoining Rum Bar. 176 different rums sounded tantalising so we stopped in and had one each (even though it was only 11am!).<br><br>Then we headed back to the van park and tried in vain to organise a babysitter (the van park gave us a list of 3 - 1 didnt answer, 1 was sick and 1 was busy) so we could go to the Shipwrecked Bar ...

... time. The cabin I shared with Juliet was right up at the bow, the two beds were in a V shape where they fitted the shape of the bow, and we had about 12 inches of headroom. The trip was great despite this, and despite the crew's less than enthusiatic people skills. At night we'd drop the anchor in the shelter of an island, it was very dark out there on the water, and I've never seen so many stars in my life. I can't describe how many there were, I could see the Milky ...

... that we would be in a room with just the two of us but when we got to our cabin there were three beds tiered on top of each other. Which we thought ok fair enough hopefully we'll get someone decent in the room with us and we can have a good laugh, sadly we got the one person nobody wanted a Londoner who was already plastered getting on the boat at 2 in the afternoon. Ok we gave him a chance and were pleasant enough and went back out to carry on the meet and greet. Chatting to ...

... of a shock to know what we were to get straight in the water before breakfast! The water was so cold it really woke you up very quickly and as we only had 40 minutes in the water we knew we had to make the most of it. We were in Turtle Bay and so we were all on the lookout for Turtles and time was of the essence. I swam out with a few of the others to the reef and started combing for turtles, none to be found at first but then all of a sudden I looked down to ...

... I was glad I&#8217;d thrown the driving duties over the Craig that morning. We sat in a calm sheltered bay watching as they sailed past.<br><br>Once through Dent passage and past Hamilton Island having successfully avoided any collisions with the racing yachts and their entourage we put the sails up, turned off the motor and began a series of tacks North toward Whitsunday Island&#8217;s Turtle Bay.<br><br>Plans to stay here and snorkel were usurped by the prevailing winds ...

... cool photos and was DJ Lee chosing songs from my Walkman. Kove, Kenny, Steven, Shaz and Amber all did Snorkel bombs (where the person puts on a snorkel mask and gets someone to pour beer down the breathing tube), consuming Goon and Toohey!!! We then played party games, which took about 15 mins for Shaz to explain the rules to us noisy and wasted backpackers. We first played a game involving passing tennis balls ...

... I went to bed at 1015pm.<br><br> I wake up at 7am, showered, ate, and walked around the island. I did the Rainforest walk which was neat and semi-grueling. By the way, my knee/foot are acting up, and I decided to see the nurse. She was funny because she had no worries and said &#8220;you&#8217;ll be ok bloke.&#8221; It is definitely not ruining my trip, but I&#8217;m not in ...