Reefside Villas Airlie Beach

... opted out and did some disappointing snorkeling, Chris came across 4 turtles while diving and got to swim with them!
We put all the sails down and had a choppy sail back to Airlie Beach for lunch time. Most of the people on the boat were meeting up that night at Beaches bar in the town to carry on the party, but we had to say our goodbyes and miss out as we had to be in Cairnes by the following day, which meant doing half of the journey that afternoon.

... around the islands, stopped at some incredibly nice beaches, did some snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, and of course relaxed in the sun. Some people even had the energy to drink a bit when the sun went down, and some found out that Bundaberg rum is nobody’s friend. That may have been me.

One thing that I found quite annoying was that we had to put on our "stinger suits" everytime we wanted to go in the water ...

... two or three meters of the surface.

This was my first experience with snorkeling and I was instantly smitten. The colors and variations in shape of the reef are astounding, and are only matched by the equally stunning diversity of the resident fish. I was amazed at how comfortable the fish were in the presence of humans; they hardly scattered when you swam past and some species would actually follow you around! At our first diving stop there was a fish that fell ...

... yourselves. It actually looks as it does on the postcards, paradise. The sand was so soft, fine and looked white, but the grains are actually see-through. The water crystal clear and really warm, I believe it was actually 25 degrees. What was really surreal is you would be paddling around and there would be stingrays swimming by you, incredible. After cleaning my jewellery once again and taking thousands of photos, we headed off ...

... the boat were trampolines which you could lie down on and soak up the sun - I didn't feel sea sick at all out there which was great. We sailed for about 2.5 hours before we reached our stop of Whitehaven Beach. This beach is out of this world - the sand is 98% silica and it never gets hot. Apparently its also great for cleaning jewellery. It was snow white - we were given just over an ...

... he left his job because his girlfriend was moving to Aus and gave me some advice but I knew it all already but the one thing he always avoided showing me was his portfolio which is something I really don't know much about. We were heading back to Airlie Beach now and we were looking forward to a good shower and a rest before the after party started and everyone meet up for some more alcohol. Once back in the dock we said our goodbye's to the crew and trudged the ...

... lagoon and a sober night in with other sober like-minded dorm mates, sweet!

Day 3 - walked all over town (it's just 1 long street!) trying to haggle for the best, last-minute price to go on a Whitsundays sailing trip that day.... master-haggler Mariana had got hers for 180dollars (90 quid) - the cheapest I could get it for was 300 dollars.... buggers! Anyway, then I had to check-out and get ready for my trip.....

Sailing trip, Whitsunday islands
Checked in at ...

... course!

After 3 days tho we headed back to Airlie Beach for a shower (much needed) and karma came round and kicked in by giving us a free upgrade to a huge suite!!! so we headed out for a few drinks with the crew at our hostel feeling pretty well happy! The night was a good one, with penty of renditions of us having to stand on tables and spank our asses, went down well with us but not with the other boats ;)

... swimming in the ocean even though we weren't supposed to cause it's a shark breeding ground. Anyhow, to make a long story short, I finally got seriously sunburnt, although it's almost gone at this point, I'm almost ready to face my nemesis again! Also, in the afternoon we went for like a rainforest walk type of thing and I did my best to get everyone to light it up in the evening, to no avail.

The third day, we chilled ...

... some sparkling wine and flown to Whitehaven beach to sunbathe for a further hour. The sand was so white and soft. More like texture of talcum powder than sand. More wine and some crisps and fruit bars.

After that it was back to Airlie Beach, with two landings and takeoffs en-route.

We shared a taxi back to the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden, near the pool, enjoying the beautiful view.