For The Love of You: Paradise at the Whitsunday Islands

Yes were back! I haven't updated much since school holidays started nearly 3 weeks ago but have much to tell you! One of the highlights of school holidays was our trip to the Whitsunday Islands. We had planned to go with Rianna, Amanda, Kendra and Jenna. We left on the morning of Wed Oct 5th from Melbourne Airport. From Melbourne we flew to Brisbane and from Brisbane we flew to Proserpine, Queensland- which is very close to the Whitsunday Islands. We immediately noticed the heat and were very excited to be in the sun! We all took a scenic taxi to to Airlie Beach from the Proserpine Airport. On our way to Airlie we quickly noticed how dry it was in the fields but also noticed the large amounts of sugar cane. We even got to see some sugar cane being harvested. What we thought was really cool was that there was a small railway track linking all the sugar cane fields which allowed for all of it to be put in large bins and then those bins were picked up.

Wednesday: We arrived at our Airlie Beach hostel- Magnums, at about 2:30pm. We moved our stuff into our 8 person cabin got into cooler clothes and decided to do some touring. Magnums was a very neat hostel. It was very big and reminded all of us of a resort because we walked through beautiful trees flowers, and foliage in order to get to your room. There was even some weird large birds walking around. Magnums also had a large covered area where there was a stage, beer garden area, night club, and restaurant. It was quite busy and had a great atmosphere. We did some shopping that day as well in all the little beach shops- us girls enjoyed this! That night we headed to the bar and had some drinks, told stories, and laughed- good start to vacation!

Thursday Oct 6th- We woke early in the morning- as we had to check out- We planned a 3 day sailboat cruise starting today so we packed small carry on bags and left our luggage in the luggage room at the hospital. We had to board our boat at 2:30pm this day so most of our day consisted of us laying at the beach, reading, and shopping. We bought a bulk supply of alcoholic beverages to last us on our trip so with all our bags and cases in hand we walked to meet the boat. We hadn't realized how far this trek had been and the heat was pretty high. Broken shopping bags, sweating beer, and red faced as we were e made it! We began boarding the Atlantic Clipper at about 3pm along with 56 other eager travelers. We got our rooms and headed to the top deck to meet everyone else and meet the crew. The crew members were quite funny and were a lot of fun! That night we broke into groups that night and played some games such as a talent show and many other wacky games.We anchored this night right beside Hook Island.

Friday- We woke early today..6:30am..to crew member Steve singing aloud to some sailor song. We were on our way to Whitehaven Beach and arrived there at about 8:30am. We hiked a trail and came to an overlook of some of the Whitsunday Islands and Whitehaven Beach...what a sight! It was amazing! Made us smile from ear to ear. We stayed on Whitehaven beach for a couple hours. We swam with our stinger suits on, brushed our teeth with the sand, and exfoliated our arms and legs as well. It was a great place! From Whitehaven Beach we headed more north so we could snorkel along the Great Barrier Reef. Mark decided to scuba dive and us girls all chose to snorkel. The coral was beautiful, but in some areas the water was a bit cloudy making it hard to see. Some of the girls used the on-board diving board and water slide and we finished the day with more games (such as a dance contest/dress up).

Saturday- This was the day we were heading home so before heading back we stopped in another area to do some more snorkeling. This day some of us saw a large sea turtle while snorkeling! We had seen some in the water while sailing but seeing one right underneath you was a very neat experience! Again, some of us enjoyed the water slide and diving board. We tanned on the top deck and then arrived back to Airlie Beach at about 12:00pm. We spent most of our day at the beach and that night we went to the cruise after party at a local bar. It was lots of fun but sad when we had to say goodbye to some of the people we had met. It was however very exciting to hear about where they were going next!

Sunday- BEACH DAY! Lounging around in the sun all day! Finish the drinks we had bought(correction- tried to finish the drinks we had bought)

Monday- Home Day...unfortunately..we had to leave by 12pm so some of us girls did some last minute shopping and lounged on the beach.

I think I can say for all of us that we had an amazing trip and couldn't believe we had the opportunity to see and experience the things we did on the trip! Whitehaven Beach was so amazing! We had a great time and we enjoyed each others company!

Enjoy the pictures...there is quite a few!