One of the trips we have been most looking forward to whilst in Australia has been our 2 night, 3 day Whitsundays trip. Ever since Loveday told us it was somewhere we need to spend a good amount of time we have been excited. We booked our Fraser Island and Whitsundays trip together so we got a discount. Woo!! We decided on the sailing boat Summertime because it offered not only snorkeling and swimming, but also diving and kayaking, whilst keeping numbers onboard low – 16 passengers and 4 crew. The boat also had an early day 1 departure and a later return time on day 3, therefore maximising our time in the Whitsundays.

We arrived in Airlie Beach after a 4.5 hour Greyhound bus from Townsville. The Greyhound bus was actually ok, I was dreading it a little as I am prone to motion sickness, but it was better than i expected offering more space and better reclining seats than the airlines we travelled to Australia on. After sleeping for a bit and watching movies we arrived in Airlie and the first thing we both said was ‘its just like NEWQUAY’. Every shop is selling swim wear, food or alcohol and it just has the same party feel to it. I dont think it helped that when we first got here the first glimpse into Airlie life we saw were men in fancy dress getting pretty drunk at 10am. We couldnt check into our hostel till 2.30 so we went for an explore and some food. We had food at KCs which was excellent. Simon had a kangaroo steak burger which was super tasty (a milder beef steak, but just as tender). We then went to cold rock ice cream which was quite possibly the best ice cream i’ve ever had.  They take your ice cream flavour, spread it out on the bench, mash up some good stuff into the ice cream (in my case a tim tam, cookie dough and an oreo) and then present it to you whilst you drool. It was brilliant!! A tim tam if you dont know is like a penguin bar on steroids that has improved its taste by 1000%. Obsessed!

The afternoon involved a swim at the Airlie Beach lagoon, which was pretty refreshing. It’s not cold here by any standard, but compared to the humid regions of Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas that we had become quite used to, we had definitely noticed a cooling as we headed south.

That evening we met up with Sophie and George again and had some drinks in Magnums (the hostel where we were staying). However, it has becoming quite common that we have to get up early, so off we went to bed so we could get up nice and early to catch our boat to the Whitsundays. The day before we had to sort our belongs into a canvas bag about half the size of a bag for life, the reason we would learn as soon as we got onto the boat (the living spaces were small, but cosy) and we had taken our other belongings to storing at Whitsundays Sailing Adventures. We grabbed a McDonalds breakfast (naughty I know) and headed off to the marina.

Once at the marina we started to see people with the same canvas bag as us. On our boat there were 3 Twainese, 2 Hong Kongese (made that up), 4 Danish, 2 Germans, 2 Americans and of course us. A really lovely mix of different cultures. We also met Dan, our dive supervisor and all round go to guy for the next 3 days, he was from Texas, but was loving life in Australia. Dive certifications and health and safety waivers checked we were boarding Summertime. Much smaller than I initially expected, but very cosy and practical, having everything you could possibly need for a trip to the Whitsundays. We were then told we were heading straight to Whitehaven Beach. YAYAYAYAY!

Whitehaven Beach is a 7km beach situated on Whitsunday Island. The sand on Whitehaven beach is made up of 98% silica, making it one of the purest, whitest beaches in the world. To start with we all walked up to Hill Inlet, where you get stunning shots like this one. Our initial reaction, along with everyone else’s, was just WOW! The photos do not do the beach justice as anyone who has been there will know.

We had been warned not to take too much electrical equipment to the beach as the sand was so fine, and there is a high likelihood that the sand can get into your phones and cameras and stop them working. We only took the go pro and relied on the Summertime Crew to take other photos for us.

After admiring the scenery and struggling to take in the beauty of it all, we went down to the beach where we had 2 hours to swim, relax, look for rays and lemon sharks and just enjoy Whitehaven beach. We saw lots of different species of rays, but unfortunately were unable to spot a lemon shark. Some other people in our groups saw a young one.

After our amazing afternoon at Whitehaven beach we went back to Summertime to get to know each other and relax. We were going to be diving the next day so would need a lot of rest and beauty sleep for that. Back on Summertime, Simon and I were about to have our first experience with ‘goon’. Goon if you don’t know is the term given to cheap and cheerful boxed wine here in Australia. It is the cheapest way to get drunk out here as the cost of alcohol is extortionate. We paid $15 for 4l of white wine. Approximately £8/9. Bargain! Simon also got 4 small cans of Morgans Spiced rum and coke… less than a litre and that came in at $18.99. Rip off!! We enjoyed some glasses of goon, a beautiful sunset and got chatting to a lot of the lovely people on board. But early to bed for us as we would be getting up around 6.30 for breakfast before our first dive of the day.

Simon assures me that the beds on board Summertime are quite luxurious in comparison to some of the beds he has slept in on board ship. If I sat up, even half way, I would smack my head on the ceiling (we were in the top bunk, which is never my top choice of bunk). However, we both had a relatively good nights sleep and were ready for the morning.

The next day we dived twice, never deeper than 10m, as the reef was relatively shallow. The first site we dived at was called Blue ** Lagoon. The visibility wasn’t great, but got better towards the end of the dive. There were lots of beautiful reef fish, but nothing large like a turtle of a reef shark. Simon had a lot of trouble with his mask during this dive as it kept flooding (unfortunately, I think the trusty mask is going to have to go in the bin), but what kept frustrating me most once one of the other divers in our group. This diver claimed to have 500+ dives and to have been diving since he was 16 years old. However, he could not maintain his buoyancy and he kept smashing into the coral!!! ERRRRR so FRUSTRATING!!! After the dive, we went for a snorkel and saw a lovely Maori Humphead Wrasse, but soon enough were surrounded by little jellyfish. I am unsure of the species name, but we were reassured that they were harmless, despite you being pretty aware that they had touched you. Luckily, we had been wearing a stinger suit underneath our shorty wetsuit, so I only got stung once on my foot (the sting was gone within a minute).

Back onto the boat for some food! The food on board was excellent and was much needed after all the diving and snorkelling. We completed one more dive that afternoon, where the visibility was far better. I don’t think I’ve ever dived with so many fish in my life. The photos we took truly don’t give a true representation of how many fish there were at times. We saw a huge!! pufferfish, which the locals call toe fish (because they like to bite your toes), but spent the majority of the dive hunting for a turtle. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find one, even after snorkelling for an additional 45 minutes of so after the dive. We had a lovely BBQ steak dinner, drank some more goon and saw another stunning sunset.

On our last day we had another early rise for kayaking. Summertime has 8 inflatable kayaks on board which are used on the last day to explore the area of Stonehaven. Simon and I have kayaked a few times, but were getting quite frustrated with each other during this one 😛 We were lucky enough to see lots of rays and a few surfacing green turtles during our kayak and at the end of the kayak we played a game designed by Dan. I’m warning all our friends and family that we will be 100% pushing this game on you in the future, it was soooooo much fun! Our team (green) was in the lead for the majority of the game, but unfortunately lost the last point after some serious competition. I’ll sum up the game below for mine (and your) future benefits.

The 8 double kayaks were split into 2 teams, green and red. The aim of the game is to pass the floaty ball between your team 3 times without penalties (dropping the ball into the water, getting aggressive with the other team, at least 1m from the other kayak, and if a second pass with an opposing team in between the two kayaks). Each team was allowed 3 strikes. A strike will be from getting aggressive or from dropping the ball into the water during a pass. If you receive a strike, you will have to go back to the first pass. Once you have achieved 3 passes then your team receives a point. The first team to reach 15 point wins!

Apparently we were the most competitive group to play this game and it was such good fun zooming around, trying to getting into defensive positions and catch the ball. Simon got a little too into the game and at one point ‘over extended’ out of the kayak, sending us both flying out. Grumpy wife!!

After kayaking, we starting making our way back to Abel Point Marina at Airlie Beach. I couldn’t quite believe that the whole trip was over already! Most tours only give you about 36 hours in the Whitsundays and ours gave us nearly 3 full days. It still wasn’t enough! It’s such a beautiful part of the world and I’m sure we will return in the future.

Apologises for the lack of photos. Most of our photos are on a DVD disc that we will be unable to access until we get home (unless we find a pc).