A mere 90 minutes later and we were safe and sound on Hamilton Island. When we checked in for the flight, Virgin handed us each two boarding passes. We weren't quite sure what the second was for until we arrived- our second leg was a boat trip to the beach! Ewan was thrilled and spent the hour layover snapping pics of any boat, plane, or seaplane that came within a ten mile radius. In the interest of time we'll spare you those...
We'd thought we had sneakily beat the bad weather, but it turned out the nasty spell followed us (and the entire east coast). Airlie Beach is a bit of a pit stop on its own- its the gateway to the picturesque Whitsunday Islands, and not much else. There's an esplanade packed with backpacker hostels, backpacker tourist agents, and backpacker bars. And every third window had a "to let" notice, a sign of the economic times for tourist destinations. We were only supposed to be there two nights, but as the weather went from bad to worse, we had to rebook our thursday sailing trip for Sunday. That meant an extra four nights in the armpit that we weren't thrilled about.
Since we'd covered the town in about a day and a half, and figured out that anything we wanted to do to get us out of Airlie would require lots of cash (which we didn't have) and great weather (which they didn't have) we swapped the hostel we were scraping by in for a deal on a nice apartment outside of town. We spent the better part of the day waiting to hear whether we could rebook our boat, and went from apartment complex to complex trying the honeymoon card to see what kind of deals we could get. Dad, you would been so proud! We ended up talking the Whitsunday Vistas into giving us a nice one bedroom apartment for a steal, and waited out the rain with a king bed, soaker bath, full kitchen and washer and dryer (gasp!) all to ourselves. Yes, i know... We are such backpackers.
Even with the nice digs, it was a brutal wait to see if the weather would clear. These were definitely the low points of the trip this far, and we werefar too excited when Sunday rolled around and the rain clouds rolled out! Finally, we were off!
We'd booked a three day two night sailing trip onboard the Summertime -It was a bit pricier than most of the boats,but we were keen to avoid the party boats (imagine 20 nineteen year olds filling waterbottles full of vodka) and our friends had done the same trip last year and highly recommended it.
An hour into the sail and we weren't so sure this trip was a good idea. The captain warned us that the weather was still rocky, and he wasnt exaggerating. Summertime pitched side to side for the next few hours, leaving everyone in front soaking wet from the waves crashing over us, and anyone in back puking over the sides. (luckily I was wearing one of those nerdy seasickness patches my dr. Had prescribed... Lifesaver!)
Finally we reached calmer waters and one of the most pristine beaches we'd ever seen - White Haven. We laid out our towels, donned our stinger suits and waded into the crystal clear water. We also finally got to meet our fellow sailors, as this was the first chance to make conversation other than "are you alright? Oh, you just want me to move so you can puke..."
Our cabin mates were a great bunch. We had some scots, some Aussies, and a few Norwegians who rocked out in a Metallica tribute band together. One of them was massive and had a braided goatee. It was an interesting (and fun!) bunch.
The next day we woke up to glorious sunshine, and spent the day snorkeled in several different barrier reef spots. We saw turtles, huge Maori fish and even a baby shark! Later that night after dinner, we were all sat on the deck sipping our drinks when goatee man spotted a dolphin swimming off the bow of our boat. Turns out he liked the squid that was attracted to the light on our boat, so we spent the better part of an hour running from side to side as the dolphin swam around the bow. The crew was below deck putting a slideshow of the day together, and knew we had spotted him because off the "dolphin effect" - all the tourists pitching the boat side to side as we took pictures. Whoops :)
The third and final sailing day we woke up to rain and grey clouds, which made for another rocky ride back to airlie beach! But everyone was smiling by the end of it and we all met up at a bar in town that night for a final pint together. The Whitsundays were definitely worth the dreary wait, and ended up being one of the highlights of our trip so far!
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OMG - this is so great.... keep us updated on your progress... where are you now:??>?>?>?]saidsubuaybdjasBziy bazkudcbakscdiqwasBZdic bqaesbcluiszdb cuisbzdciuhqwaes
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