Blogs from Whitsundays, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 42

Hello All I had a fantastic birthday yesterday as Laura, Lynette and I went on a sailing trip to Whitehaven Beach, did some snorkelling and then we had some drinks back on the island with a lovely big chocolate birthday cake. Although i had started the birthday celebrations on Thursday night at Midnight with a shot of Tequilla! Here's some pics and i'll update more chat shortly. Oh - an there's a few pics from Halloween too. Jx... read more

There are a myriad sailing cruises departing for the Whitsundays from Airlie Beach every day, many of which fall into the categories of "party boat" (i.e. crammed full of drunken backpackers getting even drunker) or "future submarine" (i.e. of dubious seaworthiness). Not wishing to end up on a member of either of these categories, I carefully chose a boat called "Dreamcatcher" that held a maximum of 14 people and had a reputation for sedate travel. In fact I'd been warned it was viewed as a couples' boat, but at check-in I was told half the guests had booked individually, which suggested I wouldn't be the lone gooseberry. It would have been good to have undertaken a dive or 2, but all the likely-looking diving boats were departing several days into the future, and I'd already determined ... read more

We got to the resort at Long Island last night. It's beautiful. Palm trees everywhere with parrots flying in between the tree tops and wallabies hopping around eating the grass- they're so cute! Dinner was great- I had shrimps and peeled them all by myself- impressive or what?! Had them with lemon and tartare sauce- very tasty! Also had salad, garlic ciabatta and some spanish mackeral. We had a few glasses of wine then decided to hop in the jacuzzi! It was great. The pool has got bar stools under the water so you can get served drinks while you're in there- something I have to try before I leave! Today I went on a bush walk- just me and kate. We thought we would be on a guided walk but the guy showed us the ... read more

Hi All I've got a new job on a lovely Island just off the east coast. It's one of the Whitsundays and it's called South Molle Island. See www.southmolleisland.com.au if you want to check it out. I'm working in housekeeping which is pretty damn hard in this heat and it's only going to get hotter as the australian summer starts! Cleaning toilets and bedrooms is never glamorous but it's fine for the moment and not bad in this cool location. The people are all very friendly and there is lots of sports to do when you're not working - sailing, tennis, bush walking, basketball, lazing on the beach or drinking! Thursday is a big night out and everyone does Karaoke - i usually hate this but i did have a go last week in a group ... read more

In the morning Wally and Ann Marie picked us up in their lovely rental car and we set off on the long journey from Hervey Bay to Airlie Beach. We stopped for lunch along the way but other than that Wally drove straight through. When the light started to fade we all became a little apprehensive about the Kangaroos. We had been told not to drive at dusk or dawn due to the high numbers of ‘Roos. So we all had our eyes peeled but we did not even see one the whole way!! Thank you once again guys for the lift, was fully appreciated! Wally and Ann Marie dropped us off at the hostel we had booked through the travel agent in Sydney at the start of our Oz adventure. The moody woman behind the ... read more