Whitsundays

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I woke up early and went for a swim in our lovely pool (it even had a waterfall) and then had a shower and breakfast all before 8am. We went on a little trip with Hog to an Opal and Didgereedoo shop, where we all got a little carried away and spent insane amounts of money! I bought an opal ring which had a price tag of $580 but I got it on special for $170. That's right - I was totally sucked in by the cute guys playing the didgereedoos and couldn't help myself. To be fair, all people who are unemployed and homeless in a foreign country really do need a lovely opal ring. It's just what you do. Out of the 8 people who went to the shop we worked out we spent about $5,000 all up - good day to own an opal shop!

Anyway, after that we went down to the marina and boarded our home for the next two nights - Boomerang. She's a yacht that has previously won some race and been fastest in the world, so apparently she goes fast. We were shown our little beds/bunks and then went on deck to sail to Hook Island. Some of us put on our pretty little stinger suits (which you have to wear to cover your skin so the jellyfish can't kill you - no I'm not kidding) and did a bit of backflipping off the boat into the very warm ocean. Because there was a cyclone coming the skipper decided to spend the night in sheltered Nara Inlet rather than take us further out. Our skipper was Kane, our first mate Dale and our deckhand and chef was Dan. Dan rustled up an amazing dinner for us, and we sat on deck under a tarp hiding from the rain and listening to music. When it got really dark Dan got a boat hook out and started hitting the water with it because of the phosperance - it was amazing. The next morning we went for a little dingy trip to the Ngaro Cultural Site on Hook Island, which was a short walk up to a cave that had some aboriginal drawings in it. We were meant to go to Whitehaven beach and see some other amazing white sand beaches, but alas the weather wouldn't allow it. It rained the whole time we were on the boat, but more importantly we were now in the path of the Cyclone and had to get the hell outta there. So we all sit on the side of the boat and we set sail back to harbour. It was very windy and quite rough, but we had a great time all sitting along on edge with our legs over the side, getting drenched by the rain and the sea spray. We were a bit disappointed that we had to cut our trip short, but we were elated to be getting of a damp cramped boat and back to dry land. As we sailed into harbour we could see Hog doing a little dance on the jetty waiting for us. He had spent the day arranging for us to stay back at the nice resort again, and had filled the bus with balloons and little paper hats that said Happy First Cyclone. So we had a cyclone party! And we all got really really drunk and went to every bar in Airlie Beach - the end.

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