Airlie Beach (Whitsundays), Australia

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We arrived in Airlie Beach from Auckland via Brisbane. Proserpine airport is a tiny place, with just a couple of flights a day. The baggage just gets carted out into the car park and a huge bunfight ensues as everyone tries to find their luggage. From the airport shuttle bus we managed to see kangaroos (turns out it's quite easy to see kangaroos in Australia).

During our first wander into the small town of Airlie Beach, we could have been foregiven for thinking that we were back in the UK. Most people were English and Irish with a few Europeans. The weather wasn't very British, though. Even at night the temperature was about 25 degrees.

Airlie beach is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and this is where we headed to for Christmas. We had booked ourselves a 3-day trip on a yacht which left on Christmas eve and returned on boxing day. Our yacht was called the Ron of Argyl. It was a beautiful boat, built in 1928 in Scotland. It had a really varied history and had pretty much sailed around the world, even taking Marilyn Monroe on holiday in the Carribbean. The boat is now configures to carry 12 passengers and 3 crew.

Or trip took us from Airlie Beach took us all around the islands, stopping off at some amazing coral reefs. I managed to see a few stingrays, some of which were about the same size as me. One of the most impressive types of fist were the Batfish which can grow up to 3 feet in length. We also had the chance to help the crew sail which I really enjoyed.

Our first day included sailing after dark to reach Whitehaven Beach. This meant that on Christmas morning we awoke to a spectacular view of this famous beach. The sand here was a brilliant white and the water was perfectly clear. On the night of Christmas day we pulled in at one or the resorts on Long Island which had live music performed by what looked like a family band (A father and three daughters). Whilst they looked like the Waltons, they were actually a really good band with a great saxophone player.

On Christmas day we stopped off at South Molle island which also had a resort. Here we had a great time using their swimming pool for free and recovering from the previous night. The crew didn't really do anything special for Christmas and we didn't have Christmas dinner, but the food on the boat was fantastic. It was all cooked on a two hob gas stove and fed 15 people. When we were in New Zealand we had a two hob stove in our campervan and we sometimes found it hard cooking for two, so the crew really put us to shame with their cooking efforts.

Previously I had preferred motor yachts to sailing yachts, but this experience has changed my mind. When I win the lottery I will now be buying a sailing yacht!

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