Airlie Beach Washout...ALMOST!


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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Airlie Beach
November 14th 2010
Published: November 19th 2010
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Hostel: Airlie Waterfront Backpackers
Room: Double - fan, bed and a shelf oh and ants!
Price: $60 a night
Review: Quite a good hostel - large kitchen, easy access to the showers/bathrooms - only problem were the ants in our room pretty gross we had a killing spree one of the nights lol a part from that it was good! 7/10


10th November -

After our long bus journey we finally arrived in Airlie Beach, otherwise known as the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. It's the mainland so most people often travel to the islands from Airlie Beach as it's cheaper than staying on the islands.

We kind of knew where we were going so we walked down the road and luckily found our hostel after 5mins of walking, so not far. We went to reception but they told us we couldn't check-in until 1pm - which was annoying but they let us put our bags in a storage room so we weren't too bothered by it.

So whilst we were waiting we walked round the area to get our bearings. 10mins later it started to chuck it down, luckily we were undercover but we had to wait 15mins for it to calm down! Apparently it's monsoon season - so we've really picked the wrong time to come here. It's boiling hot but it's humid and raining so not good - especially as we're trying to get a tan before we come home. No one will think we've been to Australia when we come back white!

Seen as though it was raining we decided to go on the internet and write up our blog, check emails etc. When we were using the internet we asked the travel woman what tours they had to the Whitsunday Islands. Liam explained to her how seasick he gets so really we were only looking for day tours. Most people book 3nights/2days on a sailing boat - but we knew Liam wouldn't be able to manage that - even I don't think I would like to sleep on a boat!

After a while we decided to book a day trip to Daydream Island - which is a resort and spa so I might be lucky and get a massage. It also has a mini golf course, which is meant to be good and has a living coral reef with fish in! With our deal we got the trip over and back, lunch and mini golf for $89pp so not too bad.
We also booked Big Fury for $99 each, which also includes lunch. Adam and Dylan have open-dated tickets for the same boat so they are planning to book it for the same day as us as they should be up here in a few days! Its a speed boat, which takes us snorkeling and to Whitehaven Beach - one of the tourist spots. Its supposed to be beautiful, hopefully the weather will be good when we go! Fingers crossed!

Once we booked the tours we went to a restaurant for lunch - we ordered 2 large pizzas, fatties! Then we checked in, chucked our bags in the room and checked out the hostel. We decided to go to the supermarket to do a week's shopping for the first time in ages. We got the bus to the nearest Woolworths about 10mins away. It was still raining when we got back so we had to try and run through the rain with our shopping bags grrr!

Once we dried off from the horrible rain we made dinner! We had to put a deposit of $20each for a dining set as their equipment kept getting stolen and we're both a bit paranoid about leaving food in the communal fridge but we have no other choice!

We made burritos for the first time, they were pretty tasty but not as good as fajitas! We were so tired from our lack of sleep on the coach that we fell to sleep at 8.30pm lol! Overall a crappy day of rain, food shopping and tiredness!


11th November -

We woke up quite late this morning, after a refreshing 12hr sleep haha! We didn't have much planned as the weather is so unpredictable up in this part of Queensland, what with it being raining season and all!

We did know, though, that we had to do the laundry as we haven't done it in ages and had many plastic carrier bags of dirty washing - lovely! After the laundry we headed to a computer and did a bit of facebook stalking. It looked as though it was going to be a better day than yesterday so we went back to the hostel, put our sun screen on and hit the man-made lagoon (they have a communal swimming pool as you arent allowed in the sea because of the 'stingers'!) At the lagoon we sunbathed for about 30mins then the clouds come rolling in and it started to rain...great!

After lunch we had a look in a few of the shops and found a shop called "Fun to Bead", had a look in there and it was pretty cool - you could make your own bracelets! so, we did!

We then made dinner, chicken in mushroom sauce with rice and got ready and went out for a drink to another hostel, which has a bar - called Magnums! The drinks tasted watered-down and weren't very nice at all! They were also quite expensive, almost $14 for both of them!

After our lovely drink, we decided to go for a moonlit walk along the beachfront BUT funnily enough it started to rain yet again and headed back to the hostel - wet and tired!

12th November - Daydream Island

We were up early to go to Daydream Island and waiting outside for the bus transfer to pick us up at 7.30am to take us down to the Harbour. We got onto the boat at around 8ish and it took half hour to get to the island, we sat upstairs - it was pretty windy!!

Once we arrived we walked aimlessly to try and find the lagoon and ended up getting lost somehow - the island wasn't even that big lol! After a while we finally found it but we didn't get in as it was pretty cloudy and noone else was in there. It was early so not many people were around the resort, we chilled for a while by the pool, had a look at the living coral reef - we spotted some colourful fish it was pretty cool to see!

We did the rainforest walk, which was nice but we got a bit scared of all the bugs so tried to get out of there asap! We headed to Lover's Cove - which was beautiful, there were rock wallabies and people snorkelling and we relaxed for a while on the sun loungers minus the sun. Then the rain came, so we ran into the resort which was huge and very nice - we got ourselves a milkshake and chocolate brownie yummy!

Once the rain had calmed down we went back to the other side of the island for lunch, we both had $15 lunch vouchers - so we got as much as we could! After lunch we went on the mini golf - it was a themed golf course with all different parts of Australia - it was a close game but Liam won by one point lol!

After our game we walked back to the resort and chilled there for a while before catching the 4 o'clock boat back to Airlie Beach. It was a good day, nice to relax - despite the rain!

We went back to the hostel and got ready to go out for dinner! We found a place that did hot rock dinners, the same as what we had in Geelong where you are given a 300degrees rock to cook your piece of meat on we ordered lamb and steak and shared half each it was yummy and fairly cheap as it was on special!

13th November -

We had another lie-in, well 9am so not much of one but still better than what we've been used to since travelling! Today was pretty uneventful we couldn't sunbathe because of the rain so we napped during the day, went on the internet and made bracelets again lol! The weather is annoying us now - we just hope it gets better for when we get to Magnetic Island - although it's forecast thunderstorms! Great!

14th November -

We were sitting in our regular place (the internet cafe) as it was raining! But this time we had a surprise - Adam and Dylan showed up! We weren't expecting to see them until Monday but they said they had left 1770 early as there wasn't much to do. We replied by saying that there wasn't anything to do in Airlie when it's raining lol.

Anyway we planned to meet up in the evening as they were going to busk. During the afternoon we made more bracelets once again lol. Around 7ish we headed down to Magnums - where they were staying, they were busking on the streets outside and had a fair bit of money but we later found out that most of it was theirs lol!

After a while we all went to a bar and had a few drinks, then called it a night!

15th November -

We made another bracelet and sat in the internet cafe....once again because of the rain!!

16th November - Snorkeling and Whitehaven Beach (Big Fury)

We were up early to go on Big Fury, we got picked up around the corner from our hostel. The sun was shining, we had picked a good day - the best of our stay in Airlie (no rain woo!). The bus picked us up 10mins late and we were wondering how Dylan and Adam were going to get to the Marina. But they got on at the next bus stop.

We got to the Marina and hired our stinger suits for the day as there are deadly jellyfish everywhere in the sea - so we wanted as much protection as we could get! Once we were suited up we all got onto the boat - unfortunately we didn't all get a seat together! Anyway, we headed off on 'the Ferrari of the sea' LOL aka a fast jet boat to lower the chances of Liam getting sea sick and luckily it worked!

The boat took us through different islands whilst one of the guys who worked on the boat gave us a running commentary! The sky was clear blue and it was boiling so we were pretty happy with the weather it was perfect for our trip! Although saying that we did hit a bit of cloud and rain on the way to our snorkeling spot - the rain hurt our faces as we were going so fast lol!

Once we arrived at the snorkeling spot we got our gear on and jumped in! Liam had never snorkeled before and I had only done it once in a fake coral lagoon, so we were both nervous and excited at the same time. But once we were in the water we loved it, the coral was beautiful, the sun was shining on the water so it made the colours even brighter and we saw so many different coloured fish swimming around us! At some points it was hard not to hit the coral because of the shallow waters! And when we were trying to talk to each other with our snorkels on it was pretty funny, I had a bit of a laughing fit at one point!

After an hour of snorkeling we got back onto the boat and headed for Whitehaven Beach! It took around half an hour to get there and when we got there we saw lots of other tourists in the water and on the beach. Which in a way ruined the whole beauty of the beach but I guess we were doing exactly the same as we were tourists lol!

We hopped off the boat and chilled on the beach for a while looking at the fish in the sea there were lots of little schools of them. The beach was paradise, it looked a lot like Lake McKenzie but it was the sea rather than a lake - very beautiful!

After relaxing on the beach we had lunch, it was a buffet as part of our trip, it was tasty quite a few things to choose from which was good! Once we all ate lunch we headed to the lookout point on the top of Whitsunday Island to get a better view of the beach and it's surroundings!

It only took around 15mins at Adam and Dylan's walking pace lol they walk pretty fast compared to me and Liam, I was out of breath by the time we got to the top! The lookout was lovely, you could see a lot from the top but it was too hot to stay up there for long! We took a few photos then went back down to the beach for another half an hour.

We took a dip in the sea without our stinger suits on - we risked it as everyone else on the trip seemed to be doing the same thing lol! Liam took a while to get it in but he did it in the end lol!

After our swim we got back onto the boat and headed back to the mainland going past Hamilton Island (where the winner of the best job in the world worked!) and Daydream Island on the way!

It was a great day, definitely the best in Airlie Beach, the rest of the days were just rain! After the trip we had a dip in the lagoon and then went out for dinner - $10 chilli ALL YOU CAN EAT! Although Liam later told me that he didn't like it as it was too spicy and had mayo in it!

Our stay in Airlie was okay not the best, like I said our best day was the last because of the weather and the trip! If it wasn't raining as much we probably would've liked it a little bit more!





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