WhitSundays and Noosa

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Hello!! Sorry for the delay. WiFi has been pretty spotty here. So much to catch up on! Today marks our 8th day of Contiki. Morgan and I agree that we both feel like we have known the people on our tour forever! We are enjoying every second of it.
After Cairns, we drove almost 10 hours to WhitSunday islands. It was here that our group split up into two groups. One group sailing the islands and the other group staying at a resort. It wasn’t until that day I found out Morgan signed us up for the 2 day sailing excursion.
The sailboat was a previous competing sailboat in the region and was able to hold up to 30 people at any given time. It had a kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and bunk beds to sleep in. (Will upload pictures soon.) Initially we were worried because there was going to be no AC or WiFi. I guess that is expected. The more we got to thinking about it the more we realized we have never spent overnight on a sailboat. The closet thing to this experience was sleeping down at Kyndyl’s lake in Farmington.
The first night was wonderful. It was so unreal. We were sailing in between these mountainous islands and there were hundreds of them in the distance. It was incredible. It is what I imagine the Philippians looking like. The sunset was incredible on the water and the colors were so bright. That night I went to bed early to elevate my ankle but Morgan slept half the night on the deck watching the stars and even said she was able to see dolphins come up to the boat!
The next day, we sailed to white haven beach before the tide came in. This beach is the second most beautiful beach in the world! The water was different shades of blue and in the distance you see island upon island. We saw miniature sharks and sting rays!
Afterwards we snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef again.
That night there was a massive rainstorm with winds as fast as 85 mph hitting our boat. Two very different nights. Now at least we can say we have had the whole sailboat experience! ;P
Unfortunately, I was pretty excited to get off the boat that I forgot to pack my toiletry bag. Luckily they called my trip manager and they are going to send it to Sydney. Not 30 dollars I wanted to spend but at least I have enough contacts to last me till then. Morgan also has an extra toothbrush for me.
Yesterday we made a night stop at a farm station/ cattle ranch. Kind of weird at first but they gave us a small tour of their 26,000 acre property and showed us their bulls, horses, and gave us an overview of what it is like to live on a ranch in Australia. It really made me appreciate how the locals live and morgan even tried how to whip crack!
Will update you later! Love you!

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