Ahhh the Whitsundays... How I Hate To Leave You

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I just returned from my 3 day/2 night float around the Whitsunday Islands and it was incredible. Surprisingly it only rained the second day and the 3rd day was beautiful. Our trip was on the New Horizon Boat, it was a little cheaper than some of the nicer ones but it was still good (though there were bed bugs). The first day we just made the 2 1/2 hour trip out to the middle of the islands (there are 74 islands total), there we had bbq fish and goon and sat under the stars. The next morning we made the 1 1/2 trip to the main island (Whitsunday), the water there was very rough and I unfortunately had to watch many people lose their breakfasts overboard. I am proud to say that I held on to mine and was able to have seconds. On the Whitsunday island we hiked to Whitehaven Beach, this beach is voted #1 in the world! Though it was raining the water and the sand were unlike anything I had ever seen before. The sand was so soft and can be used to clean teeth and jewelry. In the clear blue water we walked right up to stingrays and white sharks (not scary, they were only about the size of my arm). We also saw loads of sea turtles because this is their mating ground.

After getting back on the boat we traveled to Hayman Island which is another large one. On this island is the only 6-star resort in the Southern Hemisphere. We couldn't see much from the water but we still took lots of pictures. In the bay there we went snorkeling and it was so cool. I was a little scared at first but it went good. We swam with hundreds of fish of every different color! We had an underwater camera so we were able to take some good pictures. After dinner we were able to look into the water and see the night animals that come out like squid and flying fish.

In the morning we woke up and immediately after breakfast went snokeling in another bay and this time we got to swim with Elvis! He is the "leader" of this bay and is 4 feet long, he has several girlfriends that always stay with him as well as some cleaner fish. The coolest part is that when he dies one of his gf turns into a male and takes over! So in this species they are all born female and then one will turn into a male to rule, crazy! A few lucky snorkelers saw some sea turtles but we didn't. Oh also one night the crew showed us a map of the island and pointed out all the cool stuff, including the island which had that best job in the world thing a couple of months ago. I always thought the island was in the middle of nowhere and uninhabited but they are several private estates on that island.

I am running out of time on the internet but I just have to say that this last trip was awesome. I felt like after Fraser Island we really deserved this and it was everything I could have imagined and more.

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Comments

[Aunt Patty]

Ahhh the Whitsunday ...
Boy, are you lucky we took you out on that boat when you were a little kid! Remembrer you screamed the whole time :0) Won't be long before we see you -- have fun!