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Published: September 27th 2008
An 11 hour overnight coach journey brought us to our next destination, Airlie beach, where we were to board our fabulous Sailing Yacht - Matador. Matador was a racing yacht, and during her time she was unbeaten. Now a party boat for sailing round the Whit Sunday Islands, she was our home for 3 days of fabulous sunshine, snorkelling, diving and general frolicking in the water, unfortunately not much sailing as there was not much wind, so during motoring time we lounged around on the deck, most people topping up the tan, but for me it was more a case of reflecting the rays and looking incredibly pale in comparison to my crew mates!
Unfortunately I had to be pretty careful with the amount of photos I took as my battery was running low, but I got a few that were ok.
Snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef is and experience I will never forget. After getting over my fear that Australian waters harbour some of the most dangerous sea creatures in the world I was enamoured with the variety of life, even on the small part of the reef we were on. It would have been great to have
a dive lesson whilst I was there, but unfortunately funds did not allow, I will however be learning to dive when I get home, or even in NZ when I get there and have replenished the monies.
Another highlight of my sail was feeding the Osprey. The crew had spotted a couple of these incredible birds soaring above us, and soon scraps of meat and fat were brought out, we stopped motoring and started calling. As the birds started circling around the mast the fat was thrown into the air and we had a spectacle of diving, the Osprey catching the meat and flying off, in all there were 3 birds that came to feed before flying into the distance.
On arriving back in Airlie beach Pete and I were going to jump straight on a bus and head to 1770, another beach village, although the rest of the Matador group were staying for a night out, we had nowhere to stay, so the host from the boat offered for us to stay at hers - my first experience of the Aussie hospitality I have heard about and it didn't take much persuading from there, it was a wicked
night, and with a fully charged camera battery there is plenty of photographic evidence to prove it.
Due to the extra night in Airlie, the stop in 1770 had to be put off, and it turned out that the next day 9 of the group of 12 that had been on the Matador were all catching the same night bus to Hervey bay for what was round 3 of Pete and Lisa's Oz adventure - 4x4 self drive on Fraser Island , the largest Sand Island in the world.
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