Whitsunday's Adventure

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Emily's Birthday Bash

It all started after an 8 1/2 hr drive south of Cairns to the lovely Airlie beach and Whitsundays Islands. Airlie Beach provides the ideal base for Whitsundays holiday fun and adventure, where accommodation styles are as varied as the accents that can heard in the Main Street. It’s a social and lively place with restaurants, clubs and bars to party well into the night, and a beautiful swimming lagoon set in parkland overlooking the islands.

We parked up at the beaches backpackers and checked in, then straight upstairs to the room to polish off a birthday bottle of bubbles then down to Magnums bar (located next door to the backpackers) for a couple of happy hour JUGS of beer and live music for the night.

Chris Nadine and I drove down together. Matt and Pete came later that night. The next day we were picking up Richard and Ali who were flying in from Melbourne and Brisbane. And Dave....booked the wrong flight so he would miss out on the first day. We organised a hostel bed for him and arranged for him to go out on another boat to meet up with us the next day.

The next morning we made a trip out to the Proserpine Airport. It is 12 km south of Proserpine, and 30 minute drive to Airlie Beach. Here we pick up the rest of the party people and headed back for pre departure cocktails at Cactus Jacks.

Now we had everyone here apart from Dave, we bought about $300 worth of alcohol for the boat trip and headed to the marina for check in. We were all dress in sailing and boating costumes including a nautical themed pashmina afghan...everyone looked awesome!

The boat we would be sailing on for the trip is the Whitsunday Adventurer. It is a 3 days and 2 nights catamaran sailing adventure boat that takes up to 12 people with snorkeling, clear kayaks, stand up paddle boards and all meals provided for us! Chris and I got a private double cabin and everyone else slept on chairs that became beds.

It was a little rough on the way out and Emily got a bit sea sick, but came good after we dropped anchor in a sheltered bay for the night. We put some tunes on and spent the night playing drinking games. We even fit 5 people in a 2 person spa!

The next morning the water was like glass and a quick dip fixed any niggling hangover signs. After a breakfast of fruit, croissants, yoghurt and cereal we set sail to Whitsunday Island....with the world famous Whitehaven beach.
The crystal clear aqua waters and pristine silica sand of Whitehaven stretch over seven kilometres along Whitsunday Island , the largest of the 74 islands in the Whitsundays. It defines nature at its best and provides the greatest sense of relaxation and escape. It is just like the postcards. The sand squeaks in under your toes and the water is so clear!

We were taken to one side of the island in the ship's little rubber dingy and then we walked up to the lookout where you can see the white sand and blue water swirling around and then down to the beach where we frolicked for a few hours. We left at lunchtime and picked up Dave from the other boat that brought him out.

After a bite to eat we went snorkeling. The marine life at the Whitsundays is really nice...there is loads of coral and the fish you would expect. The awesome surprise was a big loggerhead turtle that came and swam with us. He was beautiful and so close!! We also got the paddle board and kayaks out. The clear kayak are the best invention ever. It's like having your very own glass bottom boat. The reef is really shallow so through the kayak it looks really clear and you can see so much. Paddle boarding is not as easy as it looks, but is heaps of fun 😊
After it got too cold to stay in the water it was back up on the deck for more drinking games.

It was a little overcast the next day and it was predicted to start blowing 40 knot winds that night, so our timing was really good as we would be back on land before it blew up.

Our hostess, Jade was really great and took good care of us. She was upset on the last day because she was hosting on another boat as soon as we docked and it was going to be horrible because the weather would make all her passengers sick and unhappy. Simon was our skipper and he was tops too.

After a morning snorkel and another swim with a turtle we headed back to Airlie Beach.

We had one last night out in Airlie Beach....It was a super fun birthday.

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Photos

Good morning
The ocean was like glass early in the morning

Comments

[Stewardess]

Great blog
Thanks for giving us the details, great blog