Whitsundays!

Flashback to that time we went to the Whitsundays and it was the best trip ever!  Seriously, if you ever visit Australia, this. is. a. must.  Definitely our favourite place we've been to so far.  When we were planning our trip we looked at a few options, but given our budget, we ruled out a luxury holiday on Daydream Island pretty quick.  We knew the Whitsundays were known for the sailing experience, so we decided to splurge a little on a 3 day sailing trip, and camped the rest of the week in Airlie Beach to save some cash.  If I could do it again, I'd do it the exact same way.  It was perfect!

We chose a smaller sailboat for our trip - a catamaran with 8 passengers, a skipper, and a waitress/chef girl.  We opted out of the 25 person party boat this time, mostly because the menu of the catamaran sucked me in.  Fresh fruit non stop and chicken and steak for dinner sounded way better than noodles and sandwiches.  

Excuse all the selfies…its the only way we know how to take pictures together...

These next couple of pictures don't do any sort of justice, but the sky down here is AMAZING!  Fun fact - you can actually see more stars in the southern hemisphere because it points toward the Milky Way, rather than away.  And let me tell you, when you stay on a boat anchored in a bay in the midst of a bunch of islands - stars for DAYS!  I tried to take some long exposures, but turns out that doesn't work so well when you're on a boat...

We woke up bright and early on day 2 and headed to the famous Whitehaven beach!  Its seriously incredible.  The silica sand is super white, fine, and doesn't heat up!  We spent the morning wandering around the beach, swam with a few rays, and explored around.

Of course, had to get a picture in our matching "Dudley 50/50" shirts!

After we left Whitehaven beach, we headed over to a bay off Hook Island to do some snorkelling.  But on the way we ran into some friends!  A whole bunch of dolphins!  And then I died.

We got back into town on Wednesday (day 3) and headed to the campground to set up our site.  And lucky for us, Mr. Wallaby decided to welcome us there.

The next couple days were spent wandering around Airlie Beach, lounging by the pool, and eating, naturally.  We decided to get ambitious and go for a hike, so we took the bus up the road to Shute Harbor and got off at our trailhead.  Turns out people don't do much hiking around Airlie, because we seriously got dropped off in the middle of nowhere, and didn't see a soul (except 1 trail maintenance worker) the entire day.

And why don't we have pictures of the gorgeous view of the islands?  Oh, because it POURED RAIN on us.  Then cleared when we were half way down.  Maybe next time?

After our awesome hike, we hopped back on the bus to see what all the hype was about in Shute Harbor.  Well, there is no hype.  We heard a lot of trips go out from Shute Harbor, so we kind of expected it to be like a mini Airlie Beach.  Instead we walked up and down the pier, which took all of 10 minutes, shared a lime milkshake from the only shop in sight, and waited for the bus to take us back into town.

Now everyone come visit us and go sailing in the Whitsundays! 

But seriously.