Easter Break, Part 3: Airlie Beach and The Whitsunday Islands

Airlie Beach lagoon

After driving through heaps and heaps of barren land, much of which was destroyed from the cyclones earlier this year, we finally made it to Airlie Beach which is located south of Cairns and is where boats take off to sail around the famous Whitsunday Islands. We stayed two nights in Airlie and it was super fun and relaxing. We ate great food, partied at our hostel and a club called Mama Africas (random) and laid out at the Airlie Beach lagoon to catch some rays before getting on our sailboat for 3 days and 3 nights.

margaritas in Airlie :)

  Now, we’re all for doing things cheaply seeing as we are students. So originally we had booked a very modest, student friendly 3 day and 2 night sailboat to go around the islands. Well our last day in Melbourne before our trip we found out our boat had to go in for repairs and they were upgrading us to an extra night and a new boat. We got to this boat and our jaws dropped. We’re talking a 3 mast beautiful dark wood sail boat – the Whitsunday Magic, the best boat the company offers! We found out we were on a trip that cost three times the price of what we originally paid yet we weren’t paying any of that! It was a boat with 25 passengers and I think at least 15 of them were backpackers who had been upgraded too. Best upgrade of a lifetime!!!!!!!!!

On the Whitsunday magic!

 

The Whitsunday Magic came with an extremely friendly crew of 7 who we came pretty close with towards the end of our stay. We stayed in very comfortable double rooms and were fed like kings. Every day we had breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and wine, dinner… Every night was a different gourmet meal, night one was roast chicken with spinach risotto and a chocolate and kahlua cream pie for dessert. YUMMY. That night we star gazed and watched a mother and baby dolphin play around the boat. We went to sleep so content and feeling soooo grateful that our original boat had to go in for repairs because we got hooked up to the max.

            We woke up to gorgeous turquoise water and a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs before we were taken to our first beach to snorkel and scuba dive. The only downside of the Whitsundays is one of the deadliest jellyfish live in the water, and it’s only the size of a fingernail so you can’t even see it. Because of this, everyone wears these thin but full body wetsuits when they swim. We asked if we could just risk it and the crew adamantly told us NO – if you get stung and you’re not wearing a suit, your insurance won’t cover your helicopter ride which, from the Whitsundays, costs $65,000…..damn. So we wore the suits anytime we went swimming! The scuba dive and snorkel was amazing – soooooooo many fish swimming all around you and that time we dove for much longer so we saw all sorts of fish.

Ready for the jellyfish!

  We spent the rest of the day lounging, drinking beer and sun tanning on the top deck of the boat and admiring the beautiful scenery. Lush, green hills surrounded by turquoise water and on this amazing boat! We couldn’t get over it. We sailed into a cove for sunset and had a delicious dinner of Steak with a mushroom mustard glaze, mashed potatoes, and roast vegetables with white chocolate panacotta for dessert. Yum again. The stars were amazing that night – I saw about 4 shooting stars. We laid out on the top deck star gazing and talking to a bunch of new friends we had made on the boat. We met a young couple from Austria who were traveling the world for a year, and two Danish friends who had been traveling since February. We got tips about traveling through Asia from them which was so helpful. Everyone we met on the boat was so nice and friendly and by the end it was sad saying bye to everyone!

the boat <3

  We had our next day on the boat waking up to delicious eggs benedicte before walking to a beautiful lookout where we saw the “heart” of the Whitsunday Islands and looked out to Whitehaven Beach where we traveled later in the day. The view was gorgeous – swirls of white sand mixed with the turquoise water. Unbelievable. My picures don’t do it justice at all. I had possibly the best burger of my life for lunch before we went and laid out on Whitehaven Beach – the #2 best beach in the world! The sand feels like brown sugar. After that we put the sails up on the boat and took a relaxing sail past Pentacost Island (some say it looks like a gorilla and/or Homer Simpson) and Hamilton Island – Julia Roberts has a house there! The resort there costs thousands of dollars a night to stay at but is apparently one of the best in the world. We watched our last sunset of the trip eating fresh scones and drinking white wine. So perfect. We all started to get really down about finishing the best trip ever. That night we had amazing Moroccan lamb and brownie sundaes for dinner and dessert and stayed up late playing “Would You Rather” and telling stories with all of our new friends we made on the boat.

The Whitsundays

Our whole boat

Whitehaven Beach

  We woke up and packed our backpacks one last time (pretty sure everything I brought was so dirty and smelly at that point) before we had to have a quick breakfast of Nutella crepes and be transported to Daydream Island where we caught our ferry to the Hamilton Island airport. Of course it was a very hot and extremely blue sky and sunny day – leaving that sailboat was so difficult! We flew back to Melbourne where it was much colder and the first thing we found out off the plane was of Osama’s death. Back to reality for sure! What an amazing amazing trip – It really made me realize how much I love traveling and never want this experience to end…

Leaving the boat :(