Heya everybody!!! It's us again!!! After saying goodbye to all our friends on the friday with a "couple" of drinks, we went back to our empty appartment and huddled on the hard floor, drunk, for our last night in Sydney. In the morning we packed all our belongings and headed out of the flat to the railway station to get a train to the domestic airport for our plane to Proserpine- the nearest airport to Airlie beach (27km away). When we got to the airport we were amazed how efficient Virgin Blue was with check in's. We had an electronic ticket so all we did was go to a little machine no bigger than a do it yourself photo booth- put our ticket number in, confirm we were who we are and tell the machine how many bags we had each- then it gave us our bording pass... too easy!!! Once we had handed in our big luggage we went through to the departure lounge and sat around for about two hours checking the shops and food court out, upon finding nothing of intrest apart from a "Wok in a box" and a "pizza hut" where Rachel and myself decided to endulge ourselves! Once we had finished our meal we waited for a bit longer before eventually being able to board our plane. The plane wasent particuly big but it was fairly comfatable and we touched down in Proserpine about two hours later. The Proserpine airport was one of the funniest things i have ever seen, as i am used to flying in to major airports i was not expecting Proserpine to be like it was... tiny!!! in the air all it looked like was a single narrow strip of concrete next to a beach hut and i was actually joking around with Rach saying how funny it would be to try an land there... imagine how non-plussed i was when the plane actually started turning around for landing!!! When the door opened to let us of the plane, we were greeted with a very rare yet much appreciated blast of warm 28' air, it was much needed after what the weather was like in Sydney!!! When we collected our bags we shoved them straight in to a bus and climbed on to head to our hostel in Airlie beach- the Whitsundays YHA. during the bus ride was one of the first times we had to use air conditioning since Adelaide!!! When we got to our hostel after making several stops at different hotels for other people, we were pleased to find that it was a very nice place, including a swimming pool and a BBQ, with a balcony for every room. Once we had got settled in our room we had a shower and went out to explore Airlie beach. It was a very nice costal town... alot better than Whitby or Scarbrough as the water was almost completly clear and the area around exceptionally clean. there was lots of little shops around that specalised in different things, one of which was entirley based on crystals and rocks in the shape of Buddahs and such like. After a bit more of checking the sights and some tea, we went back to the hostel to get an early night as we has to be up early for our sailing trip around the Whitsunday islands...yey!!! We woke up at about 6 that morning as we had to get all showerd, changed and packed, ready for not only our sailing trip but also for our ten hour bus journey to Cairns that night. We stowed all our large baggege in the YHA hostel store room and headded off with our rucksacks to Able point marina- where we were meeting the boat we were going on that day. After getting lost several times on the way we eventually found the place we were ment to be and found ourselves surrounded by a group of people ranging from being middle aged to OAP's!!! there were only about 7-8 people out of 72 that were below the age of 25- including us!!! That wasent the only thing.... It turns out that the boat we were sailing on turned out to be a bright purple cattemrang!!!- Rach says she diddnt know that fact, but i know her too well!!! after a small saftey brief- about an hour long, we were on our way out of the harbour and the time was about 8am. After sailing for about 45 mins we stopped off at Hamilton island to pick up some more passengers and than after that we were on our way again. now , during the departure the second time- the crew told us in dismay (not!) that they would all be to busy through out the day to man the bar and that we were to regrettably help ourselves to all the drink we could drink at no fee atall!!! at that moment every man on board, dived at the esky (drink cooler), and i fought my way to the front, grabbed 4 VB's (Victoria bitters) and sat down, content for the next half hour!!! Not too long after that we saw some wales blowing water in to the air and their massive tails shooting out of the water and then plunging back in again... it was magnificant however they were not photographic in the least, and by the time you had got your camera out of the pouch and turned it on and aimed, they had gone again. we saw them several times thought the day and it was really nice... but still no photos!!! The Whitsunday Coast and Islands are actually a very special part of Australia. They are centrally located on the Queensland Coast 150km north of Mackay and 300km south of Townsville yet right in the heart of the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef. Our destination for the day was Whitehaven beach- one of the top 5 beaches in the world which, by the time we arrived it was about 3pm. The sand was so nice, we had never seen anything like it it was so fine and light. it is also made up of 98% silica so if lightning was to ever hit the beach apparently that area would turn in to glass!!! After about two hours there- in which time Rach and i almost stepped on a stingray and a turtle swam below me as i was swimming underwater it was time to head on back around the islands for a bit of snorkelling and than back to the port. Obviously we were seeing lots of little islands on the way but i would be here all day typing if i was to go in to detail about all of them so i will tell you that one of the ones we saw had houses on and people like Julia Roberts had a house on it- the average house price on that island was about $14 million. Another island was named by Captin Cook, Monkey island as when you tilt your head to the side, it looks like a monkey face!!! although recently it is being refered to as Homer island as it also looks like the face of Homer Simpson!!! When we got to the snorkelling destination we were all dressed up in stinger suits to prevent jellyfish stings, flippers, masks and snorkells. We were taken off the main ship (name of Camira by the way!) by a little powerd raft to the reefs to snorkel for an hour. The reef was an amazing blanket of colour and it was beautiful, and there was so many fish of all different types swimming around you. We were told to stay in a particular zone because of the tide but when under water you loose track of where you are and when i put my head up again i was a bit out so i turned to head back in when i put my head under water and saw this amazing coral formation so i decided to follow it and it just got better the further out you go!!! i saw a big octopus and thousands of fish the other people didnt see!!! class!!! After the snorkelling we were all very tired and the return journey seemed to go very quickly, before we knew it we were back in the port again and heading back home to the hostel- for a quick rest before being shoved on to a bus at half 8pm to go to Cairns. All in all we both loved the Whitsundays and wouldsay it is deffinatly one of the highlights of our trip...On to Cairns!!! Love Rach And Jase xxx