After our monster 13 hour coach trip we decided against our better judgement to stay in a Koala run hostel again - we had to use those vouchers that the guy at the travel agents gave us as we are slowly running out of money! We took the free bus to the hostel and checked in and $14 certainly doesn't get you very far Oz as our room turned out to be a dive, as expected. Although, it seems that the crapper the hostel, the better the showers.... After scrubbing off the last remainder of the Fraser Island dirt we thought we'd get on the case of finding a day tour of the Whitsunday Islands pretty sharpish and soon enough we found one that provided a visit to the must see Whitehaven beach and a snorkel around a part of the Great Barrier Reef. It was a little expensive at $99, but lunch was included so I couldn't turn it down. We spent the rest of the day chilling at the lagoon. Despite being called Airlie beach, the place has no beach, so everyone just chills at the man made lagoon. The place turned out to be pretty lame and very cold, but sitting in the sun was lurverly after the stinking bus trip. Following this, we decided we'd take advantage of some discounted meals at a nearby bar called Moroccos, where the service was so bad I wanted to cry. Don't worry, I didn't. Up bright and early for our courtesy bus to the boat (which we almost missed!) which took us to the boat for about 8.30 and we were soon off around the Whitsunday Islands. Apparently Captain Cook discovered these on holiday around Oz on Whit Sunday a few years ago, or something. First stop was Whitsunday Island, where we were lead up to a view of the shifting sands and Whitehaven beach. Even the view of this place was amazing, with all of the many colours and I even managed to get a photo in the ISCA shirt for the boys back home. The highlight here though was seeing a massive turtle just casually jogging along passed the boat when we taken back to it. After this we were taken to Whitehaven beach, which as the name suggests, is white! It was so white it hurt to look at it without sunglasses! However, rather than being grown up and appreciating it's beauty, Louise decided that she wanted to bury me. Kind of pleasant....I guess... I would like to talk about lunch, which was very good, and talk about how I kept laughing at the woman who was sick all day, but the snorkelling experience still gives me a shudder now. Although we looked like a pair of clowns in our gear, it was worth it. Snorkelling this small fringe of the reef was breathtaking: because for one I spent half the time drowning, but when I managed to swim what we saw under water is probably the best thing we have ever seen. It was nothing short of sublime: the rainbow coloured fish, the tiny curious fish which would swim around your hands, the colours of the reef, the plants, the turtles, the three massive stingrays. It is beyond description. After this we had a short ride home and took a pizza whilst waiting to board the bus for a brief 10 hour trip to Cairns. I'm not going to miss the Greyhound bus: you take your life in your hands going to the toilet in one of those things. Sitting in another travel agents right now writing this and tomorrow we're going to the local rainforest to feed the crocs and koalas. As you do......