We caught the overnight bus from Cairns to Airlie Beach where we had one night booked before starting our STA booked tour of the Whitsunday islands.

The first part of our greyhound overnight bus was horrid, an old bus with broken uncomfortable chairs, but after a long wait at Townsville (our transfer was delayed somewhere!) we hopped onto a nice new red greyhound and managed to get some sleep. Airlie Beach is a beautiful town, like Cairns, it doesn't have a beach (as it has a port) but it has a pretty nice man made lagoon to chill out at.

After realising that some of the activities need booking early in order to get on and just getting tired of constantly spending our time and money on the internet to plan the next stages of our journey, we decided to go into Peter Pans and pay for an itinerary. They sorted our remaining time out with activities, accommodation, travel tickets and even some meals. The price was also less than we were expecting.

The next day we took the 'Seaflight' fastcat out to the Great Barrier Reef before later heading back to our accommodation island of South Molle. The boat took us to a purpose built reef pontoon at Knuckle Reef, one of the best reefs on the GBR. This pontoon had everything; a semi-submersible which takes small groups closer to the reef, a helipad for helicopter tours, a water flume, under water viewing deck and, of course, snorkelling and scuba diving facilities.

We went for a good snorkelling session seeing some fantastic coral and big fish. They have an enormous Maori Wrasse out there who just can't get enough human attention apparently and he was quite happy to let swimmers touch his side as he swam by.

I paid a bit extra to go for a half hour scuba dive which let me see all those bigger, more timid fish hiding under the plate coral. I also got up close and personal with the giant wrasse which was awesome. Pip was going to go for a helicopter ride but the day was a bit overcast so she opted out.

Luckily, we bumped into another person who'd booked through STA too. Her name was Holly and she was staying on the same island as us. It turned out we were the only ones. When we arrived at the island we could not believe our eyes. The place seemed like paradise... especially for people on a backpacker's budget. South Molle is a beautiful tropical island with one resort on it. The resort has an enormous bar, a huge pool and outdoor spa pool, two restaurants, a gym, tennis courts and get this... a golf course! For the wealthy backpackers presumably...

As I said, at first we couldn't believe our luck. The next day we spent chilling out on the island by the pool and went on what was apparently voted Australia's best bush walk to the mountain in the middle for a 360 degree view of the Whitsunday islands. That night we made up a third of the island's 9 guests, so as you can imagine, there was no need to fight for the sunbeds.

As we explored the resort more it became clearer and clearer that the place was never made for backpackers. I was beginning to feel like we were on Jurassic Park, a luxury complex abandoned completely, with no internet or working phone and I swear the restaurant looks exactly like the one they eat in in the film. Oddly, nobody would give us a straight answer about the place's past or any of its vast shut off areas either so we were starting to get a bit creeped out. Thankfully we bumped into a guy who just started working there who told us that it used to be a major resort about 20 years ago until a cyclone (hurricane) hit and it never properly recovered. Kind of a shame to see all this extravagance go to waste but I guess we're benefitting so I can't complain too much.

We went to see one of the daily fish feeding sessions and were amazed to see the enormous bat fish which came to eat. There is also quite a variety of birds here (the flying type), including some very friendly curlews who have no qualms coming into the bar to investigate. During the day the place is amazing (albeit a little quiet), but at night when the lights go out everything moves and rustles. You probably heard Holly's scream back in England when a cockroach scuttled into our dorm room.

After a day of relaxing we convinced Holly to join us on our catamaran trip around the Whitsunday island and to the famous Whitehaven beach. We were picked up in the rain and had to wait at daydream island for the catamaran. When it turned up, a small tender came to take us out to it as, at about 50 ft in length, it wouldn't fit in the small marina. The short trip over in the rib was a wet one due to the choppy water, Pip seeming to get the wettest of the lot somehow.

The boat was a pretty impressive piece of kit and not just because of its size. There was a large indoor section with kitchen and tables, a huge barbecue at the back and two massive trampoline nets to lie on at the front.

Our first port of call was a snorkelling spot in the Hook straight. There was a beautiful little reef with plenty of marine life but the weather wasn't great and we had to avoid going too far in case we got swept into 'shark alley', which for whatever reason, didn't sound too appealing.

We then headed to Whitehaven beach, the fourth most photographed Australian icon after the opera house, harbour bridge and Ayres Rock. The beach is a beautiful 7km of fine, white silica sand and no arcade in sight. In fact, nothing in sight. The group chilled for an hour here, playing with footballs, frisbees and cricket equipment brought over from the boat.

Before we left for the beach we'd noticed the crew setting up the barbecue so we made sure to jump on the first tender back to get first dibs. Pip made an elegant nose dive into the boat which was pretty funny. The food was amazing! We stuffed our faces with chicken, steak and sausages before having cheese and biscuits.

The return journey seemed to take half the time on a full stomach and before long we were saying goodbye to Holly and returning to Jurassic Park.

The last day on our island was spent watching films and reading.
Not exactly the kind of stuff which makes gripping blog reading but it's hard to do fun stuff when it seems like the entire pacific ocean is falling from the sky.