Welcome to the Whitsundays!!! Some fast facts on the Whitsundays Islands: the islands are a collection of 74 islands off the coast of Queensland. The islands were formed by volcanic activity approximately 30,000-50,000 years ago. The Aboriginals of the islands were the Ngaro people, one of the earliest groups in Australia. The islands were named after Captain Cook when he sailed through in 1770 and named the passage between the northern islands, the Whitsunday passage. Approximately 700,000 people visit the islands annually and the islands are home to the southern portion of the Great Barrier Reef.
On Wednesday, 19/2/2020, we packed up all of our things and got ready to explore the Whitsundays and Airlie Beach! That morning, we went to Bond to consolidate our things into 15lb backpacks. We got a short workout in and Oliver got to swim in the beautiful outdoor 50m pool at Bond! We took the train to Brisbane to catch our flight. The train is slow moving so it took about 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to the domestic airport in Brissy.
We caught our small flight out to Proserpine that afternoon and landed 80 minutes later! The Proserpine airport is very very small. It has 3 gates. We were welcomed with a large fish tank resembling the heart shaped reef in the Whitsundays! We caught a 40 minute shuttle bus to Airlie Beach and settled into our airbnb! Airlie Beach is a small little town. It’s main purpose is to serve as the port for the Whitsunday Islands, but it is absolutely adorable. It was also very hot there since it is north of Gold Coast. It was about 80-100 the entire time we were there! Wednesday night, we walked to Woolies to pick up groceries for the rest of the week. We made sure we got to bed early since we had a full day of adventures and sun ahead of us!
We got up bright and early on Thursday (20/2/2020) because it was SKYDIVING DAY! As many of you know, I skydived earlier in Byron Bay, but the experience was so amazing that I had to do it again 🙂 Sorry Mema 🙂 We got picked up by the skydiving company and before we knew it, we were in the harnesses and walking on to the plane! Oliver and I were last to board the plane (along with our instructors of course), which meant that we’d be first out! Oliver was sitting right up against the clear sliding door so he was first to jump and I jumped no longer than 10 seconds later! The view from the plane was absolutely stunning and it was just as beautiful when I was free falling in the sky.
I am so glad that I went a second time in Airlie Beach because I got to see the Whitsunday Islands and the beautiful blue water from the sky. It was truly an experience that I would recommend to everyone! My instructor told me that it is time for me to get my certification, so maybe after I graduate college, I’ll get that done 🙂 After landing, Oliver and I were so excited and full of adrenaline and we held onto that for the rest of the week.
After skydiving, we hit the lagoon in the center of Airlie and relaxed. It was a beautiful afternoon to swim and enjoy the sunshine. The lagoon is a giant outdoor pool by the beach where everyone hangs out and relaxes. That evening, we got dressed up and went out for some good food at La Marina. Our food was ready very quickly and it was so delicious! (Thanks Mom!!!) After dinner, we walked to a SUPER cool playground like no other I have ever seen! The only way up was to climb a bunch of ropes (not the easiest thing in a dress and flip flops). At the top, there were 3 slides to chose between to get down. We had a lot of fun and were even joined by other 20 year olds. Before heading back, we grabbed some gelato, then hit the hay because we had ANOTHER adventurous day coming up.
On Friday morning (21/2/2020), we had another early morning wake up call. We were headed to the Great Barrier Reef!!! We boarded the boat right after 8 AM with about 68 other people + 6 crew members. The boat and the crew were amazing! They had the entire day planned perfectly and were incredibly friendly. We had breakfast and snacks on the boat as we cruised out to Whitehaven Beach. We finally arrived around 10:30 AM. We got off the boat and hiked up to the Hill Inlet Lookout! We even saw a huge spider in the forest during the hike!! It was a very sweaty hike up to the lookout, but absolutely worth it. The view was to die for, but I’ll let the pictures tell you all about it.
After the hike, we went down onto the beach and put on our stinger suits (they protect us from jellies) and Oliver struggled a bit with his to say the least…. We got to see a cow-tailed stingray and a lemon shark (along with lots of little fish!). Whitehaven Beach is a very special place. It’s sand is the purest in the world, being 98% pure silica. It was the softest and whitest sand that I have ever seen (hence the name of the beach). The water was the clearest water I will ever see. It is illegal to take sand from Whitehaven (except for the inevitable) and the only time that there has been a legal export was in the 1970’s for the Hubble Space Telescope. The sand does not retain heat so you can walk on it without burning your feet (but that didn’t stop us from getting a lot of color while on the beach).
We had a BBQ lunch on the boat that was delicious and about an hour later, we were in our snorkeling gear and jumping into the ocean! We explored the Great Barrier for about 90 minutes and we had a blast! Oliver was diving down and swimming in between the reefs and we saw so many fish, clams, and different types of coral! We were the first people out of the boat and the last two to get back on and we could’ve stayed much longer.
After snorkeling, we were exhausted so I fell asleep for a while. Everyone on the boat relaxed and drank until we reached shore around 5 PM. Oliver and I were pretty tired after 10 hours at sea, so we spent the night relaxing and made dinner, while treating the damage that the sun and saltwater did to our skin.
The next day (22/2/2020), we packed up our things and cleaned the airbnb and spent the day walking around Airlie. That afternoon, we flew back to Brisbane. It was a long journey, but we eventually got back to Bond Uni around 9 PM. Sadly, this meant that our week together was ending 😦 HUGE sad face. We ordered some pizza and watched a TV show before passing out from exhaustion. The next morning we were up at 3:30 AM and Oliver caught an uber shortly after for his 6 AM flight back to Syndey.
We had a fantastic week full of adventures and I am so glad that he was able to come visit Australia! I could not have asked for better weather or a better person to spend the week with.
Next blog: North Stradbroke Island. Coming soon!!
Enjoy this last picture of us snorkeling!!
Ali's Australian Adventures 