On the first day I had a bit of time to kill in the morning so went and did some more shopping as I had to replace the hoodie I left on the bus :( I also ended up buying some shorts and a couple of tops cause they had some really nice shops there! At 11 I headed down to the harbour to meet my group and board the boat.
Again I had such a lovely group, everyone got on so well and there was a really relaxed atmosphere which was nice, there was 18 of us in total so quite a small group compared to some of the other boats which was nice. I was sleeping in the kitchen area which turned into beds at night and I have to say it was so comfortable!
Our group and the front of the boat.
Once we boarded we set off towards Hayman Island and had our first snorkelling spot - the Great Barrier Ref extends to the Whitsundays so I saw loads of really cool fish and the coral was amazing. We had such beautiful weather as well which helped. I have photos on my go pro but can't upload them until I get home so will do seperate blog posts with all my go pro photos!
Snorkelling gear!
After that we set off towards our stop for that evening and watched the sunset which was incredible, it was so cool just being in the middle of the sea at night and I have never seen stars like it. I think in total I saw about 8 shooting stars, orions sword, the Milky Way and the North Star!
The food we had the whole 2 days was amazing - loads of selection and really tasty food, things like chicken, sausages, loads of salad and pasta salad, potatoes, beg you name it we had it! Once we had dinner that night we all had a few drinks and played drinking jenga and just all got to know each other.
On the second day we set off about 8 and went to our second snorkelling spot where I saw an eel and a turtle. I was so happy I saw a turtle as that was the one thing I wanted to see so I was super happy after that. We then headed over to Whitehaven Beach and made another stop whilst waiting for the tide to come in. We saw more turtles coming up for air and played around on the paddle boards which was fun.
Once we arrived at Whitehaven we went up to the lookout point which was just breathtaking. I've never seen such a beautiful beach it was literally like what you see on postcards - crystal clear blue and turquoise water and white sand. We took loads of pictures and sunbathed for a bit before heading back to our second overnight stop.
Whitehaven Beach
That night we all got rather drunk and played the good old cardboard box game which I won!! About 10 of us stayed up late drinking and around 1:30am we heard the puffing noise that dolphins and whales make and then out of no where this dolphin swam round the back of boat and right up to us which was incredible. We turned the lights on and it was just playing around in the water, this was the first dolphin I'd seen in Australia so I went to bed happy that night!
On the last day we got back to the harbour around 9:30am and a few of us spent the day sunbathing at Airlie Beach Lagoon which again is beautiful. That night was our after party so we went to the bar to start with a quiz (which was awful) so once that was done we went around a few of the other bars until we ended up in the Irish bar which was probably the best one - there was only 3 of us left at this point!!
I had to St up at 6am the next day to catch my 7am bus to Mission Beach so a very tired and hungover Lauren slept pretty much the whole way which was nice. I don't really have anything to say about Mission Beach, the only reason I was there was to skydive and that got cancelled but it's one of the most boring towns I've been too!
On the Friday I met my friend Chelsea and we went up to Cairns and checked into Gilligans which is the party hostel. Straight away we made use of the 2 for 1 drinks and carried the night on from there.
The weather wasn't great over the weekend so we just wandered around the town, saw the lagoon and partied Saturday and Sunday night which led to us being very tired come Monday. We did however find a cafe that sells the best banana smoothies ever!
I'll write another post on Week 8 as otherwise this will be super long so look out for the next one!
With love, Lauren x
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