Soooooo, Friday morning the 4th of June, also Willow's birthday, Happy Birthday my Dear friend, I'm celebrating it in somewhere you would like I think! We caught a taxi reet early in the morn to Tullamarine Airport which flew us to Hamilton Island in the middle of the Whitsunday Islands up Northish East Australia...the weather there was 25Cish degrees...I removed my socks and put on my thongs when we arrives and removed my coat. :-) The runway on Hamilton Island is just long enough for the plane to stop...interesting to see the sea getting closer and closer as the plane grinds to a hault. Then you purchase tickets to Airlie Beach, if you're us, and you don't have several hundred dollars to spend per night on your accomodation in Hamilton Island along with your several hundred dollar deposit to rent your golf buggy...chortlable place it is. So, the ferry, with Fantasea that takes 45 minutes over to Abel Point marina, near Airlie beach and then a bus drops you off...with a grumpy peculiar driver who appears to have been doing the job too long. YHA in Airlie beach...fine, but a bit scummaroo..guess it's a hostel...but some of them can be OK...hey, it was fine, I was just jealous of the golf buggys. We had a wander round and then spent the evening in the Airlie Beach Hotel, watching a bit of an AFL game, me drinking an Apple Pie cocktail and eating a lovely, rather large meal as well...the cost matched the size though...
www.airliebeachhotels.com.au
.Saturday the 5th of June: we had an 8am pick up, don't you love being on holiday and relaxing, taking it easy, all that...we were picked up by a guy from Eco Jet safari, currently the Number 1 activity on Trip Advisor. Basically costs $349 per jet ski for 6 hours or so of your day to go out on a jet ski and look at the wildlife. Had to get our wetsuits on and were with two couples and one guy, with quite a bad hangover apparently.
So we saw a turtle, a female apparently...we were told that apparently it's the season when all the females are getting attention from several males all in one go...so are a bit tired out. She was all moss covered on her shell too, very big, sadly I didn't manage a photo as couldn't get the jet ski near enough. Then we saw two dolphin jumping around who were trying to catch a flying fish..(can you see it in the picture on the right here...) the chase went on for quite some time...then mysteriously one of the couples fell off their jet ski...they initially blamed it on the Dolphins..but apparently it was their own doing. Then we also saw a Pelican on the beach. We were going to head up the river but apparently the sea levels were so low that it wasn't safe to do so...stuck on a jet ski in the mud next to the crocs...not what either Seb or I had hoped for in our adventure! The hungover guy kept causing a bit of trouble. The Eco jet tour can only run under strict guidance of all tours following each other in a line etc etc and not behaving like bafoons....we had a bafoon with us though sadly. We were fed a lovely meal when we returned in the sunshine at Montes resort..nice hidden location, a couple were getting married there later that afternoon:
http://www.pleasetakemeto.com/australia/whitsundays/montes-reef-resort-9044263
In the later afternoon we were driven back and went for a swim in the Lagoon at Airlie Beach - a public, free swimming pool in the middle of the town....thinking about it someone said to look out for Elvis whilst I was in Whitsundays....I wonder where he was? In the eve we drank cocktails at the Rum bar, D'vine
www.fishdvine.com.au, loads and loads of different types or rums, quite impressive...then we ate in the same venue, you ordered at the fish counter (pretty much all of it caught that day) and then it was brought to your table. A rum bar and a fish counter in one venue together..what more do you need?! Except maybe a Trampoline ice cream counter...?
Sunday 6th June, also Lucy's birthday, my sister-in-law-to-be! Happy Birthday! So many Geminians there are in my life! Got picked up at 9am at the YHA and driven to Coral sea resort where we sat around for quite some time in the sunshine...then got on a RIB with Jay and Brad, who were to be our guides for the day. Apparently Oceanrafting is the quickest tour in the Whitsundays, also Eco etc too. They were good fun, and it was nicer to go along fast along the waves...I get sea sick, so find speedy boats better than slow bobbing ones. We did two spots of snorkelling...I had my underwater camera which was fun to use. Then the second trip they had as a regular feeding spot and there were three fish they had names for who were at least half my height coming up for food...at this spot the little fish were not scared of us all swimming, so there were a few little screams along the way too...I was glad to have chosen to have a wet suit (for warmth, but also for stinger protection, just in case). Then we were driven over to Whitehaven beach and the look out. Absolutely stunning scenery. There was no opportunity for loo stops, so had an interesting quick adventure weeing in the woods with Seb acting as my look out further up the path! We also saw a mass of these little blue crabs all moving together, I filmed this, but sadly my video mode was set for underwater so the sound was turned off...also as people walked along in the sand, which was somet like 90% silica they made funny squeaking noises which had me laughing for quite some time, simple things. Then to top the experience off we had a buffet lunch on the beach in the lovely sunshine. Really good trip, that was $110 each and I'd say much more worthwhile than the Eco Jet tour...but would I be saying that if I'd gone up the river, not got stuck and seen loads of crocodiles...I have been singing 'Never smile at a crocodile, No you can't get friendly with a crocodile...' etc etc for the last few days now...In the eve we went to a sweet little place near the sea front called Sidewalk cafe and had an amazing 9 things platter, we could have done with just that and the Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir (also one of the wines I bought/tasted in the Yarra Valley last weekend...). Lovely way to finish off the weekend.
Monday...we got a pick up and had a pretty rough crossing to Hamilton Island...I was concentrating on eating my apple for some time ignoring the idea that I might feel a bit nauseous. Can't deny it was fun being rocked around on a medium sized ferry by some waves that didn't look that big but were certainly dropping us up and down quite some! As we had time to kill and the Airport was tiny we decided to go for a little wander round Hamilton Island...it was quite comedy...like something out of Stepford wives I think it is? Very weird!
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Sunday 6th June, also Lucy's birthday, my sister-in-law-to-be! Happy Birthday! So many Geminians there are in my life! Got picked up at 9am at the YHA and driven to Coral sea resort where we sat around for quite some time in the sunshine...then got on a RIB with Jay and Brad, who were to be our guides for the day. Apparently Oceanrafting is the quickest tour in the Whitsundays, also Eco etc too. They were good fun, and it was nicer to go along fast along the waves...I get sea sick, so find speedy boats better than slow bobbing ones. We did two spots of snorkelling...I had my underwater camera which was fun to use. Then the second trip they had as a regular feeding spot and there were three fish they had names for who were at least half my height coming up for food...at this spot the little fish were not scared of us all swimming, so there were a few little screams along the way too...I was glad to have chosen to have a wet suit (for warmth, but also for stinger protection, just in case). Then we were driven over to Whitehaven beach and the look out. Absolutely stunning scenery. There was no opportunity for loo stops, so had an interesting quick adventure weeing in the woods with Seb acting as my look out further up the path! We also saw a mass of these little blue crabs all moving together, I filmed this, but sadly my video mode was set for underwater so the sound was turned off...also as people walked along in the sand, which was somet like 90% silica they made funny squeaking noises which had me laughing for quite some time, simple things. Then to top the experience off we had a buffet lunch on the beach in the lovely sunshine. Really good trip, that was $110 each and I'd say much more worthwhile than the Eco Jet tour...but would I be saying that if I'd gone up the river, not got stuck and seen loads of crocodiles...I have been singing 'Never smile at a crocodile, No you can't get friendly with a crocodile...' etc etc for the last few days now...In the eve we went to a sweet little place near the sea front called Sidewalk cafe and had an amazing 9 things platter, we could have done with just that and the Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir (also one of the wines I bought/tasted in the Yarra Valley last weekend...). Lovely way to finish off the weekend.
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