Airlie Adventures

  After we recovered from the overnight bus ride, Airlie Beach was heaven. We were finally in tropical weather and ready to soak up the sun, especially after hearing about the heat wave back home.  Airlie Beach has an awesome "lagoon" - a man made pool designed to look like a beach or lagoon, right next to the harbor.  We relaxed and swam; it was preparation for our sailing trip in the Whitsundays Islands!  When it was time to set sail, we couldn't have asked for better weather.  Wind 10-12 knots, sunshine all around. We raised the sails and headed east.  The first stop was Hayman Island, where we we spotted a humpback whale!  They migrate north this time of year to have their calves and fatten them up for the trip south.  Hayman Island is also where Kent and I did our first ever scuba dive!  We got a quick lesson from our instructor and next thing we knew, we were surrounded by tropical fish...yellow tailed fusiliers swam all around and over us, and a huge (1 meter long!) Maori wrasse came to see what all the commotion was about.  We were on cloud 9.  We saw some great coral and amazing fish, including parrotfish, anemonefish, giant clams, coral trout, barramundi cod, and tons more.  We were totally hooked by this underwater world and did another dive the next day!  Getting certified is now on our to-do list.  Another highlight of our sailing trip was when we visited Whitehaven Beach.  We walked up to a lookout point and I was able to get a postcard-worthy panoramic picture, so you can all see the amazing view!  We spent a few hours on the beach; the sand was the whitest and finest I have ever seen.  There were some stingrays and batfish in the water, but luckily there were no jellyfish!  We didn't want the tour to end, but we eventually had to step back on land and continue north to Townsville!