Whitsundays

Funny moment of the day: I just walked into this internet cafe right now and asked the lady working here where the closest washroom is, all I got was a confused look and "a what????" I apparently still have to figure out some lingo down here, they call it the "toilet" which I guess is the proper term....

The past two days have been amazing so say the least. On Saturday I woke up very upset because it was pouring out and I was supposed to be boarding our boat in the afternoon for the next 3 days. Apparently the weather out here mimicks that of Halifax in that it changes quicker than you can keep up with. By the time I had finished showering from my run, the sky was completely cleared and I'm sure the temp had reached 30.

I checked out of my hostel for the night and put my large backpack into storage since you're only allowed a small bag on the boat and wandered over to the neighbouring harbour where we were set to leave at 12:30. Since the time I arrived at Airlie Beach on Friday and the day we left on Saturday another 10 people signed up, bringing our total number to 25 people. A total of 4 crew were onboard with us and we set sail in a boat that I'm still trying to figure out what to call. It was a cross between a huge catamaran and a powerboat but most of the people referred to it as a sailboat.

Our first stop was near one of the Whitsunday Island lagoons where I had my first go at Scuba Diving!! They broke us up into groups and of course I was the only one in my group who had never dived before and every practice procedure we did in waist-deep water took me twice as long as everyone else. Once we finally got into deep water it really was an amazing experience, the combination of being completely weightless and surrounded by coral and fish was like nothing I've ever done. Dad had loaned me his new underwater camera (thanks dad!!) but I was reluctant to take it along since we went down to about 12 metres and it was only certified safe to 10 metres. Kind of a bummer, I was hoping to get some cool pics of the deep ocean.

That evening we sailed to another Island (I can't keep track of all their names) and anchored for the night after cooking up a huge BBQ dinner onboard which I never thought was possible with being limited to a boat. The food during the entire trip was amazing and they had a full kitchen where 1 of the crew spent the whole time cooking for us. After dinner they played a slideshow of all the day's pictures on a projector and afterwards showed us the movie Sharkwater to "calm us down" in case we encountered a shark in the upcoming days. It ended up being a completely clear evening and we got a neat view of the moon and stars, which were completely different to those we see in the Northern hemisphere.

The next day we sailed to Whitehaven Beach which has the finest sand in the world, 97% silica, and feels so different from any other beaches I've been to. The crew told us that due its pure properties, NASA would take the sand to help build its spacecrafts but after much debate the beach became a protected park preventing them from using the sand for any more projects. We arrived in the morning which is high tide and therefore most of the sand was submerged, but when we left 2 hours later, a section of the beach was above water for a good 500 metres. The coolest part was when we walked into the waters of the beach manta rays would swim around and didn't seem to mind us there.

In the afternoon we went to another lagoon for more diving and snorkeling and ended up seeing a turtle hanging out in the shallow waters. We could swim right up to it and come within inches but were obviously told not to touch it. I got a few neat pictures with my camera but realize now I'm on a computer that doesn't read memory cards, I'll upload some pics later today if I get a chance on another computer. The evening we spent watching another slideshow of the days pictures and everyone passed out pretty quickly from the heat and all the stuff we did that day.

Today we got up before the sun came up (which you can imagine not alot of people were happy about) and had our last snorkel which wasn't great because the water was really silty. After a quick breakfast, we set sail for the harbour and had complete sunshine the entire way back which was amazing as we all sprawled out on the main deck. I just checked into a different hostel for the night and am meeting up with everyone after since there is a traditional boating afterparty here in town.

I expected the majority of the boats passengers to be American but was amazed to find myslef the only North American!! One other guy claimed to Canadian but he has lived in South Africa his entire life and just recently moved to Vancouver in the past year. Everyone else were European and a few local Australians tagged along. Before boarding the boat on Saturday I felt a little out of place going on a 2 night cruise on my own but discovered that pretty much half the people were in the same boat (ha, get it!!) and were travelling around on their own too so I learned a few tips on where to go in Melbourne and Sydney.

I found it interesting on the boat that morning and afternoon tea were a regular meals and I was the only one that wasn't a regular tea drinker. I was also introduced to Vegimite, a spread you put on toast that's made from yeast. I was expecting something sweet but found it to be VERY salty and don't have clue why anyone would want to eat it.

Tomorrow I catch a bus early to the local train station and take a full day ride up to Cairns where I'll do a day trip to the outer reef for more snorkelling. I'm really hoping the weather holds up, but am not going to expect it too since it apparently has been raining non-stop there for the past 2 weeks......

I'll try to get on a different computer later on but if not then I'll upload some pics tomorrow.
All for now, Cheers (a new expression I've picked up that means everything from "hello" to "thanks" to "goodbye")