After
about four hours on the Greyhound from Townsville, we arrived in Airlie Beach
in the dark in the middle of aforementioned continuous downpour. Lucky
for us, that was the last rain I saw all week. An American who was
working at the hostel I was staying at, met a bunch of us at the bus and led
the way to the hostel, Magnum's Backpackers. While walking over, I
recognized a British girl next to me from the hostel in Townsville. I
soon found out that it was an insanely small world! She was headed out on the same boat tour as I
was the next day, and was in the same hostel room with me that night. When we got to the room, a few of our
roommates were sitting on their beds and chatting, so we jumped into the
conversation and got to know each other. There was another British girl
and a guy from Toronto, and I was in awe that you could travel to another
hemisphere and meet someone who lived an hour and a half away from you (albeit
in a different country, but that's the story of being a bordertown kid).
The three of us plus my friend Kimberly (who I had traveled on the Greyhound
with that day) went to grab dinner, exploring our options until finally
deciding on purchasing some boxed wine for our boat trip and eating Fish &
Chips at the hostel.
The next day, our boat tour was leaving around 1 p.m. so we checked out in the
morning, stored our baggage, made some breakfast, and chilled at the hostel for
a while before heading to Abell Point Marina (could not have picked a better
name for the Marina, although in some places around town it was misspelled
‘Abel’ – story of my life, guys, don’t worry). We checked in for the
boat, were issued stinger suits, and before we knew it we were on board!
Within
minutes of getting on the boat, we started to get to know our neighbors.
I met a girl from the States who had been traveling around Australia
for a year, as well as a combination of other guests who were studying
abroad, living in Australia, traveling long-term, or on a quick two month
hiatus (like yours truly).
We were
shown to our beds so we could stow our gear, and then returned to the deck to
chat with our neighbors and take in the sights. 74 islands comprise the
Whitsunday Islands, and although some of them, including parts of the Great
Barrier Reef that lay beside some of the islands, were destroyed in Cyclone
Debbie a few months ago (I don’t know if you recall the news article about the
‘Sharknado’ a few months back, in which a dead bull shark was found laying in
the streets of the town of Ayre after the cyclone, but that was only about an
hour or so North of Airlie Beach), the islands and the reef around it was
pretty gorgeous. Some of the islands have resorts on them, but most are
uninhabited, and as such, the easiest way to explore most of them is a boat
tour, such as the one we were on.
On the first day we stopped to do some snorkeling, watched the sunset, and after dinner, we threw all the leftovers overboard and watched sharks swarm
around it, which was really cool! The stars that night were phenomenal,
uninterrupted by any artificial light whatsoever. I chatted with some new
friends from Canada, England, the States, Australia, and Holland, but we all called
it a night around 10 in preparation for the next morning. 
We woke up early to catch the sunrise and were in the small motor boats around
7 a.m. to head to Whitehaven Beach. As we got off the motor boat at our
drop off point, we spotted a lemon shark swimming nearby, and then took the
quick walk to the lookout point and finally set foot on Whitehaven Beach.
I have to say that initially I had no idea what to expect of Whitehaven Beach.
I honestly I had just wanted to go onto one of the Whitsunday islands
because I’m a big fan of islands and I heard they were pretty. But, Whitehaven Beach definitely blew my
expectations out of the water (pun entirely intended). 
As we were the first tour group to arrive on the
island that morning (admittedly, with a second, right on our heels), we avoided
having tons of tourists in our photographs. I had seen plenty of white
sand beaches before but the swirls were spectacular. We also spotted a
squid (although some argued it was dead, I'm pretty sure it's alive) and a bunch of sting rays while hanging
out in the water. 
Since, we needed to be up around 6 the next
morning to attempt a snorkel with sea turtles, it was worth it.
Unfortunately, we didn't spot any sea turtles while snorkeling that morning, but we did see some in the water as we were pulling back into port. After disembarking and walking back to Magnum’s Backpackers to drop off our stuff, a friend from the trip and I spent some time on the beach and then went off for lunch. The café we ate at had a Dr. Seuss theme (with dish names like the Grinch and the Lorax). That day, we settled for acai bowls (being healthy and all) but the next morning I gave the Grinch a shot (disclaimer: the acai bowl was way better).
That evening,
there was an after party for everyone who had returned from a boat trip that
day. A bunch of the people from the
trip, as well as some of the crew, joined us, but I was so tuckered out from
the trip, I couldn’t even stay awake for the drink specials that started at
10. So I called it a night early, in
preparation for my flight to Perth the next day.
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