WhitFUNdays Day 4: From Where You'd Rather Be

Again, I'm pretty sure if you described the perfect holiday, today's activities would make it on to the list.

We were picked up this morning at 6:15AM and taken down to Abel Point Marina where our cruise boat was departing. I was a bit sketchy about what the plan for today was because some friends organised it for us, but our tour guide filled us in on the way to Hamilton Island. When we got to Hamilton Island we were joined by Wazzy and two of his friends, Praveen and Lucky - they organised today and Saturday's day trip for us, which was very nice of them. It was also nice to be in a bigger group and have more people to chat to.

We went from Hamilton Island out to Whitsunday Island where Whitehaven Beach is - as we kept hearing (mostly from our resident geo expert, Phoebe), the sand on Whitehaven Beach is 98% quartz so it's pretty much pure white and kind of squeaky. We didn't spend much time there this morning because we went straight from the cruise boat to a much smaller boat which took us to Hook Island. When we got there we climbed up to a look-out which gave us incredible views of the clear aqua sea and the white sand. This morning was a bit overcast but the sea was still so blue, and after we'd all appreciated the view we got to go down to the beach to play in the water.

From Hook Island we headed to another beach, the name of which now escapes me, and got all suited up to go snorkelling. I haven't been snorkelling since I was about eight or nine and turns out I'm not so good at it, so after splashing awkwardly around for a bit, Lucky and I sat in the shallows and chatted and watched the others.

After the snorkelling adventure we were taken back to Whitehaven Beach where we ate lunch and basically lounged on the beautiful white sand for about three hours. By this time the weather had cleared and it was literally stunning - blue sky, blue water and of course that 98% quartz sand. At one point we also saw an amazing lace monitor - we'd seen a little one while we were walking up to the look-out this morning, but this one was much bigger (not full sized though) and came very very close to our picnic table. It was gorgeous and it camouflaged so well with the bushland and it was a little bit scary as well (I'm that city girl who loves to see animals in the wild but gets freaked out if they get too close). Anyway, it was awesome to see.

After an absolutely lovely day all six of us headed back to Airlie Beach because the others will be staying with us until Saturday. We did make it down into Airlie for dinner, but very soon after getting back to the resort we were all fast asleep (actually about four people fell asleep curled up on the massive king bed - it was very cute and I wish I'd taken a photo).

So I really freaking love this photo. As we were coming back into Airlie the sun was going down and the sky was just exquisite, and I knew I had to take advantage of it so I headed up to the top of the boat. Julia kindly came with and I got her posing despite the fact that there were people everywhere. I love how the curve of her shoulder blocks the sun creating an epic silhouette, with her hair fanning out against the blue sky. This has to be one of my all time favourite photos, I think!