A pirates life for me!!!

Every time I go on a trip I get so excited to tell everybody back home about all of my adventures, and when it comes time to write in my blog I always end up finding different things to do. I love informing everyone about my trip, but for some reason having to write in a blog never seems to entertain me. However, after I write my blog I feel very happy and am glad that I did write in my blog. I think once I get home it will be very interesting to go back and read my old entries to remind me of how fortunate I have been to visit all the places I have been to, and do all the crazy things I have done this past semester. So now onto another post about one of my favorite trips...of course I say that about basically every trip I go on don't I?

From Saturday (June 6th) until Wednesday (June 10th) I went on a trip to the Whitsundays with people that live around me in my apartment complex. In total there were eight people' Karlie, Emily, Kate, Jordan, Guy, Austin, Beth and me. Even though it was a pretty big size group to go with it worked out really well for us in the end.

When we arrived on Saturday we had to take a forty minute bus ride to get t Airlie Beach where we were staying for the night. Airlie Beach is a really small town where most people go just as a gateway to go to the Whitsundays. However, I absolutely loved the town of Airlie beach. It of course was centered around the tourism but the town was absolutely gorgeous and when you did pass houses they were million dollars houses like you would see in California.

After our bus ride we went to check into our hostel for the night. Since it is the end of the semester we are all in saving money mode and since there was a even amount of people we decided to only book half the amount of beds as there were people. We booked four beds, for eight people and decided we would share beds in order to save money. This hostel had you pay to rent a pillow and comforter and so to continue on with our "saving money" theme we just went without either one for the night.

After check in we all got ready and we went out to beaches and mama africas for a night on the town. I had an absolute blast and my friend Karlie participated in a dance off at beaches that night. She laughs about the situation but I thought she did amazing...I could have never participated in a dance off with everyone watching haha.

We stayed out until about two that morning and then headed back to our hostel to attempt to get a good nights rest for the night. I am not thinking any of us had a good nights rest that night but it was all worth it nonetheless.

The next morning our group split into half. Karlie, Jordan, Emily, and Kate we all staying in Airlie Beach and Austin, Guy, Beth and I were all headed out to go on a two day, two night sailing trip. Our first stop before getting on the boat was the liquor store. We decided since we would be sailing for two days we would get rum. Funny enough later on in our trip we were all saying "Where has all the rum gone?" and felt like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.

After buying our rum we went to check in and get on the boat. We had a decent walk to where the boat was but the town is so gorgeous every step of the way you had a gorgeous view to look at. After everyone getting the stinger suites and checking in we all hopped onto Matador (which was our boats name).

The captain went over standard rules and then we were off on our sailing trip. For the first day we didn't really do much except for sail around the islands. (By the way the Whitsundays are just a chain of 74 Islands and is a popular tourist destination in case you were wondering). We got to watch the boys put up the sail which took like six guys to do because it was so heavy and then got a good laugh at watching the girls attempt to do the same thing. Dad I did ask the details on the size of the boat but I don't really remember what they said. I THINK he said the thing that sticks out of the boat was either 115 or 150 feet tall, and the boat was 80 feet long? I'm not sure if that is exactly correct but that is what I am thinking.

After sailing for a few hours we stopped for where we would be staying for the night. Our boat had a diving board and so everyone took turns doing jumps and flips off of the side of the boat into the water. We were then able to see some giant fish come up to the boat when we threw bread into the water. I attempted to take pictures of these fish but they didn't come out all that great.

That night we just took the smaller boat to the island we were anchored next to and went to the resort bar. I had a berry martini and then called it a night. When we took the boat back to our boat there were some people who had had a few to many drinks and were getting sick on the boat. There was one guy getting sick over the side of the boat and another one getting sick in the bathroom. Sadly enough my bed was right next to the bathroom and so when I went into my room all I could hear/smell was that someone was getting sick. I waited up a few more hours hoping he would get better and go to bed and ended up having to go to bed with my room still smelling like that (and the guy completely passed out on the toilet lol).

The next morning we woke up bright and early to go to Whitehaven beach. Whitehaven beach is part of the Whitsunday Islands and is also the most photographed beach in the world. Once again we had to take our little motor boat which fit like 8 people at a time over to the island. We had 24 people on our trip in total and so the poor crew had to take the trip to the island four times to get everyone over. We took about a twenty minute walk to get over to Betty's Beach which is the part of Whitehaven that we visited.

Needless to say it was absolutely GORGEOUS! The sand is so small that you can literally clean your jewelery with it and it would come out looking brand new. The sand was also so soft that it felt like you were walking on flour. The sand was also probably the whitest sand I have seen since being in Australia.While we were there we also saw three stingrays swimming around in the water! We hung out there for about an hour and a half before we headed back onto the boat.

After getting back to our boat we went sailing for a bit and got the an outer part of the great barrier reef. You had the option to go snorkeling (which was included in the package) or go diving for an extra cost. Since we had already went diving three weeks before Beth and I opted for the snorkeling. Guy joined us and then Austin went diving for his first time ever.

I was happy I got to snorkel the reef one more time before I headed home and saw a lot of really cool colored fish, and once again I saw Nemo! There were also other cool fish like the Parrot Fish and Beth saw a completely black fish that had red lips! It is intimidating swimming over the reef with your large snorkeling gear (basically talking about the foot wear here). I did not want to hit the reef and damage it, but sadly I did end up kicking it a few times. I tried to be as cautious as possible though. I took my underwater disposable camera to try and get rid of the pictures I had left on it, however I am not going to develop these until I get home.

After snorkeling we went sailing for a few hours and the anchored for the night. After eating dinner we once again headed beck to the island to go to the resort bar once again. This time around I had a "Golden Sun" which was Bicardi, Pineapple, Banana and Orange juice. Very tasty. I have learned I like the girly fruity drinks and do not prefer beer (yuuucckkkk!!). Sad thing is beer is always the cheaper way to go and sometimes sacrifices have to be made.


We had an awesome time at the bar this time and have many inside jokes that have been formed from that night. Austin and Guy ended up pushing Bethany into the ocean in a wheelbarrow and getting her completely soaked from head to toe. After they broke their pinky promise to her that they weren't going to put her into the water Beth got her payback and pushed Guy into the water using the wheelbarrow as well.

After having our fun with the wheelbarrow we then went hunting for coconuts. (Actually on second thought I think this happened before the wheelbarrow but all well...I am telling it now!). After finding a good coconut we had Guy crack it open and we each tried the coconut milk! It honestly just tasted like normal milk to me. Then after we drank all of the milk we cracked the coconut completely open and ate the coconut. It was really dry and made you thirsty but it was cool to say I have tried a coconut from a tree while in Aussie. :)

After all of our adventures we headed back to the boat and called it a night. The next morning we had to pack all of our stuff up and get off of the boat. We arrived back to Airlie Beach around 11:00 AM and walked back to the lagoon to hang out for a while. After a while Beth and I decided we wanted to go check into the hostel and take a nice long shower. The downside to our sailing was that there was not a shower and so our daily "shower' was just us swimming in the ocean. We went back in and were only going to rent two beds for the four of us so that we could share beds and save money once again.

Literally two minutes after I paid for a bed in a room Guy comes over and tells us that Karlie, Emily, Jordan, and Kate had four empty beds in their room. They were told by someone checking out that they had already paid for the beds but were staying in a hotel instead so that we could stay in there instead. This worked out nicely so that we could all get our own bed for the night instead of sharing a bed. I tried to get a refund for my other room but it was nonrefundable and so the four of us shared the cost.

After checking in and taking a nice long warm shower we all just hung out in the room for a bit. Later on Karlie, Beth and I decided to go play some pool. Let me just say I am NOT good at this game. It took the three of us about an hour to finish one game overall. haha. Pathetic, I know, but it was still fun!

After playing pool and grabbing some dinner we went out to Beaches and Mama Africa's for one more night in Airlie Beach. After our night out we all went back to our rooms around 2:00 AM and headed to bed. Since we had not paid for a comforter I ended up sleeping under my towel to try and keep warm. It didn't really work though, I continued to freeze my butt off throughout the night.

In the morning I woke up to someone saying "who has a key? Excuse me, who should be here and who shouldn't?" Turns out someone rated us out and we got caught. The person who was waking us up was a worker from the hostel. Having only had a few hours none of us were ready for this ambush and weren't really sure what to do. Guy, Beth, and Austin were able to sneak out without having to pay and we made a plan to meet at the lagoon.

After attempting to say I didn't know any of the people who had left I ended up having to pay for a bed for the previous night (to be split between us on later on). My attempt to say that I did not know any of the other people in the room was pretty pathetic and when I look back at it I get a good laugh at it.

By 7:30 AM we were all out of the hostel with all of our bags and had basically set up camp on the lagoon. We went to the grocery store and bought breakfast and just ate at the lagoon. We ended up spending from 7:30 - 4:00 PM literally just laying out by the lagoon. I put more SPF on this day then I had for the entire trip. You would think that time would have gone by so slow but somehow we all made it pass by and it was a fun day nonetheless.

After catching a bus to the airport at 4:00 we had a flight to catch! We ended up catching our flight, catching a train for an hour and a half, another bus and then walking for twenty before we got home at 10:15 PM on Wednesday.

I had an absolute blast and was a good last trip to have. I still cannot believe my traveling in Australia is over! The last two weeks are going to be spent here in the Gold Coast getting things done such as school. :)

Alright well I hope you all enjoyed my story of how I went from being a pirate to homeless but for now I am headed to bed. It is 1:45 AM here and I am sure you are all amazed at how long this post already is. What can I say, I talk a lot!

I love you all!

xoxo

Chels

P.S. Pictures just finished uploading to Picasa so go take a look at them! :)