Airlie Beach - Whitsunday's and Whitehaven Beach day trip

Honestly I can't even believe I'm really written this right now but yesterday I finally stepped foot on Whitehaven Beach and swam some of the reefs in the Whitsunday's, something I wanted to do even before I knew I was coming to Australia.

It is such an incredible sight and I think because you are it on postcards and pinterest so much you almost eel like you have Déjà vu. We took an Ocean Rafting day trip out to the Whitsunday's to do their Northern Exposure tour of the Whitsunday's. It's a fast raft and the journey is half of the adventure with Tom and myself spending most of the time on the inflated sides of the raft clinging on to the hand tie as we bounced through the water towards our first snorkling stop. I will admit I got quite carried away at times closing my eyes and throwing my free arm out to enjoy the wind and salt water whipping around us. It was quite a rush.

The first bay on Hook Island I can't remember the name of but here we swam with a few fish, admired the coral and I even swam alongside a turtle for a little while. This definitely made me appreciate my GoPro for the first time this trip as I got some good footage. Our second stop was Luncheon Bay which was noticeably more impressive than the last. The coral had so much more colour the fish were swimming in schools and were not frightened to swim straight up to your face and kiss/bite your snorkel mask. I felt like I was in the little mermaid, diving to film the fish who would just play around your fins before shooting off intro the distance.

After our swim stops we went over to Whitsunday Island to walk the Hill Inlet to the lookout point over Whithaven Beach, my first view of this impressive white sand beach made of 98.9% pure silica. The blues of the water in contrast to the pure white sand was incredible. When we got down into the sand you could feel a difference it was almost like walking on baby powder it was so soft. We had lunch on the boat and then I dived back into the water to go and have a swim with the stingrays.

I honestly don't think I could have been happier yesterday. I beamed from ear to ear most of the day and even now I keep smiling as I think about it. I have had so many good days in Australia since I left home, but this one is in my top 3 so far.