View Whitsundays/Heron Island in a larger map
We got up early on Friday, Good Friday i guess, to start our holiday up to Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef for Michelle's Easter break from school. We flew through Brisbane to a small industrial town, Gladstone, which is the launching point out to Heron Island, about 70km off the mainland. Heron Island is coral cay, an island created over kajillions of years of waves crashing into the reef, wearing it down and creating sand that builds up and forms an island. We took the helicopter out there to get views of the reef from the air which was pretty awesome, even though it wasn't the sunniest of days. We saw turtles and rays from the air amongst other things.
We spent 4 nights on the island and it really was a magical kind of spot. From the resort you can wade out into the water (gorgeous turquoise blue/green water i might add) and go snorkeling on the reef or at low tide can go out on a reef walk to see all the marine life. Two or three times a day from the resort they have snorkel and dive boat trips. These boats take you to spots on the edge of the Heron reef or to the edge of one of the other nearby reefs where the sights are usually even more spectacular than what you see on top of the reef.
Our first fully day out we saw a nice sunrise and saw a few reef sharks swimming in the water before breakfast...a perfect motivator to get in the water and do a bit of snorkeling on the reef followed by a "research walk" which is a tour of the Univ. of QLD research station with which the resort shares the island. In the afternoon we took the snorkel boat out and saw amazing fish and corals and our first sighting of sea turtles in the water.
Our second day we took the snorkel boat out in the morning and in the afternoon at low tide went on a guided reef walk where we learned about lots of the marine life living on top of the reef. The following day had much anticipation, apprehension and excitement associated with it because it was the day we took our scuba class and then went out onto the reef for two dives. My initial impulse from breathing through a regulator was to panic that i wasn't getting enough O2, but luckily we were in the resort pool so i survived it and quickly got used to it. We went out and as non-certified divers we did a relatively shallow dive of a little more than 12 meters (about 40 feet)...it was kind of freaky descending and continually equalizing the pressure in your head but once we got down there it was easy to forget to be scared because it was such an underwater paradise! the color of the coral and the fish was awesome...really felt like we were in Finding Nemo. By the second dive we were old pros...we saw turtles and reef sharks (from a distance that felt appropriately safe). We both really had a good time with the diving and i'd love to try it more in the future.
Our last halfday on the island was a rainy one and I think we both felt like we did everything we wanted to on the island so we were both excited to take the boat back to the mainland so we could continue on to new parts of the trip. We stayed that night in Rockhampton (not an overly nice place) and continued the drive the next day up to Airlie Beach. On the way into town we took a detour to a waterfall where we found the road flooded out. We made it to the waterfall after wading through the river over the road and a short walk. Airlie Beach was immediately a lovely little place, despite the deluge of rain we were having. We drove around a bit and saw some of the area but mostly hoped that going to bed would bring us better weather in the morning.
We weren't disappointed...we woke up to a gorgeous sunrise. The views from our motel out over the water were fantastic...we took a little run down near the water and then went to do a short hike to the top of Mt. Rooper which is a viewpoint out to the Whitsunday islands. We came back to the B&B in airlie where we were staying that night and it was possibly the cutest place i've ever stayed. The views out over the water were even better than from the previous night's place. And breakfast in the morning was amazing...the fruit plate we had to start had fruits i've literally never even heard of before.
That next morning we went down to the marina to start our sailing trip for the next three days out in the Whitsundays.
View Whitsunday sail in a larger map
There were 18 of us on the boat, the Alexander Stewart which was about 75 feet long, along with the captain, the deckhand and the assistant deckhand/chef. We sailed out through gorgeous blue water and went to a couple snorkel spots that first day. Everyone said the waters were much clearer than they had been in recent weeks and we certainly agreed. The coral and the sea life didn't disappoint. We were treated to a spectacular sunset that night and sleeping on the boat, while not the best night of sleep i've ever had, was actually pretty nice.
The 2nd day of our sail we moored off of Whitsunday island, the biggest of the 74 islands that make up the Whitsundays and did a little bushwalk up to a viewpoint over Whitehaven Beach which is supposed to be one of the top beaches in the world. The spot was incredible...the sand is completely white (so white that it doesn't got hot from the sun in fact) and the water is a mixture of blues and greens that were striking. We went down to the beach for a few hours (I felt like i was in one of those corona commercials) before heading back to the boat. We stopped for another snorkel before we got to our mooring for the night. Another amazing sunset (its almost tedious to have to write that so many times). Quick sidenote about food: it was actually quite good. We had great fish the first night and lasagna the second night, breakfasts always had cut up fresh tropical fruits and we had big tasty lunches and "afternoon tea" which was a nice afternoon snack at that time between lunch and dinner when i always get hungry.
The 3rd and final day we spent some time on a coral cay snorkeling around and relaxing before making a lunch stop and heading back to Airlie. It was an amazing trip with perfect weather...couldn't have asked for a better time. That evening we had dinner in town and met up with our fellow sailing mates at a pub in town for a couple drinks.
The next day, our last of the vacation sadly, we got up early and did a halfday kayaking trip out to an island from Shute Harbor (10 mins away from Airlie)...it felt good to paddle and actually get a little exercise after 3 days of being on the ship. The kayak was a perfect length, just a few hours out on the water so we came back and did a short jet-ski out on the water (trying to pack in every last little bit of fun before vacation was over!). We had lunch in town and then hung out in the Airlie lagoon (a manmade huge lagoon that you can swim in since swimming in the water isn't advisable because of marine stingers) until we had to get to the airport for our flight back. Awesome trip, we definitely packed in as much as we could!
Check out more photos from the trip here, the very last one might be my favorite...its a sure sign that you're in a really really cool location:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment