now back to reality

So we're home now. Back on solid ground. Back to reality.

Our trip to the Whitsunday Islands mmmmmmay or may not have been real. We're still pinching ourselves to wake up from the MOST AMAZING AND INDESCRIBABLE DREAM that you could possibly imagine only in your wildest dreams!!!

Let me break it down for you:

We arrived in Airlie Beach, a cute little beach town that is the "gateway to the Whitsunday Islands" after our 3 hour flight, a one hour time change, an airport photoshoot and a 2 hour bumpy ride with an obnoxious Asian faimly. phhhewf. Painful, but worth every split second of it.

There's not too much in Airlie Beach, we explored the entire town in less than an hour and you're advised not to swim in the ocean during jellyfish season. So we spent a niiiice chunk of time at the Airlie Beach Lagoon which is a lovely public swimming pool area during the day. Aaaaaand at night we spent our time at our hostel bar eating full, satisfying dinners with a drink included for $6.50, drinking $8 jugs and initiating full-fledged drinking games.

 So that was our lives from Thursday until Saturday... and that's when we boarded the Atlantic Clipper! This bad-ass sailboat complete with a water slide, diving board, hearty meals, 6:30am wake-ups and a crew of the most jokes human beings we've ever come in contact with.

First stop: Whitsundays National Park. After a night full of goon and socializing, complete with a nice "GET THE FUCK OUT OF BED" at 6:30am we walked along a trail, almost got taken out by a wild leaping animal and arrived at Hill Inlet Lookout. This is where we took in the MOST BEAUTIFUL place I have ever seen... I'm still not convinced that we saw it... easily could've been dream at this point. (P.S. the pictures do absolutely no justice.

...then walked back down to experience the most beautiful place I've ever seen: Whitehaven Beach. The sand is the finest silica sand in the world and is so white that its never hot because it reflects the sun.  The sand is so fine that you are able to polish jewelery, exfoliate, and brush your teeth with it. It was also used in the making of the lense for the Hubble Telescope! Check it out:

 Life could not get any better... until we went SCUBA DIVING in the Great Barrier Reef at Blue Pearl Bay! No big deal. It was the most unreal experience I have experienced thus far in life. It felt like a was in a dream, big surprise with this trip. There were hundreds of fish swarming and swimming around us and I would reach out to touch them but I couldn't. AND I WAS BREATHING UNDERWATER! After our diving we just couldn't get enough of the reef so we snorkelled and we also snorkelled at a different spot the next day! We were so buoyant in the salty water there was no need to swim or put any effort while we floated in the East Australian Current!

 To top off the best day of our lives we watched the beautiful sunset over the Pacific ocean.  OH YEAH... and then there were dolphins jumping beside the boat. No big deal.

 So that was pretty much it. After the sun went down, things got a little wild on the boat... we brought one cask of wine per person (a cask is 4 litres) so I think that pretty much explains itself right there.  We woke up to discover the best cure for a hangover is snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef and floating in the EAC!

We got back to land at about 1pm and proceeded to lounge at the lagoon until our free didgeridoo lesson from a short, way too jacked upper body Aboriginal man in a tight Ed Hardy t-shirt who was way too serious about the didgeridoo.

We finished up last night in Airlie Beach by finishing our goon in the park and heading to a pizza party with the crew.

One last 6:30am wake up, a bumpy bus ride, a plane ride behind the most obnoxious family alive, and a hitched ride later and we're back in Melbourne. Home.

Well I'm awake now and headed to school for orientation... we must've been dreaming.

Sincerely,
AUS

P.S. We haven't found Nemo... yet.