The throwback articles continue, as do some travel tips in honour of the tenth anniversary of my travels to Australia and New Zealand. Introverts don’t mind traveling alone. That’s when we make some of our most insightful observations. Warning: in this article, I get a little bit excited about something.
Upon my arrival in Airlie Beach I checked into a hostel that seemed to be perched on the side of the hill. There are a lot of holiday flats in Airlie Beach that are set into the hillside…everyone gets a view of the bay. There isn’t much of an actual beach here. There is a sandy beach, but the part covered in water where people might swim is rocky. The hostel itself has a pool (not as nice as the one at my Cairns hostel) where they pull down a white tarp and play movies at night time. My team won the trivia game one night, so we shared a bottle of Australian Sparkling wine, courtesy of the hostel. I don’t know what good sparkling wine (or champagne) tastes like, so I can only say that it was drinkable. As for swimming in Airlie Beach, there is a huge lagoon where one can sit at the side in the sun and jump into the lagoon to cool off. A German girl and I swam around the lagoon together, because as she said “it’s more fun together than alone”. You may be noticing a theme here concerning Germans. Anyway, it is a beautiful way to spend a day, sun-bathing at the beach in the morning, then sun-bathing and swimming at the lagoon in the afternoon. This wasn’t the only thing I did in Airlie Beach.
This town is a major gateway to the Whitsunday Islands, where lots of people go on sailing trips. I don’t really have any sailing experience, nor did I want to sleep on a boat, so I did a day trip on a fast boat. I figured I could see as much as possible this way. We stopped at Whitsunday Island itself and climbed up to a lookout, looking out over Whitehaven beach. Then we went to Whitehaven beach (by boat because it was on another part of the island). The sand here is over 90% silica, so it is white and the grains very fine. The water is a crystal-clear blue. I of course took advantage of both the sunning and swimming opportunities, including making footprints in the sand. We went to yet another spot in the afternoon for some snorkelling. It was awesome. I actually saw a sea-turtle! I was very excited to actually see one for myself. I am getting better at spotting wildlife. I used to always be the last to see it, if at all. In addition to these popular boat trips, A.B is mildly touristy and popular with backpackers and is actually a nice little town. There are lots of small shops and the bigger stores are kept to the outskirts (not walking distance). I had a nice relaxing time here. I am starting to learn how to relax, but there is still more work to do. I’ll have to try another beach and another town… J
LIVE FUNNY! with Kathryn Reichheld 