Whitsunday Islands

I just got back from the most amazing weekend sailing around the Whitsunday Islands on a yacht! We left Thursday afternoon and returned today (Sunday). The morning started with me rushing to finish packing and running downstairs to the nurse to check my cut before I left. She said I was fine and didn't need a bandaid anymore yay!! I went outside wearing shorts, a strapless shirt, sunglasses and a white hat to find out that its raining in Gold Coast! I put my hoodie on and went to the bus stop with my friends and then we took the bus to the Robina train station and got on the train to head to Brisbane! It took an hour and a half to get there, the train ride is terrible it's so long! I was with my friends Beth, Heidi, Sarah and Katy and when we got to the airport we met up with other Bondies going on the same trip! For some reason I couldn't do the self check in so I had to go to the service desk and apparently I had no seat but then I got one way up in the front and asked her to get me a seat for my flight on the way back and I asked for a window seat :) I got some fries in the airport and wanted ketchup but it was 75 cents and when I told my friends I said 75 dollars instead of cents and their jaws dropped then we all stopped for a moment and realized I switched up the words hahaha The flight was about an hour and a half. We landed in Prosperpine I think? It was like a deserted place and the airport was SO SMALL only 2 airlines went there, Virgin and Jetstar. Anyways, we got picked up and drove about an hour to Airlie Beach where we stayed at the Xbase hostel. I was in a room with my 4 friends. There was a lizard in our room... I went to go get one of the boys from upstairs but when he got there we had lost the lizard and just hoped that it left  haha After that we were so hungry and our whole group got a free dinner but of course it wasn't filling at all but its free so whatever. Then we went to the liquor store and everyone bought wine, I'm not a fan so I was going to go sober on the boat for the weekend. That night we went out to the bars/clubs got some free drinks then bought our own drinks and basically had a good time! At the end of the night we went to McDonald's, typical. We were standing in line and this older girl was talking/flirting with this old man and she was asking him questions about his glasses and if he could see or not and stuff and then out of no where, my friend (she's blacked out at this point) yells at the girl "SHUT UP HE'S NOT STUPID" and then they got in a hugeee fight and it was SO FUNNY! This girl went crazy and then the old man got scared of the cat fight going on so he left and never got to order. Then the other girls friend, drunk out of her mind, tries to mellow things down and starts singing "HAPPY HAPPY MONDAY TUESDAY HAPPY HAPPY WEDNESDAY HAPPY THURSDAY HAPPY HAPPY" and it was hiarious!!! Then the friend got mad and left and this singing girl sat with us and we all ate together and had a good time hahahaha



Friday morning we woke up at 9 and had to run around and find the check in before 1030. We checked out of our hostel and carried all of our stuff with us and were like dying. One of my friends kept dropping her box of wine and I thought it was the funniest thing ever. She would drop it, then look up and look around at all of us and then groan and then pick it up. After the 3rd or 4th time she got fed up and took the bag out of the box and just carried that. Oh by the way, wine in Australia is called goon. After we checked in we decided to go to McDonald's again because it was so hot outside and we wanted ice cream (its 30 cents so its super cheap) but unfortunately the machine wasn't working so we just ordered regular junk food instead. I got a happy meal with chicken nuggets. As we were eating outside I was holding one of the chicken nuggets in my hand, dipped it in BBQ sauce and was about to put it in my mouth when suddenly a huge bird just flew into me and snatched the chicken nugget out of my hand and scratched me and left hahaha we all screamed and were paranoid while eating after that. Birds just love me. I don't remember if I wrote this earlier or not but in Melbourne a bird pooped on me.. guess that is good luck?! Anyways, we walked for what felt like miles to the marina and then finally got on Wings3!

The boat was so cute! But the rooms were SO SMALL!!!!! I was in a room with 4 other girls from Bond that I had not met before. They had to share doubles and I got my own single. I took a picture of the room but haven't uploaded it yet. Literally there was no walking space. It was so claustrophobic! Two of the girls were sick and coughing the whole time and I just wanted to sew their mouths shut so I wouldn't get sick. We'll see what happens, luckily I had my princess gummy vitamins my parents sent me :) The bathrooms were the worst, we all tried not to drink water so we wouldn't have to use the bathrooms. No one could fit they were the smallest ones ever. When I got on the airplane on Sunday their bathrooms were so much more spacious compared to the ones on the boat! Our crew was amazing, they were so funny there was a captain, a host, and the girl who was like the cook/cleaner and another girl who was shadowing her so she can get the job. The host's name was Richi and I just wanted to give him money to go buy a new bathing suit because his pants kept falling down in the bag like people who sag there pants except there were no boxers since it was a swimsuit. The main girl, Sammy was so sweet and took lots of picture, the girl that was shadowing was Erica and she was from Canada, she's 19 and had only been in Australia for a week and had never been on a boat before! So day1 we sailed away and stopped to go scuba diving and snorkeling! I was known as the neon girl because all I wore was either pink or yellow neon. I had a neon yellow bathing suit the first day then neon pink bottoms the next day with a neon pink lace shirt over my black top then I changed to my neon yellow top then I wore a neon yellow shirt on that so yeah bright colors everywhere! The Great Barrier Reef here looked so much prettier than the one I saw in Cairns! There were so many bright colors and SO MANY FISHES!!! It was breathtaking and unbelievable. I was just swimming through schools of fish and saw so many it was so cool. I tried to touch the fish but they were too fast for me! There were some fish that were so bright and colorful it was amazing and some of them were so big and some were so small! I even saw one pair that was a big fish with a small bright blue fish cleaning it! At one point I was swimming after one the fishes slowly and it was totally like the scene in Finding Nemo when Merlin or whatever the dads name is is following Dory in the middle of the ocean and she forgets so she thinks he's stalking her and swims side to side looking behind her and that was exactly what this fish was doing to me!!!  After I was done I swam back to the boat and it got deep and I just felt like I was in open water and anything could happen it was such a cool feeling I loved it! After snorkeling we had vegetables for snacks and that was the first time in Australia I had regular carrots and celery it was so good! In Australia they put sour cream and sweet chili sauce on everything so I'm used to it now and it actually tasted really good with the carrots! Then we all laid out and tanned for a bit while dinner was cooking. For dinner we had BBQ chicken, corn, and potatoes and for desert there was orange poppy seed cake! (in Australia its orange poppy seed, not lemon) Then we watched a slide show of pictures taken throughout the day and got some good laughs. We went up on deck and laid on our towels at night and just stargazed. I had NEVER seen that many stars in my life! It was beautiful and I will never forget it. There was a meteor shower as well so we all kept screaming and making wishes on shooting stars. There was one big bright star and apparently it was Venus! It was so amazing and so bright I wish I could see stars like that in California!

Day 2 we got up bright and early for breakfast at 7! We then got off the boat at Whitehaven beach! It was a bit cloudy so we went to the beach first and some really fun pictures that are on the DVD. The beach is unbelievable beautiful! It looks like it does on google images! The water is so pretty and the sand, i mean silica is so cool! There are 2 plates under the surface there and that's what makes the silica and NASA gets its silica for their machines from here! The water was calm and it was so nice to swim in! We even saw a few real free stingrays just swimming around!!! The water was clear so we could totally see them swimming right by us! I saw some fish swimming around too! I made some friends while we were at that beach, they were a bunch of guys on the boat called Habibi and we ran into them again later the weekend and they would yell HI AMANDA as they sailed passed us numerous times, I was pretty famous ;) Anyways, I could stay at Whitehaven beach forever it was so beautiful I was so sad when we had to leave. We hiked up a hill and went to the lookout and saw the beach from high up and it was so pretty!! I am so happy I got to go there, it was probably the best beach I have ever been to in my days, I would definitely go back. After the beach we got back on the boat, had some sandwiches for lunch and sailed off again. We stopped to go scuba diving and snorkeling again and I was only in the water for like 20 minutes this time because it was so cold and I was like dying. The reef was really cool here too and there were so many cool fish! There was one really colorful fish with some cool designs on it, I think its name is like oriental fish or something and the name totally fits! There was a HUGE school of what looked like sardines and I was chasing them it was so fun! They make such sharp turns all together it's amazing! There was the Wings2 boat there too and it sailed away and me and Sarah were freaking out because we thought it was our boat but it wasn't so we were safe. I rinsed off in hot water when we got back on board and then played cards inside for a while. My friends taught me how to play kings and one of the rules i made up was to speak in an Australian accent and then Beth got a 2 to she had to say "you" and she looked at me and tried to say it in an Australian accent and we both BUSTED OUT LAUGHING she was so funny when she said it and the face she made was priceless!!!! After a few rounds I took a shower and played more cards and then it was snack time! There was NACHOS! best nachos I have ever had!! After that we played cards again until dinner and we had beef stir fry, green beens, cole slaw, and garlic bread. Desert was AMAZING! We had ROCKY ROAD!!! It was so delicious!!! After that, again, we watched a slideshow of pictures from that day and then a bunch of people went on deck to play drinking games with goon but I stayed in the back outside with some new people. There were 3 girls from England I was talking to and one girl from the Netherlands and they were all backpacking. They shared with me their experiences and their hopes in traveling. I was so inspired by them to travel and see the world! They opened my eyes and I was so glad to have met them! The British girls are going to Fiji and Sydney the same time as me so we're going to discuss over Facebook and possibly meet up somewhere! (that night everyone was playing kings on deck and one of the categories was beer and there was french people with us and one guy said black beer so everyone was like ok that's prob some weird kind in your country and then the next guy says panda beer hahahahha so they mixed up beer and bear and it was really funny)

The next morning we woke up at 6:30 for breakfast then went snorkeling! Yes, that early! I went in but then quickly got out after like 10 minutes because the water was infested by jellyfish and I didn't want to get stung! I was wearing a wetsuit so I would have been fine but it was scary! The jellyfish looked really cool though, I don't think I'll ever forget that image in my mind it was spectacular! It was like I was swimming back through a maze I kept trying to dodge the jellyfish so I wouldn't touch them. I got back on the boat and was freezing so I rinsed off in hot water then went and laid out on the deck. It got cloudy and rained a little bit so I went inside while we sailed off. By the way, the boat set sail at 8:15 so we snorkeled before that!! crazy!! After the long boat ride we finally made it back and got off and said bye bye to Wings3. We went to go eat lunch and I got a pizza then we all got milkshakes, I mean thickshakes. Then I went running around for souvenirs and got a shirt and 2 shot glasses, hopefully they didn't break I haven't unpacked yet. After that we laid out by the lagoon for a while and soaked some sun and took some pictures with my vivid colors setting. Then we got picked up and drove an hour back to the airport then waited for our flight which left reallllyyyy late and then landed and waited half an hour for the train then got on the train back to gold coast then got on the bus and finally got back to bond to my room straight in the shower and now here I am writing this blog before I forget anything. and now I'm done and can finally sleep GOODNIGHT <3