"Another airplane, another sunny place; I'm lucky, I know."

**Disclaimer: this is a really long post. But read it anyway - it’s worth it, and there are heaps of pictures. If you’d gone to paradise this weekend, you’d spend awhile gushing over it too!**

This past weekend was our first “real” trip here in Oz, and by real I mean it involved a plane. On Friday afternoon six of us Americans flew up to Proserpine for a weekend at the Whitsunday Islands. Because no trip would be complete without Elise embarrassing herself somehow, we had a minor hang-up at the Brisbane airport. My backpack didn’t make it through security, which was odd because usually I’m really careful about checking through my bags and getting rid of anything that might not be allowed. Yeah, not the case this time. As I racked my brain for what could possibly have set off the scanner, the security guard proceeded to pull a butter knife out of the pocket of my bag. Oh yeah, left that there from the previous weekend’s Stradbroke Island trip, where I used it to make peanut butter sandwiches, not to hurt people. Thankfully, I think the security guard found my scatterbrained airport antics pretty funny (they’re so chill here, the airport doesn’t even check ID’s!), though I couldn’t help but wonder how security in the States would have handled that…

An hour and a half plane ride later we landed at the Proserpine Airport, which probably should be called the Proserpine Shed. It was a teeny tiny building with one check-in desk and a boarding area that was simply a fenced-in area of grass. So ghetto, but awesome. That night we hung out at the bar outside our hostel, then headed to bed pretty early so we would be well-rested to sail the next day. However, our good intentions were sabotaged by the TARANTULA that we found on our ceiling. For real, it was like the ones you see on TV: about four inches across, hair and all. If you know me at all, you know I am TERRIFIED of spiders, so this did not sit well with me. After about 20 people came in to photographically document the incident, two guys negotiated the spider (which we affectionately (?) deemed Aragog) into a coffee can and brought it outside. Needless to say, I did not fall asleep easily that night.

Aragog, the dragon-spider.

Everyone taking pictures...

Finally removing our unwelcome visitor.

Bright and early Saturday morning Elizabeth, Allison and I set sail on the Waltzing Matilda (also the title of Australia’s unofficial national anthem!) for our two day/one night sailing adventure throughout the Whitsunday Islands! It was truly one of the best experiences I’ve had, since it involved two of my favorite things: 1. being on the water/at the beach (again, if you know me at all, you know I’m obsessed with the beach/ocean/anything to do with the coast), and 2. beautiful Australian men (namely Dave and Tyson, the “blonde bombshells” who sailed our boat and cooked our food!). Aside from the crew there were 14 of us guests, so the boat was quite small and the atmosphere was really relaxed.

Saturday morning was spent touring the area by sea. We were treated to views of the bluest water I have ever seen, lovely islands, and even exhibitionist humpback whales, one of which jumped straight out of the water! After a delicious lunch of salad, quiche, pasta salad, and bread, we arrived at our destination for the afternoon: the fabled Whitehaven Beach. We enjoyed a short bushwalk through the forest as Tyson pointed out edible ants, and we even saw a goanna (a big spotted lizard)! Once we reached the lookout over the beach and turquoise water, we took heaps of pictures (it’s one of the most photographed beaches in the world) while marveling at the unreal view. The sand at Whitehaven Beach is 98% pure silica, so it’s always cool even when it’s sunny, and it’s used for things like cleaning jewelry and making glass. The next few hours were spent playing on the beach and swimming in our stinger suits, which made us look like “little Teletubbies.”

Whitehaven Beach

Oh-so-attractive stinger suit, required for swimming!

Saturday evening there was a little bit of wind so Dave and Tyson put the sails up, and we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset. While the rest of the people on the boat (all Europeans) took nice pictures of themselves with the sunset in the background, we Americans took pictures…pretending to be Jack and Rose from Titanic. Did we look ridiculous? Yes. Was it worth it? Most def. Once we were anchored for the night, just off the shore of a rather spooky-looking island, we ate a yummy dinner of roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and homemade gravy; then Elizabeth, Allison, and I laid on deck (despite the chilly wind!) and looked at the tons of stars flaunting themselves in the night sky.

"I'm king of the world!"

The dot above the moon is Jupiter!

Since I get motion sickness fairly easily, I was nervous about sleeping on the little boat, but it was actually quite comfortable (even with my itsy-bitsy bunk!). Most of the time, at least. Around 5:30 in the morning everyone in our room was woken up by the boat rocking quite forcefully on the waves, but other than that the night went off without a hitch! After breakfast and coffee on deck on Sunday morning (I firmly believe everyone should get to wake up to that every single day), we got to try our hands at snorkeling. The spot our crew chose was amazing, featuring tons of crazy, colorful coral and equally as crazy, colorful fish. One of the fish, fondly named Priscilla by the locals, was over a meter long! Luckily, she kept her distance, unlike the other fish, which would pretty much swim up to your face and hands as you tried to swim without touching them (it’s harmful to them if they are touched, but they weren’t making things easy!). I’d never been snorkeling before, and it was amazing to get a glimpse into this new world which is so totally different from the one I inhabit. Plus, for someone who doesn’t like swimming in lakes because fish might touch her, being surrounded by outgoing little fishies was quite a wild experience!

My...cozy?...bunk!

Post-snorkel!

Our next stop was Langford Reef/Island/Sand Spit, which was basically a patch of sand in the middle of the ocean. You could walk to the nearby island when the tide was down, but unfortunately the tide was going up when we got there so we only made it about halfway. We then tried another snorkel, and we were super excited because Dave told us there was a “massive probability” we would see loggerhead turtles. Yeah, no dice. I don’t think we went out far enough, because after about twenty minutes of swimming around all we had seen was lots of sand and a few random rocks. Not going to lie, though, with all the talk of deadly jellyfish and hungry sharks, I was about ready to take a break from the water. We spent the next couple of hours lying on the beach and soaking up the immense beauty that literally surrounded us on all sides.

The sand spit - notice the blue, blue ocean on either side!


After the beach it was time to head back to the harbor, which we did by sailing. Not “sailing,” which is what had done on Saturday afternoon, but actual sailing, with tons of wind causing the boat to tip all the way over on its side. It’s funny, sailing looks so graceful as you watch boats from the beach, but being on deck is a TOTALLY different story. As we got going Tyson laughed at us falling over each other and instructed us to “hold on to something;” meanwhile, he and Dave were running around deck hoisting sails and pretty much jumping for joy – it was really adorable how excited they got about having a good, windy day to practice their sport. We were all quite sad when we returned to Abel Point Marina in Airlie Beach and had to depart from our little boat, but we got some fantastic memories and pictures out of the weekend!

Mid-sail; for real, the boat was on. its. side!!

Vandy girls with Dave and Tyson. Love love.

We stayed one more night in Airlie Beach (at a different hostel, this time without tarantulas) and spent Monday browsing at some of the shops and laying out at the manmade lagoon. While it definitely couldn’t hold its own against the islands, the lagoon was a nice way of easing ourselves back into reality. All weekend Allison, Elizabeth and I kept saying how crazy it was that we were still in school, that it was just a weekend trip we were on and that Tuesday we would be in classes. As Kelly pointed out to me the other day, we are so, so blessed to have the opportunity to spend a semester living and learning in places that look like they were torn out of a travel magazine!

The manmade Airlie Beach Lagoon.

I’ve hit the third page of my Word document, so I will take that as my cue to wrap it up. This week has been packed with school work as I play catch up after the weekend, and this weekend may have to be more of the same. It’s ok though, since mid-semester break begins a week from tomorrow! And, today, along with two other Americans I’ve met here, I booked my flight and tour to see Uluru right after classes end in October, so we will be spending Halloween in the Outback! So much to look forward to!

One last thing – if you haven’t heard it already, go listen to Keith Urban’s new single “Put You in a Song,” like, right now. It’s precious. K, love you all, miss you all, sending you all kisses and hugs from Aussiepants!