Easter Holidays!

For our Easter break I decided to travel up the east coast. The plan was to spend one week visiting the Whitsunday Islands then the second week in Cairns. This meant taking one week off from lectures and assignment work (which I now have to make up for). There is an airline in Australia called 'Tiger Airways' which offers cheap deals on flights so I was able to fly to a town called Mackay (next to the Whitsunday Islands) for just $70! I also decided to take a tent and lots of camping stuff thinking it would save a bit of cash. The Whitsunday Islands are located in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef, on the tropical coast of Queensland. The first night was spent in a town called Airlie beach which is a brilliant backpacker stop and is where all the boats and tours operate from. Next day we decided to rent a car to explore some nearby waterfalls called cedar creek falls. This river stretched for miles and there are plenty of places to jump in and swim (just watch for snakes and big lizards!)

The only way to see the Whitsunday Islands is by boat and the majority of tours consist of big package deals which take you out for a day and let you off for an hour or two various island spots. However, having the tent, we decided to book a water taxi which would drop us at two Island locations Whitsunday Island, home to Whitehaven beach and Hook Island. These islands are uninhabited!! so we had to bring all our food and water and live like Robinson Crusoe. We had 4 days and 3 nights of beach bbqs, swimming in turquoise sea and exploring the islands! The beaches were amazing (as you can see from the pictures) and there was also some brilliant snorkelling on Hook Island. 

Next we planned to go up to cairns but still had no way of getting there. Luckily we met two girls who would give us a lift in return for me driving while they slept off the hangover....8 hours of straight driving later we arrived in Cairns!!! The evening was spent organizing all the activities we wanted to do in Cairns; the plan to do the holiday on budget was defiantly out the window by now. 

Tuesday - Sky diving! something I have always wanted to do...  it was amazing!! We had a bit dodgy weather on the day which meant flying above the clouds until reaching 14000 feet above cairns. This is a definite adrenaline rush activity to try if you get the chance.

Wednesday - Scuba diving and snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef!  This was an all day trip which included the boat ride out to the reef, all equipment and scuba tuition and plenty of food. The views of the reef were incredible there was so much to see, we even were lucky enough to see a shark!! (Luckily only a small one)

Thursday and Friday - we rented a car again and traveled on further up the east coast where we saw huge rain forests and plenty more waterfalls, we also stopped at a park where we could see crocodiles being fed.

Friday night was spent in Cairns city (managed to catch the royal wedding from a Chinese takeaway TV) then back to the airport for a 2.00am flight to Melbourne.

An amazing trip, which is well worth doing if you get the chance.... but now lots of work to be catching up on!