The cruise that might have been

Day 37: Daydreaming

We got up early this morning for our cruise around the Whitsunday Islands, got our shuttle to the marina, and hopped onto our boat for our first destination: Daydream Island. We arrived on the island, and walked over to see the Living Reef – a coral reef that winds through the resort that makes up this island. The reef was pretty cool, with some interesting creatures (rays, sharks, starfish) swimming around in it.

We then strolled around the entire island, walked on the small coral beach, followed a short trail through the forest (where Gaurav finally got his wish of seeing a snake!), and realized we had just got caught in another tourist trap. The running joke between us was that it was called Daydream Island because you arrived there and daydreamed about being on a better island! There was basically nothing there but the resort! Sigh.

So we went over to the restaurant where we were to have lunch (included in our package) and got a call informing us that the rest of our cruise was cancelled due to rough waters! That meant we weren’t going to be able to see the main thing there was to see in the islands: Whitehaven Beach. Double sigh.

We had lunch, came to terms with our disappointment, and got on the boat that came to bring us back to Airlie Beach. The good news is they provided a full refund, so we basically got a short cruise, visited an island (albeit boring), and had lunch for free. Oh well.

We got the shuttle back to our hotel, but since we had checked out, we passed the time sitting by the pool surfing the net. Then we took our stuff to town, grabbed a quick dinner, and got on our overnight bus to Cairns.

 Mermaid statues on Daydream Island

The island life

Day 35: The Whitsundays

We woke up this morning and called up some places to book a hotel for the next two nights. Luckily, we found a place with self-contained apartments, and they also arranged our pickup from the airport – one less thing for us to worry about! So we dropped our car at the airport and caught our flight over to Hamilton Island, then grabbed the ferry to Shute Harbour and the bus to Airlie Beach to our home for the next two nights.

Interesting fact: the 34 islands that make up the Whitsunday Islands are actually the tips of a drowned mountain range! So eons ago, we would have had to walk up the entire mountain to arrive at the spot we were standing on, and the water would not have been here! It’s so fascinating to think how landscapes have changed over millions of years and how things must have looked at another time – and how they will change and look in the future. Who knows what islands our future generations will stand on that were once mountains to us!

When we arrived at our place, they told us that because it was our honeymoon, they had upgraded us to a nicer apartment, and kept a bottle of champagne in our fridge! We have come across so many nice people on our travels, and it is so wonderful that people just want to be nice and do nice things expecting nothing in return. It really rekindles your belief in the good in people, after always hearing about the bad on TV or in the news. 

So the apartment was huge, and the view of the marina from the balcony and bedroom was beautiful! We were so happy to have a place to call home for two nights, where we could also cook dinner and just relax! We didn’t do much – just walked down the very steep hill into town, grabbed something small to eat, went grocery shopping for some dinner stuff, and walked back up the very steep hill to the room! It was so nice to make our own delicious pasta dinner with loads of garlic, and do nothing (and think about nothing too)! We need days like these to recharge our batteries after all this go-go-go! No plans for tomorrow either! 

 View of the marina from our room!