Arrival in Airlie Beach

You have got to love Jetstar. Back in September, in celebration of their millionth seat sale, they ran a sale with incredibly cheap fares. We bought tickets to Airlie Beach for $50 each for a February flight to sail the Whitsunday Islands from the airport across the road from our unit. How bloody awesome is that?

Of course, Jon had to torment me by trying to convince me the wheels were going to fall of the plane since the seat were so cheap.

Anyway.....

The Whitsundays are one of the "must-do" places in any trip in Australia. 74 islands bordering the Great Barrier Reef, crystal blue waters, absolute paradise. It was one of the filming locations in Fool's Gold (the Kate Hudson/Matthew McConaughey movie).



This has one of the trips that we were really excited about. We booked on the Whitsunday Magic for a 4 day, 3 night sailing trip through the islands and planned to stay in Airlie before & after the trip to depart the day after the Superbowl. The plan was to be in Airlie for the game, leave that arvo for on the sailing trip and return to spend another few days in town.



The first night, we stayed at the Airlie Waterfront Bed & Breakfast. In five years when the Abel Point Marina reconstruction is complete, this will be an absolutely beautiful accommodation. However, right now, the waterfront view is a muddy construction site with the bay in the distance. However, the facilities were nice enough with really great decor and a spa on the balcony. Overall, it was meh.

It quickly became apparent that 4 days in Airlie Beach was far too long. In the first night, after having dinner and doing some shopping for the ship, we had seen pretty much all there was to see in this town. We had a lovely dinner and got to bed early as we had to be up early to get into town so that Jon could watch his beloved Patriots in the Superbowl.



Now, we all know what happened and yes, there were tears involved on Jon's part. He grew up in the Boston area and I am a Jersey girl, so I had heaps of material, but any time you brought it up, he'd well up with tears, so it took the fun out of it.

As soon as the game ended, Jon pulled himself together and got ship-shape for our shove off from the marina. The boat was beautiful. It is heralded as the most comfortable in the fleet of the Airlie ships and lived up to everything we heard about it. The crew was amazing, the chef was an absolute gourmet and we can't say enough good things about the entire trip. Despite the flooding in Airlie a few weeks before and the high winds that came after we left, we had absolutely beautiful weather. The whole experience was everything we heard about and more.



The first night we took a short sail to a lagoon where we would be snorkelling the next morning. We were treated to a stunning sunset and a heat lightening show before we fell into our beds exhausted, but really excited for the next day.