Hello again!
Hopefully everyone has deduced that we are, in fact, still alive :) Liz has been posting pictures on Facebook so that helps!
Well, it's been a DELIGHTFUL week on Hamilton Island. We've been spending most of our time at the beach (Liz in the sun, I in the shade), sitting and reading books (we've both read 3 or 4 at this point), and playing in the freakishly warm water. It's been just lovely. We have done some exciting things though too spaced out here and there:
We cuddled koalas AGAIN! There's another wildlife center here on the island and they offer lots of fun things. We went over there for breakfast and our table was right next to a koala in a little tree enclosure, it was super cute. Then a couple days later we got to hold one of them and they're just SO CUTE!!! I love them to pieces!
We also went parasailing! It was so cool and fun!! We went out on a boat and they put you in a lifejacket and a harness, then they clip you onto the sail and then up up up you go!! The view was amazing and the water looked so pretty. Then the skipper slowed down a little bit so we started to come down and he dunked us in the water a couple times! It was awesome and the water felt so good and then he sped up and back up we went. It was really awesome.
Then we spent a day or two at the beach, eating ice cream, Tim tams, and playing in the water. :)
Then we went on a catamaran sail boat and went snorkeling! It was cancelled the first day because the wind was coming from the wrong direction so it would have been unsafe to go to the two spots we were supposed to go to, so we decided to come back the next day and try again. So we did and boy are we glad we waited!!! The snorkeling was good, although nothing will probably ever compare to our dives up on the reef in Port Douglas. But the second stop we made was at Whitehaven Beach, which is a very famous beach around Australia (and the world I think) because it's over 4 miles long and is almost entirely pure, white silica sand. It really is beautiful, although it was incredibly HOT the day we went. We arrived and were informed there was a really nice lookout spot if we went for a 15 minute hike, so naturally we went for it. Although it was honestly like 90 degrees, sunny, and there wasn't much breeze in the forrest, and we were just in our swimsuits and flip flops, I was DYING. I was seriously so hot...Liz tried to take my picture at one point and I was honestly just an angry toddler. The lookout was indeed lovely, but all I wanted was to get back to the beach and get in the water! Once we did, it was pure heaven. Playing in the ocean after that hike was seriously one of the highlights of my trip haha! It felt so so good! The wind picked up on our way back so we actually got to sail for real on the catamaran, which was also very fun.
Then we spent a day or two at the beach, eating ice cream, Tim tams, and playing in the water. :)
Then we went on an airplane tour! It was an itty bitty little plane, with propellers and it held maybe 12-15 people including the pilots. It was quite cramped, I was pretty uncomfortable honestly, but the views made up for it! We flew out over the Whitsunday islands and out over the reef and it was just incredible. We flew over Whitehaven beach, where we had been on the sailing snorkel tour, which was gorgeous. The reef was equally awesome, I didn't realize the Great Barrier Reef was SO huge! I thought it was just up north nears Cairns and Port Douglas, but the reef stretches over 1,400 miles and covers an area of around 133,000 square miles! That just a little less than GERMANY! It's just crazy big and here in the Whitsundays we're only about halfway down the coast of the reef, it just keeps going! It was so pretty to fly over and see the views, although I was happy to get out of that cramped airplane :)
We have just one day left and we're both super sad to leave :( It's been awesome to hang out at the beach and lounge around. So on Saturday I'm flying to Sydney, where I will be for two nights before flying back to the US! I knew the two weeks would go by fast, but jeez it flew!
Hopefully everyone has deduced that we are, in fact, still alive :) Liz has been posting pictures on Facebook so that helps!
Well, it's been a DELIGHTFUL week on Hamilton Island. We've been spending most of our time at the beach (Liz in the sun, I in the shade), sitting and reading books (we've both read 3 or 4 at this point), and playing in the freakishly warm water. It's been just lovely. We have done some exciting things though too spaced out here and there:
We cuddled koalas AGAIN! There's another wildlife center here on the island and they offer lots of fun things. We went over there for breakfast and our table was right next to a koala in a little tree enclosure, it was super cute. Then a couple days later we got to hold one of them and they're just SO CUTE!!! I love them to pieces!
We also went parasailing! It was so cool and fun!! We went out on a boat and they put you in a lifejacket and a harness, then they clip you onto the sail and then up up up you go!! The view was amazing and the water looked so pretty. Then the skipper slowed down a little bit so we started to come down and he dunked us in the water a couple times! It was awesome and the water felt so good and then he sped up and back up we went. It was really awesome.
Then we spent a day or two at the beach, eating ice cream, Tim tams, and playing in the water. :)
Then we went on a catamaran sail boat and went snorkeling! It was cancelled the first day because the wind was coming from the wrong direction so it would have been unsafe to go to the two spots we were supposed to go to, so we decided to come back the next day and try again. So we did and boy are we glad we waited!!! The snorkeling was good, although nothing will probably ever compare to our dives up on the reef in Port Douglas. But the second stop we made was at Whitehaven Beach, which is a very famous beach around Australia (and the world I think) because it's over 4 miles long and is almost entirely pure, white silica sand. It really is beautiful, although it was incredibly HOT the day we went. We arrived and were informed there was a really nice lookout spot if we went for a 15 minute hike, so naturally we went for it. Although it was honestly like 90 degrees, sunny, and there wasn't much breeze in the forrest, and we were just in our swimsuits and flip flops, I was DYING. I was seriously so hot...Liz tried to take my picture at one point and I was honestly just an angry toddler. The lookout was indeed lovely, but all I wanted was to get back to the beach and get in the water! Once we did, it was pure heaven. Playing in the ocean after that hike was seriously one of the highlights of my trip haha! It felt so so good! The wind picked up on our way back so we actually got to sail for real on the catamaran, which was also very fun.
Then we spent a day or two at the beach, eating ice cream, Tim tams, and playing in the water. :)
Then we went on an airplane tour! It was an itty bitty little plane, with propellers and it held maybe 12-15 people including the pilots. It was quite cramped, I was pretty uncomfortable honestly, but the views made up for it! We flew out over the Whitsunday islands and out over the reef and it was just incredible. We flew over Whitehaven beach, where we had been on the sailing snorkel tour, which was gorgeous. The reef was equally awesome, I didn't realize the Great Barrier Reef was SO huge! I thought it was just up north nears Cairns and Port Douglas, but the reef stretches over 1,400 miles and covers an area of around 133,000 square miles! That just a little less than GERMANY! It's just crazy big and here in the Whitsundays we're only about halfway down the coast of the reef, it just keeps going! It was so pretty to fly over and see the views, although I was happy to get out of that cramped airplane :)
We have just one day left and we're both super sad to leave :( It's been awesome to hang out at the beach and lounge around. So on Saturday I'm flying to Sydney, where I will be for two nights before flying back to the US! I knew the two weeks would go by fast, but jeez it flew!
