Whitsunday Islands

We’ve been home for a day but my body still feels like it's on a sailboat swaying to the tune of a gentle ocean swell in the Whitsunday Islands. Over the course of a week Shane and I soaked in the sun on land and boat, fished, and explored the ocean reef from below by snorkel and scuba and from above by seaplane.

The Whitsunday Islands are made up of 74 islands off the Queensland coast and the Great Barrier Reef. Although coral grows quite freely around the islands, the Whitsundays are not considered a part of what they call the outer reef (Great Barrier Reef) which sits about a two hour boat ride from the mainland. Most of the islands are nothing but forested mountains jutting up from the aqua waters with only a handful of the islands containing resorts, some quite luxurious. Hamilton Island, the largest of the inhabited islands, is a town of its own complete with an airport.

If you haven’t heard of the Whitsunday Islands, maybe you’ve heard of two of its most famous icons – Whitehaven beach, consistently voted one of the world’s most beautiful beaches, and Heart Reef which you’ve probably seen a photo of at some point in your life even if you don’t realize it. The six kilometer Whitehaven beach, coupled with adjoining Hill Inlet, is a spectacular site and a bit of an anomaly. Tourism Australia would lead you to believe that the Whitsunday Islands are abound with soft white sand beaches but most of the island shores are made of rock and broken coral with very little beach. I suppose this is what makes Whitehaven so special.

Our trip got off to a bit of a rough start. We departed Perth at midnight and three and a half hours and two time zones later, we landed in Brisbane. It was 5am and we had another six hours till we caught our connecting flight to Proserpine Airport. I jokingly suggested that we get a hotel room and sleep for four hours. Shane quickly agreed and by 6am we were sound asleep at the Novotel hotel. At 9:30am my phone brought me out of a deep sleep. The catamaran that we were scheduled to depart on that night blew an engine and they needed to transfer us to another three night trip. Rather effortlessly we adjusted our hotel stay and were upgraded to what was considered a nicer tour. Crises averted.

The next day we departed on the Pacific Sunrise, a thirty-three meter sailing boat with nineteen other guests from Germany, France, Spain, Japan, the UK, the US and Australia. Despite some questionable weather, the boat, its fabulous crew of six and our wonderful shipmates made it a relaxing and enjoyable experience. The main activities consisted of snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking, whale watching and relaxing.  Rarely did we leave the boat, except to get in the water and step ashore Whitehaven.

The remainder of the week we stayed in the coastal town of Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is a small tourist town which serves as a hub for many of the island and reef tours of the Whitsundays. Airlie Beach got its origins as a backpacker town and still carries much of a backpacker feel with a wide variety of accommodations to suit all budgets and travel preferences. The hilly landscape provides magnificent views of the islands and the steep one kilometer walk from the town to our apartment was well worth the view, not to mention a relief from the guilt of gluttonous holiday eating.

Shane was keen to fish the east coast waters so after a morning of sitting by the pool indulging in gossip magazines, I spent an afternoon with six blokes on a seven meter fishing boat. There’s nothing like the launch of a fishing reel and the crack of a beer to shut up a group of men. It was all boys' talk for the first thirty minutes but when the engine stopped and the bait was hooked it was nothing but silence for the next three hours. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch anything worth photographing and our boat broke down causing a slow two hour sunset crawl back to Airlie Beach. Despite this, being out on the water with the sun beating down was enough to make me happy. I should also mention that I caught one of the only two fish that met the size requirements for keeping.

We saved the best for last – a seaplane trip to the outer reef. Along with eight other passengers and two crew we took a twenty minute plane ride over the islands to the outer reef where we landed on a small private pontoon and snorkeled for an hour with nothing in sight but multi-colored ocean. From there we flew to Whitehaven beach where we spent an hour lounging on the beach. Viewing the reef from above was like living inside a postcard. I could have stayed in the plane all day and never tire of the view.

The Whitsunday Islands may sound like paradise and in many ways it is. But as a West Australian I must point out a few subtle differences between us and our east coast friends that I feel you should be aware of before booking your flight. Being tropical, it rains, sometimes a lot along the Great Barrier Reef. Winter is the driest time and August the second driest month of the year yet we still battled a bit of rain one or two days. Our first visit to Whitehaven was overcast and unimpressive. On the other hand, the west coast is mostly dry and we can go for months without seeing a cloud.

Secondly, Jelly fish are rife in the northeast. Wetsuits or stinger suits are required between November and March, although the Pacific Sunrise required we still wear them this time of year. We did not wear them on the outer reef. Due to the stingers (and possibly also the dramatic tidal changes) many coastal towns have man-made lagoons for public swimming. The colder waters of the Indian Ocean keep the jelly fish at bay so we don’t require stinger suits but instead we live in fear of sharks so maybe not so much a win for us. Finally, the beaches. Growing up in WA, Shane is a beach snob as he’s been spoiled with a lifetime of beautiful beaches. To me, a beach is a beach but now that I live in WA I’m starting to understand.

Differences aside, I was sad to return to the real world and leave the Whitsunday Islands as only a memory.

 view from our Airlie Beach Apartment

 Heart Reef

 the white pontoon where we landed and snorkeled on the reef

 Whitehaven and Hill Inlet

some of the islands from above