Shark!!!!!!

bed count: 105

It's always hard going back to work after lazing about on a tropical beach / at the swim up bar for 4 days... And if that didn't suck enough, it was raining on my first day back at work. Dammit!

It was worth it however. Suns, sand, sea and sharks.... Since it was his birthday weekend, Alec had no clue about where we were going. I even managed to keep it from him until the plane was airborne, which I think is a bit of a feat! Even then he only knew the general direction we were headed, but I finally cracked and had to tell him whilst we were waiting for the ferry across to daydream. I couldn't help it. I was so excited about the swim-up bar.

The flight up was lovely - it was a really clear day and you could see for miles and miles and miles. What struck me, once we left the Sydney area, was that it was pretty much miles and miles of 'bush'. Anywhere else you would pass over the occasional small town or village, but not here. It stretched as far as the eye could see and has given me another tiny taste of just how massive this country really is.

In fact it only took 30 mins less to fly from Sydney to the Whitsundays as it did to get from Christchurch to Sydney. Properpine Airport is a cross between the airport on Islay and the one in Samui but it immediately felt 'proper Aussie' in a way that a big metropolis like Sydney never really could. And, on the bus from the airport to the ferry we passed fields and fields of sugar cane and I saw my first few Kangaroos. Okay - they were roadkill, but it certainly felt like Oz!

We took the ferry from Able Point Marina out to the Daydream Island - admiring the many and varied boats moored along the way and picking which ones we would buy if we won the lottery.

I could make up lots of exciting stories about what we did on Daydream, but I am afraid the truth of the matter is we pretty much lay on the beach for 4 days. Oh - that's a bit of a lie. We also went to the swim-up bar... ;) We got really nice weather and thought about doing some of the activities, but it was all just too much effort...

The whole island is the resort, which has up-sides and down-sides. It's not overcrowded with people, but then the lack of competition means that there wasn't really any incentive to improve in some areas - like serving decent food... Plus, it was a bit annoying to have some of the advertised facilities inaccessible at various times because of private functions.

But then, it was really nice to walk along the peaceful boardwalk between the rainforest and the sea in the early evening listening to the exotic bird settling down overhead and watching the wallabies play on the shore (yes - real live ones...).

And the outdoor cinema was very cool. We spent the evening of Alec's birthday sat in very comfy deckchairs watching the sun go down before watching a movie on the big screen. Plus- the bakery made us a very very tasty birthday cake for Alec, so no complaints on that score.

And the sharks??????? Well - thankfully - it has nothing to do with the fact that Alec cut himself snorkeling and had to swim back to the beach with a bloody finger.... How far away is it that sharks can smell blood from again???

No - it's a little more tame than that. The island had a big 'lagoon aquarium' (big saltwater pond) with lots of different species from the surrounding area. Including lots of very colourful fish and some decent sized sharks! Luckily the closest we have got to a shark so far its watching them being fed at the lagoon. And I got to feed the rays too - very beautiful silky creatures. And very greedy too!

And - if that wasn't good enough on the ferry back to the mainland we were treated to the site of whales surfacing and clearing their blow holes. Magical.

A good weekend all in all. (Except if I were you I would avoid flying Jetstar unless you are happy to go hungry because they have run out of food....).