Getting Our Sea Legs

For two weeks Brad and I traveled some of the most beautiful parts of Australia's east coast.  This entry will be the first of a few as there were so many great highlights and it is hard to pick, so you get it all!

Mahdieh Hossini, a long time friend of Brad's, hosted us on our first night in Brisbane.  She was a thoughtful host and supplied us with a HUGE bag of Aussie road trip goodies, vegemite, and Bushman's Deet Tropical Strength which came in very handy for our camping trip in....

THIS! A delightful two person DELUXE camper van.  We splurged on air-conditioning, a running joke for us as it couldn't keep up with the Aussie heat, hence leaving windows open at night, therefore really appreciating the bug repellent.  Thanks Mahdieh!

Our drive to Airlie Beach was an exercise in how many road trip games two people play in 14 hours, but we did see these cool Glasshouse Mountains, sugar cane fields, and banana plantations.

Check it out! All ready for our first night in our sweet digs.

Loved these pit stops.  Free coffee, bickies, and juice on the side of the highway.

 Second night we rolled in to our site in the dark and woke up to this. Good morning Seaforth!
 

The birds woke us up crazy early, but all was forgiven when we saw how pretty they were.

And then we set sail in the Whitsundays on day 3! This was our boat, this shot was taken on the way back from Whitehaven Beach.



This is the galley of the boat which transformed into our bedroom. The crew slept up here too, everyone else was below deck...totally lucked out, the table you see was turned into our huge bed every night...turn down service on the ocean, woot woot!



Our sunset...




Our first mate and senior dive instructor giving us our days itinerary and briefing.

 Some of our new friends.  We now have a place to stay when we want to visit Holland, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, England, and China!

Group shot of all 26 passengers getting ready to hike up and over the hill to Whitehaven beach.

 Can you see the lizard?



 View from the top of the hill on the hike.




 Time to play! Oh dear, the crew supplied us with Zinc...

 Attack of the Vegemite Monster!

 Da beach is ova there...


I think he's happy...

 Oh myyyyy
 

The trees on Whitehaven Beach inspired Brad to create this haunting image. 

Time to get serious and do some diving.  This is and aerial shot of Bait Reef where we stayed overnight and dove in three different spots.  One of the spots is accessible only a handful of times throughout the year.  We had great weather and missed the cyclone by a day. The white dots are sailing boats, that will help give you some perspective on the size of this small part of the reef.

 The reef from the deck of the boat, we amped up the colours so that you can see the actual reef.

I dove three times on this trip.  I was happy that I did because my first dive experience in Hawaii was not a great one.  I can't wait to do it again.

 

 

 Can you find Nemo? They always travel in twos.

 

We hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed our holiday.  We will be posting again soon with the rest of our trip as this was only the first half of what has truly become our most amazing adventure to date.