Whitsunday Islands
For Spring Break I flew up to the Whitsunday Islands at Airlie Beach, Queensland, for a few days, and met up with my friend Rich from back in high school, who was also studying abroad in Australia this semester, at Southern Cross University in Lismore (south of Brisbane) ... but in addition to spending spring break in the Whitsundays, I got to spend my 21st birthday there!!
September 26-29, 2004

001-AirlieBeachYHA The Airlie Beach YHA, where Rich & I stayed at for three nights 002-YHA Airlie Beach YHA 003-Harbour The harbour at Airlie Beach 004-Harbour-Boats Sailboats in the harbour 005-AirlieBeach Airlie Beach 006-Harbour Harbour 007-Palms-Evening Palm trees in the evening 008-SandCastle A cool sand castle 009-SandCastle Sand castle 010-Moroccos Morocco's, a popular bar in Airlie Beach 012-Jareds21st-Beer Celebrating the start my 21st birthday at Morocco's by having a schooner of Carlton Draught just after midnight on Sept 27th! 014-Bay The bay by Coral Sea Resort in Airlie Beach 015-AbelPointMarina Abel Point Marina, Airlie Beach 016-ParasailingBoat The boat we went out in for parasailing 017-JaredRich-Parasailing Rich & I take off from the back of the boat to start parasailing 018-JaredRich-Parasailing Parasailing was so amazing! It was nice and warm, and the views from above were breathtaking! 019-JaredRich-Parasailing Towards the end of the parasailing, they slowed the boat down so that we'd dip into the water, before speeding up and sending us back into the air, it was so fun! What a way to spend a 21st birthday! 020-Bay Airlie Beach 021-Bay Airlie Beach 022-Wake The wake left by the parasailing boat 023-AirlieBeach Airlie Beach 024-RichJared Rich & I, enjoying ourselves tremendously after parasailing 025-CoralSeaResort After parasailing Rich & I hung out at the pool & patio at Coral Sea Resort, and this was our view as we were trying to get rid of our pasty whiteness :-) 026-Jetty The Jetty, which was the starting point for the Parasailing and Ocean Rafting trips 027-Parasailing Somebody parasailing over the bay 028-Parasailing Somebody parasailing 029-Jareds21st-Teapot To further celebrate my 21st birthday, we went to Paddy's Shenanigans bar in the evening, where I got this teapot! 030-Schnapps-Juice Wonderful fruit juice 031-Jared-PaddysShenanigans Me at Paddy's Shenanigan's Pub in Airlie Beach ... I'm finally 21!! 032-OceanRaftingBoats Tuesday, Sept 28th ... Rich & I went out in 033-Bay The bay by Coral Sea Resort 034-GreenTurtles-Mating On our way out to the Whitsundays we saw these two big green turtles mating 035-GreenTurtles-Mating Green turtles doing the wild thing 036-Hook-Whitsunday Hook Island 037-Whitsundays The Whitsunday Islands ... out of the blue! 038-Whitsunday-Sailboat One of my favourite pictures from the whole week, a lone sailboat cruising in the Whitsundays 039-Whitsundays Whitsundays 040-DumbbellIsland Dumbbell Island 041-TongueBay Tongue Bay, where we disembarked to go on a little hike up to a scenic overlook 042-TongueBay Tongue Bay 043-Jared-Sign Proof that I was actually here at Whitsunday Islands National Park 044-Sign Sign up at the scenic overlook 045-HillInlet Hill Inlet 046-HillInlet Hill Inlet and Whitehaven Beach 047-HillInlet Hill Inlet 048-HillInlet Hill Inlet 049-HillInlet Hill Inlet 050-HillInlet Hill Inlet & Whitehaven Beach 051-JaredRich Me & Rich 052-Jared-HillInlet I so didn't wanna leave that view! 053-Jared-Wading Wading in the warm waters at Whitehaven Beach 054-Wave Wave at Whitehaven 055-Jammin 056-Lunch Mmmm, a wonderful picnic lunch on the Ocean Rafting boat at Whitehaven Beach 057-HookIsland Hook Island 058-PurpleReef Some purple-coloured and other coral reef underwater 059-Snorkeller It was low tide when we went snorkelling at this cove by Hook Island ... everything that's sticking out of the water is coral reef, and what was underwater sometimes was barely under the surface, so at times it was really hard to avoid bumping into it 060-Reef Another of my favourite photos from the Whitsundays, some coral reef visible just beneath the water! I did get a bunch of underwater photos of the reef too, with a disposable camera I bought for snorkelling, perhaps eventually those will get scanned and added to this album (more likely a separate one) 061-Reef Another picture of the reef from above the water! 062-EmergedReef Some reef sticking out of the water at low tide 063-Sparkles Sparkling water 064-HookIsland Hook Island 065-Whitsundays The Whitsundays 066-HookIsland Hook Island on the right, Whitsunday Island on the left 067-Whitsundays Whitsundays 068-DolphinFins If you look closely you can see a couple of dolphin fins 069-DolphinFins The dolphins are in there somewhere ... our guide said they were a very rare type of dolphin, one he'd only seen three times before in his life, and not at all in the previous four years or so, so that was exciting 070-DolphinFin It was rather difficult to take a level photo, since the boat was zooming around the dolphins in a circle at a pretty good tilt 071-Sparkles Sparkles 072-JellyfishWarning Jellyfish warning ... fortunately this was Sept 28th, so we could still swim 073-AbelPointMarina Abel Point Marina 074-WaterPolice Random sign at the marina 075-AbelPtMarina Abel Point Marina 076-AbelPtMarina Abel Pt Marina 077-MarinaSunset Sunset at the marina 078-CumberlandCurb A reminder of home :-) 079-MarinaSunset Marina sunset 080-Marina Abel Point Marina, Airlie Beach 081-CumberlandCharterYachts Another random sign 082-MarinaSunset Marina sunset 083-MarinaSunset Sunset at Abel Point Marina 084-Jared-MarinaSunset Me at the marina 085-Jared-Sunset-flash It may look it, but this photo isn't doctored at all, it's just the flash on my camera that gives it that unnatural look 086-MarinaSunset Marina sunset 087-SunsetReflection Sunset reflections 088-MarinaDusk Marina dusk 089-MarinaDusk I'd really never been to a marina before, so I loved taking all sorts of photos there 090-MarinaDusk Dusk at the marina 091-RockWall-Dusk A rock wall and the colours of dusk 092-Moonrise Moonrise over the Jetty and Airlie Beach 093-YellowFlower Some yellow flower 094-TwoFlowers A pair of yellow flowers, sorry I don't know their name 095-MarinaDusk Abel Point Marina 096-MarinaDusk Abel Pt Marina 097-MastCross Cross-shaped mast 098-MarinaDusk Marina dusk 100-Moonrise Moonrise 101-One Wednesday, Sept 29th ... the huge boat we took from Shute Harbour (a few k's south of Airlie Beach) to Hamilton Island, where we were to transfer onto a smaller boat for our Sundaze tour 102-ShuteHarbour Shute Harbour 103-ShuteHarbourSparkles Shute Harbour sparkles 104-Jared-ShuteHarbour Me at Shute Harbour 105-ShuteHarbour Shute Harbour 106-Whitsundays Whitsundays 107-Whitsundays Whitsundays 108-Whitsundays Whitsundays 109-HamiltonIsland Hamilton Island 110-SulphurCrestedCockatoo Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo ... he was very interested in the pastries that Rich & I picked up at the bakery (gosh I love lamingtons!) 111-Whitsundays Whitsundays 112-Turtles More turtles gettin' it on 113-Whitsundays Whitsundays 114-WhitehavenBeach Whitehaven Beach 115-Whitehaven-Sailboats Whitehaven's definitely a popular place, as evidenced by all the sailboats that dropped anchor right off the beach 116-Whitehaven Whitehaven Beach 117-Whitehaven Whitehaven Beach 118-Jared-Sunburning I had only been laying like this for a couple minutes, but you can already see the beginnings of a massive sunburn on my back 119-WhitehavenBeach Whitehaven Beach, ranked as one of the top ten beaches in the world! 120-Whitehaven-Richard Richard relaxing at Whitehaven 121-Whitehaven Whitehaven Beach is made of 99% pure silica ... it's so pure and so white that even on a hot day the sand stays cool, as it reflects so much sunlight ... it's so pure that it squeaks when you walk on it ... it's so pure that if lightning were to strike the beach, that portion of it would immediately turn to glass ... and it's so pure that NASA used the sand from Whitehaven Beach to make the lens of the Hubble Space Telescope! Now that's some pure silica! 122-Sandwriting I can see the writing on the sand... 123-RichJared-WhitehavenBeach Rich & I at Whitehaven Beach, with our Sundaze boat in the background 124-Barbecue After a round of snorkelling by Border Island (the view wasn't as great since it was high tide), we were treated to an awesome kebab bbq lunch! Soooo tasty! 125-CateranBay-BorderIsland Cateran Bay, Border Island 126-CateranBay Cateran Bay, where we went snorkelling and had lunch 127-Jared-Snorkelling That's me all geared up for snorkelling in the afternoon by Hook Island ... I'd never snorkelled before in my life prior to coming to the Whitsundays, I loved it! 128-HookIslandObservatory Hook Island Underwater Observatory 129-Whitsundays Whitsunday Islands 130-Whitsundays Whitsundays 131-Jared-Boat Enjoying our cruise through the Whitsundays ... and my mobile phone got reception out here too, I remember giving Mike a brief call to say g'day 132-OrchidRock Orchid Rock (guess what grows there) 133-HamiltonIsland Hamilton Island 134-WhitsundayPassage Whitsunday Passage 135-Sailboat Sailboat 136-HamiltonIsland Hamilton Island ... a premier golf course will be built on the island in the next couple years, it'd sure be a fantastic spot for a PGA Tour event 137-HamiltonIsland Hamilton Island 138-HamiltonIslandLighthouse Hamilton Island Lighthouse ... built to guide mariners through the Whitsunday Passage, shortly after Captain Cook discovered the passage 139-Jared-Boat Me and the boat at Hamilton Island Marina 140-Midget Back in Airlie Beach a couple hours before we hopped on an overnight Greyhound bus up to Cairns, we saw this cool Midget parked on the side of the road 141-Midget Another view of the Midget ... a very cool little sports car

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