Airlie [NO] Beach

This one is coming to you a little late but we have been busy, busy girls! We made it to Airlie Beach which has no beach (hence the title) but does have a lagoon to swim in...I guess most places from here on have lagoons (basically big swimming pools) because of the jelly fish and sharks... which brings me to the next story....

On our 2nd day Karen, Cally and I went on a dive and snorkel trip to finally put our Scuba certifications to good use. We headed out to the outer reef and along the way met Canada and Isreal - they were our dive instructors. The boat took us out to a huge pontoon where a waterslide slid us into the ocean. A glassbottom boat tour showed us the coral, as did a submersible boat...The diving and snorkelling got us up close with all kinds of coral, fishies, sea cucumbers and HUGE clams with big purple lips! It was awesome! The best sight of the day: a human clownfish, living and breathing here on earth! In reality, it was a weird looking super-white dude who, for some reason, thinks it is fitting to wear neon orange speedos with a matching orange T-shirt! Yikes!

In the meantime, Chantell took a sailing trip that was all inclusive so you can imagine the shape she was in when she got back. In her own words (repeatedly) : Drunk as a skunk! Haha, I have to give it to her though - she still lasted as long as the rest of us that night as we tore through the town. Look how pretty we were...


Our roomies for the 2 nights were Australia and 2 different Canadas! It was weird when we asked where everyone was from and we all kept saying Canada (6 out of 8!)...it is rare that we meet Australians so we had a good time learning about eachothers cultures - they were shocked to hear about how we have to plug in our cars! Which reminds me: While on Fraser we asked Ireland how cold they thought Canada got and they contemplated hard and finally said: I bet it gets as cold as -5 or even -7! Haha We all had a great laugh!