Living Out My Dream in the Magical Sunshine Coast!: First Days of Break!

Our 2 week long "intra-semester" break (I just called it spring break) was September 14-30. I had a HORRIBLE week of school before it (including pulling my first Australian all-nighter... so awful!), so I was more than ready for a break! We had a MAGICAL two weeks planned out. The travel agent who had been at the surf camp I went to went to App and so we had bonded right away. She had told us that she was more than willing to help if we ever wanted to plan trips. I contacted her awhile after and told her that Amy and I wanted to go to the Whitsundays (I had heard the best beaches in Australia were there) and Cairns for our break. She helped us plan out a bunch of super exciting things and I'm so thankful to her!

On Friday (the 15th) I packed and got everything ready. My bag was HUGE because I didn't want to have to do any laundry during my trip. I headed to Brisbane at 5 o'clock. I had to take 2 buses and a train so I didn't get there until 7:30. B and Amy were already there so they picked me up from the train station and we headed to our hostel. B was staying at her grandparents' house so Amy and I were the only ones staying there. It was a pretty nice hostel but nothing remarkable (I've gotten to the point now where most hostels are basically the same in my eyes- it's the people you end up sharing a room with that make all the difference). The three of us headed to the mall and got dinner (fast food!) and then went to the movies and saw "The Watch." It's supposed to be a comedy but I'm a HUGE scaredy cat so even though it was funny some parts of it really freaked me out haha! Then we walked B to her car and said goodbye and then headed back to the hostel where we went to sleep fairly early since we had to wake up early the next day to begin our adventure!

Amy and I decided to join everybody dancing in Brisbane- we clearly had no idea what was going on!

I thought this was funny- Bed Bath N' Table instead of Bed Bath & Beyond

One of my friends from App, Lauren, had asked me earlier that week if Australians really call cotton candy fairy floss and I had to ask one of my friends if that was true because I hadn't heard that and she said it was. So when I saw this at the movie theater I was excited to have proof for Lauren!

Our flight from Brisbane to Hamilton Island was leaving at 11:55am so we got to the airport around 10:30. After checking in (my huge bag was overweight but thankfully the man didn't make me pay extra like I was supposed to), we got breakfast and used the free wifi to tell the world of Facebook that we were on our way to the Whitsundays! I was lucky and got a window seat- SO awesome! I could see the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday islands (there are 74 of them!) as we flew over them and it was incredible!

When we got to the Hamilton Island airport it was TINY. Seriously, that's gotta be one of the world's smallest airports. And it basically took over the entire island. There wasn't even a luggage conveyor belt; instead, workers put all the luggage on a tractor type of thing (not sure what to call it) and you search through everyone's luggage to find your bag. We thought we were taking a flight from Hamilton Island to Airlie Beach (which was our final destination), so we got in line to check our luggage back in. However, once we got to the front of the line the woman told us we were taking a boat, not a plane. So we had to go figure out which boat was ours and it was a little stressful but I was super excited to take a boat instead of a plane! We got to sit on the top of the boat and it was extremely windy but SO beautiful!!! I listened to my "Australia" and "Beach/summer" playlists on my iPod (Jimmy Buffet, the Beach Boys, reggae, etc.) and it got me SO excited! It's funny how music has a way of totally influencing your mood. We made a stop or two along the way to drop people off at places like Daydream Island, and after about an hour or so we made it to Airlie Beach. I have NEVER seen so many sailboats in my life- it was incredible! They looked so amazing in the ridiculously beautiful blue water!

Hamilton Island airport

The luggage system...

Airlie Beach!

Our boat!

My bag was bigger than it looks in this picture!

When we got to Airlie Beach we had no idea where to go. Laura, our travel agent, had told us that we'd be able to get better prices on hostels if we didn't book them ahead of time and just checked into them when we got there. I had read reviews on the hostels in Airlie Beach and had read good reviews about Airlie Waterfront Backpackers so we decided to try to find that. Without our huge bags the walk wouldn't have been a problem, but our bags turned it into what felt like a forever long walk. We kept asking people where to go and it took us awhile to find but we finally found it and checked in. We put our stuff down in our room and then walked around a little bit. Then I went and read on our porch that overlooked the beach. Then we showered and got ready. We headed to "The Down Under Bar" for dinner, which was not very tasty. Then we walked around and enjoyed the nightlife, which was a lot of fun!

"Beware of the Kookaburra birds. They swoop down and steal your food uninvited! No joke!"

I think kookaburra birds are ADORABLE so I was really hoping to see one but we never did!

This band was awesome! So different than what I usually listen to. The drummer was playing a djembe drum and the sound was awesome! I even bought their CD

The next day we went to the beach, which was small but beautiful!!! We hung out on the beach and walked around looking in the stores on the main street all day. It was a great relaxing day!