Visa crisis
For some unknown reason, our flight from Christchurch to Brisbane left at 6:15am, so we dutifully dragged ourselves in at 4:15 to check-in. At this point we discovered to our horror that a visa was required for both of us to enter Australia.
We were pretty embarrassed to have messed up on this (having successfully navigated through all the visa hurdles in Asia). But we hadn't required visas for New Zealand, or Hong Kong, or Malaysia and I hadn't thought to double check Australia (they're a Commonwealth country for heaven's sake).
Anyway, we were told it was possible to get a visa online (but only 50% of people managed to accomplish this in time to make their flight). So we rushed over to the prehistoric looking internet kiosk in the airport and wrestled with its dysfunctional track-ball and the agonisingly lame browser software that wouldn't let more than one window open at a time, until we managed to complete both applications. We then ran back to check in and jumped on our flight.
We had a long layover in Brisbane before catching a flight to Proserpine and eventually made it to Airlie Beach where we checked into one of the cheaper hostels in town (full of 20-somethings in full party mode and an attached nightclub hosting a wet t-shirt contest). Thankfully, our room turned out to be suprisingly quiet and we had a good night's sleep.
In the morning we climbed aboard the Waltzing Matilde - a nice 16m ketch with 2 crew and 8 other passengers - for a 3 day sailing trip around the Whitsunday islands.
The weather was a bit grey to start off with but the air was warm and we were able to sit on deck eating cheese and crackers with our wine while we watched the sunset.
On the second day we had plenty of sunshine and after going ashore in the dinghy we walked over a hill to beautiful Whitehaven beach.
We all had to wear stinger suits for swimming because of the risk of nasty jellyfish stings (potentially lethal). In the afternoon, Katie and I opted to go for a scuba dive where we saw some pretty big wrasse.
We were all limited to one 3 minute shower per day (in the evening), so we had to get used to staying salty during the day. We were fortunate that only 10 of the possible 14 passengers were on the boat, so we had our cabin to ourselves. This helped since we found it next to impossible trying to sleep in our small double bed with the boat rolling around at night - so one of us moved to the single berth below our bunk.
On the second night we anchored opposite Hayman island which has a very exclusive resort on it. We watched a lovely sunset while seaplanes and helicopters went to and fro, whisking the rich and famous back and forth.
Back on dry land, we took a bus up to Cairns which took most of the day. It was slightly odd to be on a bus again after so much traveling by other means.
We were pretty embarrassed to have messed up on this (having successfully navigated through all the visa hurdles in Asia). But we hadn't required visas for New Zealand, or Hong Kong, or Malaysia and I hadn't thought to double check Australia (they're a Commonwealth country for heaven's sake).
Anyway, we were told it was possible to get a visa online (but only 50% of people managed to accomplish this in time to make their flight). So we rushed over to the prehistoric looking internet kiosk in the airport and wrestled with its dysfunctional track-ball and the agonisingly lame browser software that wouldn't let more than one window open at a time, until we managed to complete both applications. We then ran back to check in and jumped on our flight.
We had a long layover in Brisbane before catching a flight to Proserpine and eventually made it to Airlie Beach where we checked into one of the cheaper hostels in town (full of 20-somethings in full party mode and an attached nightclub hosting a wet t-shirt contest). Thankfully, our room turned out to be suprisingly quiet and we had a good night's sleep.
In the morning we climbed aboard the Waltzing Matilde - a nice 16m ketch with 2 crew and 8 other passengers - for a 3 day sailing trip around the Whitsunday islands.
The weather was a bit grey to start off with but the air was warm and we were able to sit on deck eating cheese and crackers with our wine while we watched the sunset.
On the second day we had plenty of sunshine and after going ashore in the dinghy we walked over a hill to beautiful Whitehaven beach.
We all had to wear stinger suits for swimming because of the risk of nasty jellyfish stings (potentially lethal). In the afternoon, Katie and I opted to go for a scuba dive where we saw some pretty big wrasse.
We were all limited to one 3 minute shower per day (in the evening), so we had to get used to staying salty during the day. We were fortunate that only 10 of the possible 14 passengers were on the boat, so we had our cabin to ourselves. This helped since we found it next to impossible trying to sleep in our small double bed with the boat rolling around at night - so one of us moved to the single berth below our bunk.
On the second night we anchored opposite Hayman island which has a very exclusive resort on it. We watched a lovely sunset while seaplanes and helicopters went to and fro, whisking the rich and famous back and forth.
Back on dry land, we took a bus up to Cairns which took most of the day. It was slightly odd to be on a bus again after so much traveling by other means.
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