Jade Down Under

ROAD TRIP! Last weekend (Feb 13th - 15th) a group of us piled into Leighton's car and headed to the Whitsunday Islands. Here is a select group of photos from the weekend. I apologize (once again) for the late post but I was waiting on some pictures.

Have you ever been to Bowenwood? Well, technically either have I. The town is called Bowen but after some scenes from the movie Australia were filmed within this town they added the 'wood.' This town is nothing like Hollywood but they're trying.




Almost there, almost there. This picture was actually taken after the fact. The night we rolled into town there was a pretty good rain storm and Leighton had trouble seeing the lines on the road - not great pictures weather.


Our home for two nights, the Ulysses. I'm not sure how long it is, I'm not a real sailor although I was told. It was a great spot to be all weekend.





How 'bout I show you around. Here was my room. I know, my own room. Very generous of our Captain Brian - owner of the Ulysses.





This was the kitchen/Liz's room. Behind Taruna is where Liz slept. In this picture Taruna and I had just made tea and coffee. Can't go without and luckily we didn't have to!




Here is a map of the Whitsunday Islands - like the 1,000 islands near Kingston, the Whitsundays are a group of Islands. The big one there on the right is the Whitsunday Island. We took a roundabout route and visited White Haven (GORGEOUS!), Long Island, and another one I can't name at this moment.



The first night we arrived we had a couple drinks but simply chilled out on the catamaran. Liz suggested a night on the town so a bunch of the group went to a bar within Airlie. I, however, called it a night.




And man, oh man am I glad I did. Although Taruna here went to bed early like myself, she was a little tired from our early rising.





Leighton, on the other hand, was HUNG OVER. I think I heard him singing 'I have a headache, I need a Pantaloc,' for about 15 minutes straight. And yes, singing.




So as people slept, Liz also went back to bed, Mackayla and I sat on the bow and looked at the scenery. This was the time when I completely fried. Take a look at the photos, see how cloudy it was in the morning!! I learned my lesson.



I think this was Lucas' and Leightons version of the Titanic. This weekend celebration was for Lucas' 30th birthday.



This is Lucas - thankfully he knew what he was doing because I know jack when it comes to sailing.



And John. He was like Spiderman leaping from one side of the boat to the other. Although he did fall quite often and did hurt himself a couple of times. He was hilarious.



Have you ever seen a rainbow AROUND the sun??? Wack-o!




This is Eddie who was trying to sleep when we hit a little bit of rougher water. I captured this at the right time!




Always blame the Captain!


After my morning burn I chilled out inside, in the shade!



But it turned out to be a perfect day!




And even Taruna enjoyed some sunlight! Got to give the girl some credit - she was ill during the first sail in the morning (sea sickness, not self induced) but over the weekend she made it all the way out to the bow, and even jumped in the water.... with a little insistence from Leighton and myself.



I haven't even introduced our Captain yet!!




Oh, there he is! This is Brian, the owner and our Captain.



Liz and I chilling out on the stern.... listen to all my boat lingo...



This is the White Haven beach, absolutely beautiful. The water is sooooo blue and the sand is soooo white. When I put the sand against my pale (pre-burn) skin it blended in perfectly.




Although this is not a good picture of the three of us it is further proof that I was at White Haven and also was in the ocean.




More swimming. It is stinger season right now but none of our local friends seemed worried. We did see a guy walk past in a tight, yellow stinger suit... but that didn't phase us.... it was great fun!



Back on the boat the fun continued. I don't know what Leighton was doing.



This is Mackalya practicing fishing....



And the night comes. Liz and I got many beautiful sunset pictures but I only chose this one as it looks so purple.



And another type of fishing. This is Eddie with one he caught. They were giving Lucas a lot of slack as he was not catching much. Although he did catch a minnow with a net later on.



This is the fish Mackalya caught. Kissy Fishy.


Once the fishing was done we took the dingy boat into Long Island for some drinks. Here Eddie and Lucas are drinking Long Island Iced Teas. The drinks were fairly expensive at the resort we went to.



This strawberry daquri that I'm drinking cost me $14.00!! They filled it so full that I spilt a lot of it before I even got back to the table. Although you can't really tell in this picture, I was fried! The straps of my dress felt like knives. Kids, make sure you wear sunscreen!!



The next morning (Sunday) we were up just as early and the sun was once again shining - so much for rain all weekend. We enjoyed a couple of hours touring the islands where I picked up a bunch of shells. We then headed back to Airlie so we could head back to reality.



On the way home we hit some rain which is why this picture is so blurred. Another good thing about Australia is the signage. This was one I actually got a picture of. One other I saw was 'Tierd drivers die!' Guess that would keep you awake. We ended up having a conversation on what Australian signs would have to grow into as people get used to these blunt signs. Unfortuatnley our ideas are defintiely rated more restricted than this website.



We came to one really flooded road that we had to cross. Can you see where the road is? Leighton had a hard time as the water was a quarter the way up the door. This is a common occurance here in Townsville as it is the rain season.




On the way home Leighton stopped and let us see the big mango. It's definitely not as nice as our big apple but its just as big.


That brings us to the end of my trip! It was a fantastic time with a group of fantastic people. I hope to visit the Whitsundays again in the future as it's a tropical paradise close to home.