April 18th
Recovering from the night before, I decided a nice peaceful kayaking trip would be a good plan for the day. The other girls were going on a three person jet ski, which probably would have been fun for me too, but: I had done it before, I was trying to save a little money, and it might have been too much for me, oh and I wanted to go kayaking.
I booked a trip, and got picked up to go on my kayaking tour. On the bus, I met a very nice couple from France who were backpackers as well. Once we got to the kayak place, we met another couple from France and the man's sister. There were six people in the tour: me and 5 Frenchies. I loved them all so much for speaking English the whole time. That was really nice of them.
Our kayak guide was a Kiwi (originates from New Zealand) and he was pretty cool. I thought kayaking would be just like canoeing, but it's not. I mean, minus paddling a lot.
Well, for one, the paddle has two ends, and two, you don't steer with the paddle. The person in the back of a two person kayak (me) steers it with pedals. I was in a kayak (hey, "kayak" is a palindrome! sorry...) with the sister of the second couple. She was a lot of fun. They call the two person kayaks the "divorce boats" because most all couples leave the kayak wanting to kill each other because they can't paddle in sync. We did ok. I kept wanting to pull a canoeing move and use my left side to go right (incorrect) with the pedals, so we got a little sidetracked more than once.
We paddled to one of the islands, which is actually small enough to be considered a rock, and is one of the only ones not part of the national park system there. So we just chilled on this cool island made of coral. I attempted to snorkel around the island with everyone else, but I was not coordinated enough. I really do not like being underwater, as we will see much more of in later Easter break posts. I enjoyed swimming around, but I preferred walking and climbing around the island. Oh, and they had snacks. Lovely snacks. Brie and crackers, apples, juice boxes. Yum.
I really enjoyed myself on this little excursion. It was incredibly peaceful and it was my first glance of the Whitsundays and I loved it.
Ok, pictures:
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| From Airlie Beach |
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| From Airlie Beach |
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| From Airlie Beach |
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| From Airlie Beach |
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| From Airlie Beach |
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| From Airlie Beach |
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| From Airlie Beach |
Lovely day.
When I got back, and when the other girls got back, we decided to go out to eat. Nachos were involved. We had a lovely dinner. The bathroom sign and the "Albert Einstein/Marilyn Monroe" picture was cool.
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| From Airlie Beach |
I think this was the evening where I did laundry and met the people in my hostel. The other girls were supposed to join me when they got back from jet skiing, but something went wrong, and we got split up. I enjoyed meeting the people in my room. One was from Leipzig, one of the few obscure towns I know in Germany (because Ben's studying there). She was cool. The Canadian and the Brits were also lots of fun. I also was supposed to use the shower in the 8 person room I was staying in, but I was used to the nice place next door we booked the night before, so I just boldly walked over and used that shower. MUCH nicer. The Canadian kept talking about how the bathroom smelled like cat urine, but I really don't think it was that bad.
Next day we were off for our sailing trip, so I rested up instead of going out. Probably a wise decision. And I had clean clothes to boot.
This was important because for two weeks I brought one backpack and my purse, and forgot a towel. Well done, self.
