It’s hard to believe that just last week we were sailing the Whitsunday Islands and now we’re in New York City! Seriously… crazy! It was the most AMAZING Whitsundays sailing trip and we’re struggling to find the words to describe our experience. The photos don’t even do it justice!
We just can’t believe we waited this long to get our butts to the Whitsundays! It’s officially our most favourite holiday destination in Australia and we think it should be the law that everyone visits! Deal? Ok! Done!
Although we only spent two days there, it was two days of pure golden bliss. Two days we’ll never forget! The trip was part of our ProBlogger conference experience (if you’re a blogger or aspiring blogger you should probably, no definitely look up ProBlogger and get to a 2015 event). We were lucky enough to be chosen to attend one of the blogger famils by Tourism & Events Queensland and Tourism Whitsundays. And WOAH we are sending huge love and gratitude their way! If you’re not sure what a famil is… it’s something that shows the very best of a destination, venue or ‘thing’. So basically this means our two day trip was filled with the BEST the Whitsundays has to offer… which means we’ve got all the goods to share with you so you can start planning your Whitsundays holiday!
Here’s what we got up to…
Our Whitsundays Sailing Trip.
We flew from Brisbane to Hamilton Island and it was the BEST plane landing we’ve ever experienced. We thought… why so? The answer… we don’t know and we couldn’t be bothered to google it but we’re guessing it was because there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky… except that tiny baby cloud riiiiiiight there!
We met up with the lovely Chelsea from Tourism Whitsundays. She had a little sign for us bloggers. Yes, we felt special and now we want signs at every landing! Sort of kidding, but not really!
Lunch was first on the agenda. We went to Manta Ray Cafe and our menu choice was easy peasy! Seafood… duh! Baked salmon to be precise!
You might be thinking…. Merrymakers that pizza doesn’t look too paleo or seadfoody. They belonged to our new blogger besties, Rachel from Redcliffe Style and Valyn from Valynlim.com.
Next stop was meeting our skipper named Leslie and getting on our boat, which was actually a yacht! Everything was automatic so all we had to do was relax on this awesome trampoline thing. Our yacht’s name was ‘Happy Hour’. Just to be cliche… EVERY hour was happy on that boat.
There were a lot of ‘is this even real?’ moments! How fun is this epic selfie!
We watched the amazing sunset then anchored at Nala Inlet and had barramunndi and salad for dinner. #yum
We’re kinda obsessed with the moon and stars but star gazing while on a yacht, in the Whitsundays, listening to the water slowly lapping… FAR OUT! Far out! This is the stuff dreams are made of, we’ll never forget it.
But wait… yeah it gets even better! We woke up surrounded by the bluest of all waters. This sort of blew (pun intended) our minds… we had to pinch ourselves. It was like someone had coloured it with food dye but apparently it’s so blue because of the silica in the sand. The water reflects light differently to regular sand and makes this magical, aqua blue colour. It’s amazing.
The yacht has a great little kitchen (actually it’s bigger than ours at Merrymaker HQ!) plus a BBQ on the deck! We enjoyed bacon and eggs for brekky while drinking cups of tea and singing loudly and badly. We hadn’t even known our new blogger friends (Rachel and Valyn), Leslie and Chelsea for 24 hrs and we were having a sing-a-long at the brekky table. Instant friends or what?!
We hiked part of the Ngaro Sea Trail to view some indigenous caves and paintings. This trail actually stretches over 3 islands – Hook, South Molle and Whitsunday Islands. Then we yacht-ed (is that a word?) through the Hook Passage to our snorkel spot – Dumbell Reef (it really does look like a dumbell!). Emma ALMOST wasn’t going to get in as it was a tad cold… but Leslie had a better idea! The colours of the reef and all the little fishies were so beautiful, like a whole other world. After we all freaked out at the sound of our own breath (it’s so much louder under water) we clambered (this is a boat word) back on to our Happy Hour.
Landed on Tongue Bay to hike to the Hill Inlet lookout (where you can see the famous swirling sands of Whitehaven Beach), literally no words… just look and stare for a while.
Oh Whitehaven, where have you been all our lives? Whitehaven is a 7km long beach with the world’s softest most white sand. It literally squeaks with every step you take.
There are no waves… it is a giant swimming pool (our kind of beach!). Many a selfie were taken here.
We seem to have caught this new obsession with a big head Carla and little Emma in the background… it’s a little bit fun! Take a look at our sailing adventure via map!
We clambered (had to use that word once more!) on to the Yacht for one last sail back to Hamilton Island! It doesn’t stop here… we then crusied on over to Airlie Beach (this takes around an hour and 20 minutes) and were dropped off at the Coral Sea Resort for a little downtime before dinner.
Dinner was EPIC! We’re talking the world’s best sashimi (well, the best sashimi we’ve ever had), grilled mackerel, king prawns, Moreton Bay bugs (yum and fancy!) and delish salads. Plus… why not whack a sugar free mojito in there too?! Fish Dvine are renowned for their mojitos… in fact they were rated the number 1 mojito in the WORLD. So we kind of had to try it! When in Whitsundays, right?!
In the morning we woke up to ocean views and went on down to Abbell Point Marina. Of course, we enjoyed another epic meal and heard all about the AMAZING upgrades to the marina. This stuff was weirdly fascinating and if you’re a boat-y person you’ll want to check it all out here!
So you can probably tell from our play-by-play that we had a really, really, REALLY amazing time on our Whitsundays sailing trip! This place may well take over the Greek Islands being our #1 favourite place in the world… the fact that it’s only a 3 hour plane ride away from Canberra (rather than 24 hours, like 8 different time zones, a different currency and language), makes it for a much easier paradise getaway!
Sending virtual hugs, high fives and good vibes to Tourism & Events Queensland, Tourism Whitsundays and the ProBlogger Team! Thank you for sharing this little beauty with us… we will be back…
Always merrymaking,
Emma + Carla
P.s you’ll also want to check out this awesome little video Redcliffe Style put together of our trip! How cute is it?!
http://youtu.be/oAxDlcIq7eQ