Airlie Beach

Waiting for the coach I started speaking to a French guy who had recently been around NZ and was showing us all his pictures and telling us stories of the trip and the best places to go when we are there. One very useful piece of information that I gained from him was about the coaches in Oz he had been travelling with Premier Motor Company, a little quieter than greyhound who we had been using most of the time as the Oz experience buses never seemed to be leaving anywhere at the right time/day for us. Premier were also the cheapest and do almost exactly the same route and stops, he had a hop on hop off ticket from Sydney to Cairns for under $300 and when he took his overnight bus leaving 5 minutes before ours everyone had double seats so cheap and comfortable, definitely something to recommend if you don't mind meeting people in the hostel rather than on the coaches.

Back on the coach and off to the next stop this time it was a 12 hour overnight coach, bearable but not the best nights sleep of the trip for sure.

Finding Base hostel along the main street seemed simple enough, I met Kate sitting by the door covering in diving leaflets trying to plan her next few days. Check in wasn't until 2 however you can leave use the baggage storage, kitchen and chill out room all day, we left our things and went looking for what to do. Airlie beach is one of the nearest parts of the mainland to the Whitsunday Islands, a small group of islands with white sandy beaches, they are very popular with many people go sailing and diving around the islands, We decided a day trip to Whitsundays wasn't really in our budget and we didn't have time to go off and stay on yachts overnight so we looked for other things to do. After a little discussion we hired a car made some lunch and were just about to head off when we met John, we grabbed him and his guitar and headed to (can't remember the name but will find out later) creek, a waterfall in the area. It's about 20km from Airlie beach, fairly simple to find if you have a map or directions. The creek opens up in the trees to a wide open and deep section with the falls at the end, we all swam and ate food followed by Johns lunch supplies he bought for us all, grapes, cheeses and of course some wine to go with it. An ozzie guy was there with snorkel, mask and torch checking the depth and bottom for a guy who then jumped off, after chatting I was convinced and went for a couple of jumps myself, however when you are at the top of a 60ft drop it looks higher from the top.

Back on the ground, some of Johns music earned him a beer from one of the people in the creek and then back to Base for dinner, then the customary free drink given out in most hostels before bed.