Airlie Beach

In the news they said there is a cyclone building up and it’s expected to landfall in the area we just were in. They called it cyclone Debbie. The storm was still a few days away from the coast line, so we decided to shorten the visit of the marvelous Whitsunday Islands and head further south. The weather turned unstable with scattered rain showers every now and then.

But today, we made Airlie Beach our ‘operation base’. We got a good deal at one of the motels a bit out of town and booked an Island tour to Daydream, Hamilton and Whitehaven Beach for the next day. We were a bit concerned about the weather, but it turned out to be ok along the trip.

Whitsundays

First we visited Daydream Island. Our tour guide explained that the island and it’s resort had been acquired by a Chinese investment group and is scheduled for major modernization work. On the island, there were two remarkable sights: The ‘living reef’ aquarium and the mermaid statues.

The living reef aquarium is a huge lagoon-like out- and indoor pool with live corals and dozens of species of fish and other reef dwellers. We had the opportunity to experience the feeding show of the impressive stingrays, which was nice.

The mermaids statues have been the landmark of Daydream Island. The photo below is historically interesting. It might be one of the last ones taken with all three original statues in place. Cyclone Debbie washed two of them away a few days later.

We continued on to Hamilton Island for a quick lunch. The island has been over-developed in the past two decades for my taste. We strolled around the harbor and took a look into some of the art galleries located at the harbor. Then it was time to head off for Whitehaven Beach.

Whitehaven Beach is said to be the ‘whitest beach’ on earth. Our tour guide said that scientist still debate where the white sand comes from. It’s certainly not native to the island and must have been washed here from some unknown source.  The sand is so clean that NASA has used it for high-end telescope lenses, our guide explained.

So we took a swim – of course fully wrapped in a stinger-suit, which the tour operator provided – in the warm water. It was really relaxing as our tour guide opted to look after our little one for a few minutes. About an hour later heavy rain set in unfortunately. But it was time to pack and head back to Airlie Beach anyway.