Kiana

For my last week in Australia I have been able to start an outrageous journey through a world I didn't even dared to dream of. On Thursday I cached a plane to Hamilton Island, which is located in the Whitsunday's Islands. The group of about 32 Islands is a world heritage natural reservoir and reminds its visitors on the common picture of paradise.
From there you can take the ferry up to shute harbor which is just a few bus minutes away from airlie beach, the backpacker hole in paradise. doing it like that is way cheaper than taking the plane and it can save you at least 40% of your airfare if you fly through hamilton island. Since I had to book it last minute it did save me a lot of money doing this.


First of all I did stayed at Magnus Hotel, which was 18AUD per night. Honestly, it was terrible! It was stinky and people in my room had a party in the room till 3 in the morning, when I had to get up at 6. Instead of 10 people I did face about 40 People in our tiny room and sleep was impossible. Frustrated I went for a walk around Airlie, where tons of drunken idiots were messing around and people (of course) used the beach otherwise. I kinda dislike like this place and I was happy that my sailing trip was about to start on the next day.

Sailing through the Whitsunday's was just stunning and beyond my english vocabulary to describe it properly. But to make a long story short:
The Boat was called "Kiana" and just got a new painting. Our Crew Paul, Paul and Brandon were amazing Characters with an awesome humor and they obviously love their jobs. The food was amazing and I didn't missed anything in those days. They did answer any question with heaps of patience and always had a smile for you.
First day we were heading towards Whit haven Beach. Its same as the islands a natural reservoir and heritage. The beach has the whitest sand in this world and contains the most percentage of silica in this world. You barely can see once you walk through there. They call it the most beautiful beach in this world. Getting there we had to walk through some bush and saw even some lizards and snakes.
The basic feature of the Boat "Kiana" was scuba diving, which is possible to do on board minimum twice a day depending on weather conditions. The weather and sight were just amazing and perfect, so we went out for a lot of diving. Since I never even thought I would do it, I was quite concerned about diving, getting lost or doing something wrong.
Our diving Instructor Paul was very professional and without him I probably wouldn't even put a foot into that water. I never went scuba diving before that but since this boat was sailing to the great barrier reef I thought it would be such a waste not to go diving into open water. I was afraid but I just loved diving there. We did hear whales while diving, swim with sharks and saw so many things I couldn't even imagine or dream of in my life. Unbelievable what is down there and how much life is underwater. The reef is huge and we went down 12 meters through coral. So many colors and different kinds of fish you cant even think of. Basically I did spent all those days wondering and going crazy about everything. Diving through the reef felt a lot like flying through another world on another planet. It doesn't really belong to our world. Everything in there has a purpose and everything in there is pretty busy. You didn't know were to look first, because there is so much to see. Since the tide was really high and currents were rushing you couldn't really stop somewhere to get a closer look. So you have been flying through this blue world, highlighted by all other kinds of colors, form purple up to red, pink, yellow. Even 12 meters deep underwater, the fish was so preciously decorated in colorful clothing. I never thought of diving, but once I have been down there I didn't wanted to leave this world again. I felt comfortable, safe and happy. Its always been a big surprise, when we had to go back there. On the surface you do not see much of this underwater palace, its all just blue. But down there, you are somewhere else. Its been so fascinating. I am still terribly in love with the ocean, the blue over there was just perfect, so I spent hours just watching this water and wondering what else is hidden in this blue world.
Of course one of the best parts have been also the sunrise and sunset surrounded by water as well as watching shooting stars in the middle of the ocean. Things we saw and experienced in that week were just amazing, from turtles to manta rays. I think the pictures you can see in this album will speak for themselves. Its paradise.

Just one thing that made it quite hard to do anything out there, was that I must have broken my rib in Sydney about 3 weeks ago and been in pain since then.

On the way back as a farewell gift we did saw whales as well and on the ferry back to hamilton island dolphins gave us company while getting a ride back to the airport. Leaving behind an unforgettable weekend in the Whitsunday's and one of the best vacations I ever had or ever could have been dreaming of.