Whitsunday Islands — RachiePie

I have always wanted to visit the Whitsunday Islands as all the pictures of the area look absolutely stunning. The Whitsunday Islands are located off the Queensland coast in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. The majority of the 74 islands in the Whitsundays are uninhabited national park islands and only four have resorts built on them. We booked a 2-Night/2-Day Catamaran Cruise with Sailing Whitsundays and had an amazing experience exploring this island chain. We boarded the catamaran from Airlie Beach at 4:00pm on Wednesday and started our journey towards the Whitsundays. There were three other couples on the cruise in addition to the Skipper and his deckhand. One couple was from New Zealand, another couple was from France and the third were American students studying abroad in Sydney.

We got to enjoy the sunset from the boat and had a great dinner of salmon and salad on the first evening. Around 9:00pm, we anchored off of Whitehaven Beach and ended up taking the dingy to the beach to explore by flashlight. There was a small lagoon on the beach and in the water we saw two small lemon sharks, stingrays and many fish (the fish would jump out of the water when the flashlight was on them!). Probably one of the biggest highlights of the evening was seeing bioluminescent plankton for the first time. Bioluminescent plankton, or "sea sparkle," occurs when a chemical in the plankton called luciferin produces light and the plankton glow in the dark when disturbed. It was so unexpected to see it here and both Alex and I were VERY excited and awed by this effect!

I was pretty nervous going into the cruise on whether or not I would be able to sleep in one of the small cabins without feeling nauseated from the movement of the waves. Thankfully, the water was very smooth and in typical Rachel fashion, I was worried about nothing! I did bring along some motion sickness tablets just to be safe and did end up taking one at night, but overall it was surprisingly smooth! Our cabin was small, but actually pretty comfortable.

Our first full day in the Whitsundays, we again boarded the dingy boat and made our way to Whitehaven Beach. Consistently voted as one of Australia's most beautiful beaches, Whitehaven Beach is made up of 98% silica and the sand is pure white. It is so fine, it looks similar to baby powder and can be used to clean your diamonds and jewelry. But because the sand is so fine, we were told to be careful as it can be very damaging to phones and cameras!

One of the best views of Whitehaven Beach is from Hill Inlet lookout. During low tide, the sea and sand swirl around creating different shades of blue and the effect is just so beautiful.

After hiking up to the lookout, we walked down onto the beach and put our feet in the crystal clear water. This is the main beach on Whitehaven Island so we did not spend much time in this location as it gets very busy. Instead, we boarded the dingy again and cruised over to one of the southern beaches on the island. Once there, we got to paddle board, swim, and walk along the beach. There were no other people or boats in the bay and it was such a fun way to spend the morning.

The secluded beach where we spent the morning

Alex paddle boarding with our catamaran, The Entice, in the background

We spent the afternoon snorkeling on the reef and saw some beautiful and bright corals. In the evening, we were able to explore Honeymoon Bay and watch the sunset. The tide was really low when we arrived and we got to walk among the corals, some which were sticking out of the water. We even got to see a baby epaulette shark. It was so pretty with its spots and blended right into the corals.

On our last morning in the Whitsunday Islands we cruised to another snorkeling spot, Peter's Bay, and were able to paddle board around the corals. Alex and I shared a paddle board and spent some time viewing the corals from the paddle board. We also paddled closer to the shore and saw multiple green sea turtles (!!!!!) and lots of stingrays. It was a perfect way to end our cruise of the Whitsunday Islands before making our way back to Airlie Beach.

We had so much fun on our cruise and the Whitsundays were even more beautiful than I could have imagined. It was great being able to explore by boat and we will be spending the next few days at one of the island resorts to enjoy the Whitsunday Islands for a bit longer. We have 13 days left in this amazing country (seriously Australia, how can I leave you?!?!) and it is passing by all too quickly!