Swings and Roundabouts... in Airlie Beach

You know you’ve done it before. Whether it was in innocence or just to try your luck. Maybe there were misleading signs, and maybe you were in a rush. Or maybe you just thought you’d get away with it. But, if you have a vehicle of any kind, you know you’ve done it. You’ve parked where you weren’t supposed to… and got a fine. And it still hurts.

But let me backtrack just a little...

We left the amazing country of New Zealand on a real high, as our last stop was Coromandel in the north island, home to the gorgeous beaches of Cathedral Coves and Hot Water. I can honestly say that being a sun-worshipper is not my only reason for finding both of these attractions so special. The aptly named Hot Water Beach was nothing like anything I have ever seen, and maybe something I’ll never see again. Its name comes from the underground hot springs which surface on the sand - a legacy of Coromandel’s geothermal past. For you and me, this means that you can take a spade and basically create your own hot tub anywhere on the beach. You just need to go two hours either side of low tide… and dig.

I don’t know if it would be uncomfortable during a hot summer’s day, but soaking in a little pool of hot water in a bathtub made of sand, next to the crisp, cold sea water, under the weaker, ‘end-of-season’ rays with the morning breeze cool on my goose-bumpy skin was the weirdest but most wonderful sensation. No other beach will ever compare. You can see the photos of this and last week's post about Hobitton and the Maori Geothermal Village here. Thank you for visiting New Zealand!

Ready for a sunny adventure in Australia, we started in the seaside city of Cairns, where Isma got to scuba dive for the first time this year, and I got to go to the theatre for the first time this year! New toiletries in tow, fresh laundry in hand, we got the camper van we’re in now, and got back on the road. We have given ourselves a tight schedule of 10 days to get to Sydney, around 2500km south of Cairns… so it’s not surprising that the only Kangaroos we have seen until now are unfortunately those lying on the sides of the road as we chug along the east coast of this massive country.

Our first stop was the nearby Mission Beach - a sandy beach that is too dangerous to swim in, but nonetheless a beautiful spot to see the sunrise in the morning. By 9am it was already warm, and not being able to jump into the sea felt too much like torture, so we headed down to Airlie Beach - a 7 hour drive south. Not having planned this part of the trip in much depth, we sat in a McDonald’s along with other campers competing to get the most out of the free WiFi. We soon worked out there wasn’t much to do in yet another town where the beautiful beaches aren’t safe to swim in, other than taking a tour to local attraction: Whitsunday Islands: a collection of deserted, tropical islands off the central coast in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. We desperately scribbled out our exact itinerary before realising with delayed urgency that we had only left ourselves the next day to visit paradise unless we wanted to do a 24 hour drive at some point. Epic fail. Unable to find availability for ferries to take us to the Whitsunday Islands, we called it a night in hope of getting better luck the next day. Tired, and frustrated, we parked up in the shadows of Macdonald’s car park and slept. Tomorrow was a whole new day.

And what a terrible day it was! We woke up to find a camping fine on the windscreen. 220 Australian dollars, and no discount for early payment. Welcome to Australia! You know what goes through your mind. Feelings of completely unjustified anger over laws being enforced so efficiently, followed by self-pity because, no matter how much money you have, you never have enough to be okay with paying a parking fine. Every swear word becomes a punctuation mark in the rant in your head or the one you choose to share with the person who is unlucky enough to be with you. Life is just awful for the next fifteen minutes.

With another reason to hate the American fast food chain, we got some perspective and thought “let’s not let it ruin our day!”. But tourist information did that for us when they confirmed every single tour to the islands was fully booked - apparently we are in the Easter holidays.

So, we’re back on the road now, driving to Agnes Water, some 700km south of Airlie Beach and the GPS has taken us on a one hour detour through what looks like a forest with a dead end, which is the last thing we need after eight hours of driving. My usual mantra of 'fail to plan, plan to fail' keeps going through my mind. But then so does the old age expression of 'everything happens for a reason'. I guess only time will tell if the latter is true…

Guess what I found out in Airlie Beach?

1. The Whitsunday Islands got their name from Captain Cook discovering them on Whitsunday - the Sunday of the feast of Whitsun which is observed seven weeks after Easter in accordance with the Christian calendar. As the international date line had not yet been established, it was actually discovered on Whit Monday.

2. Apparently, around 500,000 visitors enjoy the Whitsunday islands every year, whether it's to go sailing, snorkelling or both. Of course, you'll have to subtract this number by two this year :(

3. Non-Australian debit cards do not tend to work in Australian card machines, even when you’re trying to rent a car or do something else “touristy”. However, when you need to pay a camping fine, they work immediately. Funny that.