AIRLIE BEACH: 'WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS'

G'day mate,

The part of our holiday that I'm going to tell you about now was probably the best of all the amazing things we have done so far.

As I said in my previous post, we drove from Mission Beach to Airlie Beach.
This was for a reason.
Australia is famous for its Whitsunday Islands, and then especially Whitehaven Beach.
All tours to the islands start in Airlie Beach.

We did a 3 day sailing trip to the Whitsundays!
It was a-ma-zing.
We were on a beautiful boat with ten other people -including 2 skippers-.
The boat used to be a competitive sailing boat, so in the beginning we did some active, sporty sailing.
But.. That was really short, the rest of the trip there was almost no wind so we did relaxing, sunbathing sailing.

Both nice right? haha.

We were so lucky because we saw 6 whales. Two of them really close to our boat.
It was so special and cool!
-It is breeding season at the moment so we saw many baby whales.-

We did lots of snorkeling and saw the most amazing fish and coral.
It was like swimming in an aquarium.

On the second day we went to Whitehaven Beach which was breathtaking.
It is the most beautiful place I have ever been.
Such white sand and blue water.
Incredible.
I will have to show the pictures, for you to understand what I'm talking about.
-Though in real life it is even better-

It was amazing...
We also met some really nice people! 4 girls from Italy and a girl from Argentina!
So that was really interesting and fun!
-My parents also made friends haha.-

Love,
Isabelle

ALICE SPRINGS: WILD ROCKWALLABY

Hii,
I kind of forgot to write about something very special in the last post..
On our last day in Alice Springs we saw a wallaby!
Now you might think; 'What is a wallaby again...?'
According to Wikipedia:
A wallaby is any of about thirty species of Macropodidae family. It is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been designated otherwise.

Okay, maybe this doesn't work.. Basically a wallaby is similar to a kangaroo, but smaller. Our tour guide in Uluru told us the main difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo is that a kangaroo has his tail connected to his spine, which makes him able to jump with his tail. A wallaby has his tail not connected to his spine, so he can not stand on it.

Here are some pictures of the wild rockwallaby we saw.

SPOT THE WALLABY! Aren't they hard to see!? We waited for half an hour, we were looking and looking, but suddenly there was a wallaby sitting next to my dad. So strange, but so funny.

Love,
Isabelle

FINALLY: SYDNEY

Dear all,

Here I (finally) am, writing this post on my laptop from our hotel in Sydney.

First of all I want to say I am having an amazing time and I have been absolutely loving Sydney!

Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been..

Since I haven't posted anything yet -due to not having free-wifi- I will give a quick summary of what has happened so far.

23th of July

We had an 13 hour flight from Amsterdam to Singapore -in business class which made it so much fun.

The stewards asked me where my journey ended/started and when they heard my answer they were all like: 'Ah Australia, I love it! The vibe is so nice, and all the people are so relaxed and down to earth.'

As you understand I couldn't wait till we got to our destination..

24th of July

We arrived at Singapore airport and we had 5 hours to do what we wanted.

We chose to go swimming at the swimming pool from a hotel on Terminal 1.

It was so so hot outside and we were pretty tired already, but a nice dive can help a lot.

After that we showered, and felt all fresh again to start another 7,5 hour flight to Sydney.

25th of July

At 6 in the morning (Australian time) we arrived at Sydney Airport.

Since we kind of skipped two nights we had no idea of time anymore but it didn't matter at all

because we were SO excited to see the city and see our hotel.

The time difference between Holland and Sydney is 8 hours by the way, it is 8 hours later over here.

The hotel is lovely and it is located in the middle of the centre which is awesome!

We walked around Darling Harbour and because it was so early still, there were almost no people on the streets. 

The atmosphere was so calm and relaxed, we immediately loved it!

Then we walked through the City part, with all the business people.

So gorgeous, and so New-York like!

That same day we also went to Paddington, a very bohemian quarter with lots of vintage shops. I bought some really nice boots :)

We ended up at one of Australia's best restaurants, Benthleys.

Delicious food and drinks.

26th of July

This day we slept till 10.30 because we were so tired.

We had the most amazing breakfast ever at our hotel and afterwards we went to the Opera House.

We did a tour through the Opera House, it was so interesting and inspiring!

The building is so beautiful and so impressive.

We had lunch in front of it. 

Best spot ever.

After our tour we went to The Rocks and we walked over the Sydney Harbour bridge (fun fact: locals like to call it 'The Coathanger').

The view was breathtaking.

-Especially for my dad with his vertigo.-

The Rocks is another super cute area with lots and lots of nice restaurants.

We popped into a pub for a drink, again, the atmosphere was amazing!

This evening we had dinner at Darling Harbour.

So many young people enjoying their night out!

As you can hear, we have already fallen in love with Sydney..

Our amazingly funny tour guide.

Love,

Isabelle

All photos by Isabelle Verhaegh