Airlie Beach Condo

Last night was the first night that we’d been up late so we were very proud of ourselves. We got back to the room and packed up before finally calling it a night. We had an early flight this morning from Melbourne up to the Whitsunday Islands area in Northern Australia. We were really impressed with our Uber driver who was from Pakistan but had been living in Australia for about 6 years. We really enjoyed hearing about his village and why he decided to leave to pursue a life in a place where he only knew two people. Think about that for a moment. He left his home to move to a new land where he knew TWO people. Man that is brave! He was very kind and we just really, really enjoyed him.

The airports here are both from the future and from the past. We checked in with our budget airline (Jet Star) by placing our luggage on a conveyor belt that weighed it and set it for processing. We printed our receipt from there and never spoke to a single person. It was like what we imagine travel in the U.S. will be like in 2025! Then security is a breeze. You remove laptops but liquids of all sizes are allowed. You do not need an i.d. or a boarding pass to go through. WHAT?! It was like 1980! (Or so Jackson says. I do not recall such times. HA!) Additionally, their flight routes are much more like bus routes in the U.S. so gate assignments do not happen until about 30 minutes before flight time. You hustle from the lobby area to your gate and load immediately. They load planes from both the front and the back which makes it much smoother! 

Puppy pick up crew

 Our Airbnb host, Glenda, picked us up at the airport with her dogs, Luna and Buffet. I was ELATED.

The view from our place

Amazing.

We got settled in at the condo and then walked down into town to grab lunch and go to the beach. There is a hole in the ozone layer down here so it is really important to wear tons of sunscreen so that you don't get burnt to a crisp. The town is a little pricier than we expected so we opted for a lunch at Subway. They don't serve potato chips at the Subways down here they told us. It was so interesting.

Lunch at a little known restaurant: Subway

The "stingers" (aka jellyfish) hang out by the shore so the beach has to be netted so that you can swim there. I guess the jellyfish are not so bad out in the open water, but near shore they get so dense that they're a real issue. 

Netted beach = no sharks!

Obsessed with this view

We hung at the beach for a bit before deciding that we liked the view from the condo better. We stopped at the grocery store and grabbed items for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow for under $35AUD. That was pretty impressive with the resort prices! The condo has a rooftop pool and grill so we were in business. We had hamburgers with bacon, macaroni salad, potato chips, pineapple and strawberries. It was amazing. There is nothing like home-cooked food!

Dinner with a view

We planned to not make the journey back into town until tomorrow, but I ended up needing some supplies so we had to go back down the massive hill that we are on to the grocery. Down isn't so bad, of course. The uphill climb is just brutal, though. My poor knee. :( 

We're going to retire a bit early again tonight since it was a late night last night with an early morning. Tomorrow we plan to explore Airlie Beach the town a bit and just kind of relax. Lovely!