Holiday - part 1

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Fauna

A couple of months ago I was looking at the pilot schedule through to the end of the year. We've had a number of pilots 'go finish' and as a result, we're pretty thin on the ground. As one of only (now) two pilots based in Hagen, I can't just take a holiday whenever I like. The other Hagen-based pilot had planned to be on holiday for all of October, in mid-November we have our annual pilots' meeting (which I missed last year due to being on home assignment), in early December I am supposed to be doing some training... I realised that if I wanted a holiday before Christmas, it needed to be in September!

Raewyn has been working as a locum in Townsville, with her placement ending at the end of August. So the timing was sorted... the next question, where should we go?

We decided to have a more laid back holiday than our campervanning road trip last year, and spend the majority of our time in the Whitsundays.

Raewyn and I at Whitehaven beach

I flew into Cairns, stayed the night with a MAF friend, and caught the train down to Townsville the following day. Except that the train stopped at Babinda and didn't continue. Eventually we were told by the staff that there had been an 'incident' further south that had affected the road and the rail corridor, so the train would be returning to Cairns with no replacement provided. They made the obligatory apology for any inconvenience caused...

Thankfully the MAF office in Cairns is located very close to the railway station, so once we got back I hightailed over there to jump online and find an alternative option. I was thinking that Raewyn would have to drive up and collect me, but someone happened to be planning to drive to Cardwell that afternoon and was happy to give me a lift. Cardwell is about half-way to Townsville, so I called Raewyn and arranged to meet her there. We arrived in Townsville around 10 pm, so our holiday plans were back on track!

We had the weekend in Townsville, which I had last visited shortly before winning the MIQ lottery and being allowed back into NZ (remember those times?). It was good to create some happier memories!

We spent a day at Magnetic Island doing some of the bush walks, and then took the train (which was running again) to Proserpine and the connecting bus to Airlie Beach.

Our plan was to spend four nights at Airlie Beach, doing bush walks and taking day tours out to the reef, before taking a water taxi out to an island resort for another four nights.

We ended up only doing one bush walk, but it was worthwhile.

View of Airlie Beach marina from the Honeyeater lookout

The next morning, as we were getting ready to head to the marina for our first snorkelling day tour (including a visit to Whitehaven Beach), Raewyn received a phone call from the tour company to say that due to strong winds, our tour wouldn't be going ahead. They asked if we could go on another day, but since we already had other things lined up, we had to tell them no.

After the phone call, we sat there in disappointment for a few minutes, until I remembered that when I had been researching the trip there had been a myriad of tour options. Maybe there was an afternoon tour that we could book instead?

Yes, there was! - a half day tour to Whitehaven beach. We called them up and asked a) if they were running - yes, and b) if there was space for two people - yes. They warned us that it was quite windy today so likely to be a bit of a swell; we told them we were aware of that.

We boarded the boat and were told that we would be stopping at Daydream Island and then Hamilton Island, where we would transfer to another boat to take us to Whitehaven. The swell was noticeable, but no worse than an average Cook Strait crossing.

As we arrived at Hamilton Island, we were told that the second boat would be arriving shortly. But as we disembarked, the staff there told us that the second boat had a mechanical problem and so the Whitehaven part of the tour was cancelled. We dutifully lined up at the bookings counter and were told they would refund the entire cost of the tour (less an administration fee of around $5) and we could either return on the 4 pm or the 5 pm boat.

We decided to go for a walk around Hamilton Island (which hadn't even been on our itinerary) and take the 5 pm boat back. Due to the wind, the beaches were pretty deserted. We were a bit taken aback by the prevalence of golf carts - obviously the preferred means of transport between the various resorts!

As we took the 5 pm boat back, we were appreciative that we had got to spend an afternoon at Hamilton Island essentially for free, but also wondering if the theme of this holiday was going to be 'sorry, it's been cancelled.'

(As you can see from the photo above, we did actually make it to Whitehaven beach... eventually)