Make a Wish Come True!!!!

The choppers

The beautiful Whitsundays

Whitehaven beach and Hill Inlet. The black water is from oil leeching out of the trees due to the large amounts of rain in Queensland.

Sienna's catch of the day

Cap'n Seth at the helm !

One of the many waterfalls due to the rainfall over the past 2 weeks. This one at Cid Harbour.

Our Boat "Brazilian Beauty".

We have arrived back from what was a fantastic week away to the Whitsunday's. Seth was granted his wish of sleeping on a boat and riding in a helicopter from the very generous "Make a Wish Foundation". It was the holiday of a life time for our family and we are so grateful that we have been able to enjoy this time together. We started off with a flight out from Sydney to Proserpine with a stopover in Brisbane. When we arrived, it was raining and flooding and we were told that it had been like that for a couple of weeks. The helicopter flight was deferred until the weather cleared up, so we went straight to the Waters Edge Apartments at Airlie Beach and relaxed. The kids had a swim in the pool, and Brett relaxed in the spa before heading out to dinner. We were up early the next morning to board our vessel "Brazilian Beauty". Brett had a 3 hour lesson run-down whilst the kids and I packed away our food & clothes, got fitted for our stinger suits and made the beds. As we finished Brett came down to the boat with the instructor and off we went. The wind was blowing and the rain was falling but we couldn't care less. After some practical advice and lesson's we dropped off our guide at Daydream Island and we were on our own. We spent our first night at Nara Inlet which was very protected from the wind and swell. The scenery was spectacular as the islands are very mountainous and the cloud hugged them so they looked quite mystical. The next day we woke to the blue sky trying to poke its way through the clouds. Nara inlet was so beautiful with waterfalls falling down the sides of the cliffs and into the sea. We sighted our first Sea Eagle and enjoyed a majestic rainbow arching over the island. We decided to go for a bushwalk which took us up to visit a cave with Aboriginal paintings and gave us a nice view towards just some of the many waterfalls in Nara Inlet. Once we had lunch, we pulled up anchor and sailed around to another protected area called Cid Harbour. This place was breathtaking, with more waterfalls into the sea, soaring mountain tops and the bluest water. The following day, we did another bush walk around into the next bay called Dugong Bay. This too was spectacular at every turn. One minute you are walking through bush, then rainforest, then a palm groves and then we were surrounded by towering Norfolk Pines. We waded through rivers and waterfalls and ended up all alone on yet another gorgeous beach. We didn't sight any Dugongs that day, but they are known to be in that area. We did however get a glimpse of a great big sea turtle that came up for air next to our boat before continuing his journey around the bay. We upped anchor once again and travelled to Hamilton Island, were we stayed there for 2 nights as the forecast was for big seas and strong winds. This gave the kids a chance to run around on a developed island. With the price of our berth, we were able to use all the resorts facilities so we caught the free shuttle bus over to the resort pool for a swim. The kids had never seen a resort before and were a bit awestruck. We ate pizza at a restaurant that night and slept well on our boat. The following day we practised our golf swing at the driving range, we went right around the island on the shuttle bus, walked around the sights, took lots of photo's and visited the art gallery while waiting for our fish and chips. We had some stiff competition with some local cockatoos over lunch, but we managed to fill our bellies to bursting and returned to the boat to get into swimmers for another trip to the pool. We ate dinner on the boat and went out for a game of 9 pin bowling - which is similar to 10 pin, but the balls are half the size of a normal bowling ball and makes it ideal for kids. The girls won all the games and the boys hung their heads in shame. We took the shuttle back to the marina and walked down to the ice cream parlour for a wickedly delicious hot fudge sundae to top off the night. The following morning, we left for a place called Butterfly Bay, where we could snorkel the reef. There were so many colourful fish and such a variety of coral we were not disappointed. We then headed back to Cid Harbour for our final night on the boat and the kids went fishing and boy did they have fun. Seth and Taylah caught lots of tiddlers and Sienna caught the biggest fish of the holiday. It could easily have fed our family but it was looking at us with such sad eyes so we let him live another day, much to Sienna's disappointment. We had some big fights with some very strong fish and in the end, the fish won, they took the bait and spat the hook and finally one whopper snapped the whole line right off. There were many big ones that got away but not before they gave us some very excited children. The next day, we set sail for the mainland to say goodbye to our boat. Whilst it was sad that this leg of our journey was now over, we were lucky enough to be looking forward to our helicopter flight. We settled in back at the apartment, had lunch, watched tv, rested and relaxed and at 3pm we headed down to reception where we were met by a limousine to take us out to where the helicopters landed. As you can imagine, the kids were beside themselves at the chance to ride in a limo and things just went up and up from there. For me, this was the highlight of the holiday. The view from the chopper was nothing short of amazing. The experience of riding in a helicopter in high winds was quite an adrenaline rush. Finally we landed on Whitehaven Beach and we had it all to ourselves. We had to take 2 helicopters as they couldn't fit us all in one and our pilots Mike and Forest set us up on the beach with a picnic hamper, stinger suits, snorkelling gear and then left us to our own devices. Whitehaven beach has some of the whitest sand in the world and it is so fine and soft, almost like icing sugar. We raced into the water looking very classy in our stinger suits and had a lovely time playing in the waves. We then filled our bellies with delicious food and drink and while the kids played in the sand, I wandered the beach taking photos and Brett relaxed and watched the scenery. We left just as day was turning into night and got some more spectacular photos. We went back to the apartment and put some very tired children to bed. Our last day arrived far too quick, so we decided to make the most of it and headed out early to explore Airlie Beach. They had some markets which we wandered through and the kids bought some keepsakes of their holiday. We then walked down to the man made lagoon and let the kids loose in the water. Afterwards, we returned to the apartment, showered and changed and were once again met by a limousine to take us to the airport. We arrived home around 8pm that night totally exhausted, but incredibly happy. This was a once in a life time holiday that can never be duplicated and will be remembered by each of us forever. Thank you "Make a Wish" for giving us such beautiful memories to hold onto.