Category Archives: Holidays

About any holidays that we go on.

Our Hawai’i Honeymoon Journal

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Our wedding and honeymoon have past, we have distributed our wedding photos, sent out our thankyous, and now five months later have also finished the writing of our honeymoon journal.

We left the day after our wedding, and were very grateful for all the people that gave money towards the honeymoon.  It really did allow us to pack a lot more activities in, see more, and experience more of Hawaii, in comfort and in style.

Hawai’i Honeymoon Journal

Maui Island

24th & 25th October First day of our honeymoon, sunset at Black Rock
26th October Snorkelling and Snuba Diving from boat at Maluaka Beach and Olowalu
27th October Ritz Carlton Banyan Tree Restaurant, Snorkelling from shore at Olowalu, Dinner at a Luau
28th October Driving the Hana Road, Black Sand Beach, Red Sand Beach
29th October Big Beach

Big Island

30th October Clam Bake Buffet Dinner on Mauna Kea Beach
31st October Helicopter tour of the Big Island
1st November Hiking Waipi’o Valley
2nd November Green Sand Beach
3rd November Beaches of Big Island
4th November Snorkelling at Kahaluu
5th November Volcano Night Tour
6th November Snorkelling at Mauna Kea Beach

O’ahu

7th November Arriving in O’ahu
8th November Snorkelling at Sans Souci Beach Park
9th November Snorkelling at Hanauma Bay and Research Pier, Climbing the Lighthouse Lookout, the Blowhole, and a Sunset Cruise
10th November Surfing at Waikiki
11th November Diamond Head, Pali Highway, Snorkelling at Pali

The Highlights

Morven’s most treasured moment
Dinner on the beach at sunset at Mauna Kea Hotel

Dinner on the beach at sunset at Mauna Kea Hotel
Tom’s most treasured moment
Monk Seal

Snorkel diving down to see a Hawaiian Monk Seal rolling around on the sea floor
Morven’s favourite photo

Moray Eel
Tom’s favourite photo

Snorkel Tom and Snuba Morv

Snorkel Tom and Snuba Morv
Morven’s favourite creature
Puffer fish at Hanauma Bay

Puffer fish at Hanauma Bay
Tom’s favourite creature
Green Sea Turtle

Green Sea Turtle
Moreven’s favourite island O’ahu
Tom’s favourite island Maui
What Morven misses the most The Mauna Kea Hotel on the Big Island
What Tom misses the most Swimming alongside the Green Sea Turtles, and awesome snorkelling
Morven’s advice for prospective Hawaii honeymooners Go visit Snorkel Bob on your first day, and find out about snorkelling on the island your on.
Tom’s advice for prospective Hawaii honeymooners If you intend on travelling around the Big Island, it’s pretty much essential to use a 4WD. Whichever island you rent a car on, don’t rely on just maps, use a GPS too! Your holiday time is worth so much more than the cost of renting a GPS.

2011 Airlie Beach & Whitsundays Holiday Journal

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Journal

7th September Scenic seaplane tour over Whitsunday Islands
8th September Hamilton Island and Whitehaven Beach
9th September Crocodile Safari
10th September Snorkelling at Hardy Reef
11th and 12th September Knuckle Reef, and first ever Scuba Dive
13th September Sea Kayaking
14th September Long Island and Daydream Island

The Highlights

Morven’s most treasured moment I don’t know …
Tom’s most treasured moment Seeing a Humpback Whale only about 50m away at Hardy Reef
Morven’s favourite photo
Big smiley crocodile

Big smiley crocodile
Tom’s favourite photo
Heart Reef

Heart Reef
Morven’s favourite creature
Parrot Fish

Parrot Fish
Tom’s favourite creature
Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale
Morven’s favourite island Long Island
Tom’s favourite island Whitsunday Island
What Morven misses the most Being so close to such great snorkelling
What Tom misses the most Walking along the main street of Airlie Beach deciding where and what to eat for dinner
Morven’s advice for prospective Airlie Beach holidaymakers Consider spending half time on Airlie Beach, and half time on an island, especially if you’re going to be there for more than a week.
Tom’s advice for prospective Airlie Beach holidaymakers Don’t book snorkel trips before your holiday. Wait until you have the weather forecast so you can guarantee great snorkelling conditions, and on any days where snorkel weather is poor then go bush walking, rainforest tour, or crocodile safaris.

End of Queensland holiday

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I write this from the plane as we’re about to touch down in Adelaide.

Today, Morven and I ate our last scrumptious breakfast at the Peppers Coral Coast Tides Restaurant.  As we were flying back to Adelaide via Brisbane in the afternoon, there wasn’t much time available for activities today.  So after breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we had our last major indulgence for our holiday and enjoyed an hour full body massage in the couples room at the Endota Day Spa. I write major, as we then walked down to the shops for a quick lunch and a completely unnecessary albeit highly enjoyable and satisfying chocolate and cookies and cream ice cream milkshake, before catching the plane to Brisbane.  Another minor indulgence!

With four hours to spare in Brisbane, we managed to catch up with our Uncle Wayne, and got to see his new kayak.  Morven was grateful for the ninety minutes of guided power touring around Brisbane, with focus on last years flooding.

That is all for our first holiday to the Whitsundays, although stay tuned as over the weekend we’ll update the last fortnights postings to correct spelling and grammar (most of this has been written from my phone), and add photos and extra holiday details, followed by a summary post with our favourite few photos.

Long Island and Daydream Island

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Today we went to Long Island and Daydream Island.

On Long Island, we did the Whitsunday Walk, 3.7km around one end of the island.  We saw some beautiful picturesque views of the ocean from amongst openings of the rain forest.  We also got right up close, about 1 metre from a kookaburra.  We played mini golf, and had lunch followed by mocktails and a walk along the beach.  There is a several hundred metre, enjoyable board walk / jetty to catch a boat to and from Long Island.  As the board walk turned into the jetty, we were not too far down the jetty when Morven saw something in the water.  It looked to be a dark shadow about 2 metres long, which at first she thought was a scuba diver, but there were no bubbles.  After much discussion and second thoughts, it seems that she quite likely saw a dugong.  This made me upset because there would be nothing more exciting for me than to see a dugong – I love the creatures!

On Daydream Island, we had a look at some sharks, manta rays and sting rays in their lagoon, and the sculptures of three mermaids.  Then we went for a relaxed snorkel at Lovers Cove beach, although there was an incident involving rubber soled footwear, a big wet slippery rock, and someone’s bum.  The water visibility was also quite poor.  There was also a headache becoming apparent, so after a casual walk around the resort we passed on an additional mini golf tournament, and took the early boat home.

Tomorrow we hope to visit the hotel’s Endota day spa for a massage each before returning home to Adelaide and visiting our relatives in Brisbane on the way home.

Below is a map of where we tried to go snorkelling at Lovers Cove on Daydream Island.

Below is a map of where we went hiking on Long Island.