island action

Forget lying on the beach, Queensland’s Whitsunday Islands were made for adventure. Can you take it?

WORDS CRAIG TANSLEY

Take a leap of faith and go
sky-diving

It’s 10.30am on a Monday morning and our plane has just touched down at Whitsunday Airport, just west of Airlie Beach. Was it really only two hours ago our taxi was caught in rain and peak-hour traffic in Sydney? Walking down the steps into 30°C sunshine in tropical North Queensland has improved my week already, although if anyone thinks this week is about relaxation, think again. While the Whitsundays might be all about piña coladas and banana lounges for some, my week is all about adrenaline and adventure.

What better way to get the holiday off to a flying start than taking in a bird’s eye view of our surrounds? At the township of Airlie Beach, we board a light seaplane with Air Whitsunday (AU$165) and cruise above the Whitsundays before setting down on

Whitehaven Beach with a picnic hamper, a bottle of bubbly and a blanket. Whitehaven Beach is more than just a beach, it’s a mirage; the mountains behind Hill Inlet form a backdrop to what has to be the most stunning aqua-marine colours in nature. Throw in pure white silica sand and you have the prototype for the ultimate beachcomber fantasy.

what’s not to celebrate when you
land in style at Whitehaven Beach?

Buzzed and ready to shake things up, it’s time to get dirty and into gear. Bush Adventures offers a two-hour quad-biking tour (AU$115) through a cattle farm and rainforest and up a mountain. I have to confess I’ve developed quite a passion for the four-wheeled bike variety and have been lucky enough to ride them all over the world. But this ride is the most heart-stopping I’ve had yet – and that includes a ride through the hilltop villages of Jamaica, down tracks twisting to the sea.

slow things down with a stroll
along Airlie Beach

After gripping the handlebars with white-knuckle intensity – and with a dozen adventures still to try – it’s time to tone things down a little. So off we go for 18 holes at Turtle Point, Laguna Quays, one of Australia’s top-rated public courses (AU$95 for 18 holes, AU$75 for in-house guests). Kangaroos leap past us and dolphins surface along the holes that run beside the Whitsunday Passage as we make our way around this golf course nature park.

The second day dawns and more action beckons. We take off in the morning with Ocean Rafting for a Southern Lights expedition (AU$103), which sees us hurtling across the Whitsunday Passage at break-neck speeds. We snorkel in the coral gardens off Border Island, bush walk at Nara Inlet and loll in the heavenly waters of Hill Inlet at Whitehaven Beach.

This is no flight of fantasy – it’s all
real

Back on the mainland, for a change of pace, we take a crocodile-spotting cruise inland with Proserpine River Eco Tours (AU$98). The cruise takes us up Proserpine River, where around 150 saltwater crocs live, through mangrove, freshwater wetlands and melaleuca forest, before we feast on a barbecue with damper and Billy tea. It’s about as Aussie as it comes.

But enough of the bush, we want more sea and specifically, under the sea… time to learn to dive on the Great Barrier Reef. For first-timers, a PADI open-water dive certificate can be yours in three days with The Scuba Centre (AU$475; AU$99 for cruise only; AU$45 per dive). Enough has been said about this reef – you have to see it to believe it.

make new friends in the underwater
world

Of course, the other extreme is jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet with Tandem Skydive (from AU$249 for a tandem dive). The rush that comes from a sky-dive can’t be beaten – it’s pure heart-in-your-mouth stuff – all the fun is in the freefall, the parachute ride feels like a walk in the park. The incredible views over the Whitsundays are what make this one of the greatest drop zones in the world.

Catch a camel to enjoy Airlie Beach

For a more leisurely way to soak in the views, try a camel ride along the foreshore at Airlie Beach with Whitsunday Camels (AU$15 per lap of the beach), or go sea kayaking with the appropriately named Salty Dog Kayak Tours (AU$70 for a half day tour). We paddle across to nearby islands but our 3km paddle feels ridiculously easy when our guide tells us he paddled to Papua New Guinea last year; it took him seven months. “I had a crocodile bite the end of my kayak off up Far North Queensland,” he said. “What’d you do?” I ask. “Mate, what can you do when a crocodile grabs hold of your kayak? You just sit there and hope he doesn’t like the taste.”

paddle power with a kayak

It’s hard to believe we’ve done so much but still haven’t fully accessed the Whitsundays! The islands are what most people come here for and we have a ticket to ride to Hamilton Island. Catching a Fantasea cruise (AU$40 one way) across to Hamilton Island only takes 40 minutes but being on a boat makes you feel planets away from anything. We decide to start off fast with Jet Ryder (AU$65 for 45 minutes) and work our way down slowly.

If you’re more used to jet-boating in New Zealand, where icicles form on the tip of your nose, there’s no chance of hypothermia here. We get thrown and twisted around while exploring a glassy Whitsunday Passage.

Next we’re back at the marina for another boat trip, and although it’s slower this time, it’s no less exciting. Indeed, coming to the Whitsundays without stepping onto a yacht is like going to Vegas without placing a bet; it’s wrong. We head out on a 36-foot catamaran with Adrenalin Rush (AU$60 for 40-minute sails) to get a feel for the ocean’s motion. When the wind fills our sails, we launch ourselves out on the trapeze, attached to our yacht only by a metal cable near our waist and our feet planted on the side. The exhilarating feeling that comes when you’re pushed along by nothing other than the wind can’t be beaten.

Feel the wind in your hair with an exhilarating day or three of sailing – with or without a skipper

Chartering a yacht up here should be a pre-requisite for any adventurer. You can either choose to charter your own yacht, after a briefing, or you can hire a skipper to take you sailing. We choose to charter a 38-foot Beneteau from Sunsail and for three days sail our way through some of the 74 islands that make up the Whitsundays, only five of which are inhabited by humans. I’m a sucker for Whitehaven Beach; I like to watch the sun set over the distant peaks of Whitsunday Island, and later see the white silica sand light up in the moonlight. In the morning you can swim to shore for a morning run, with dolphins and turtles swimming not too far away. And then, at last, the time has arrived for piña coladas.

Craig Tansley says:
With over 40 sports activities to try you’ll have to drink your piña colada fast. Add in going for bush walks, shopping at boutique stores, eating, drinking and being merry at a ton of different restaurants and cafés – you can even get married or renew your vows at the island’s chapel – we were exhausted. I couldn’t keep this routine up. But at the end of each day, there’s no feeling like the one you get knowing you couldn’t have fit another moment into your day.

FIND IT:

Air Whitsunday
Whitsunday Airport, tel: +61 (7) 4946 9111
Bush Adventures
385 Sugarloaf Rd, Cannonvalley, tel: +61 (7) 4946 1020
Turtle Point Golf Course
Laguna Quays, Kunapipi Springs Rd, tel: +61 (7) 4947 7777
Ocean Rafting
tel: +61 (7) 4946 6848
Proserpine River Eco Tours
tel: +61 (7) 4948 3310
The Scuba Centre
tel: +61 (7) 4946 1067
Tandem Skydive
Whitsunday Airport, tel: +61 (7) 4946 9115
Whitsunday Camels
tel: +61 0417 317 180
Salty Dog Kayak Tours
Shute Harbour, tel: +61 (7) 4946 1388
Fantasea
tel: +61 (7) 4946 5111
Jet Ryder
Hamilton Island Watersports tel: +61 (7) 4946 8261
Adrenalin Rush
Catseye Beach, Hamilton Island, tel: +61 0419 229 331
Sunsail
Hamilton Island Marina tel: 1800 803 988 (within Australia) or +61 (7) 4948 9509