Zac’s turns 12 on Daydream Island

Well, as I mentioned before, yesterday was Zac’s 12th Birthday, and what better way to spend it than at the Daydream Island resort.

Was a very early start yesterday, we had to leave the caravan park at 7:20am to make our way to the mariner in time to check in at 7:45am. A number of us hadn’t yet seen this time of morning, but everyone did what they had to in order to be ready to leave bright and early. We made it there with plenty of time (for me to grab a coffee from the coffee shop!), checked in and boarded the large twin hull catamaran that would ferry us across to the island.

Everyone was in good spirits and full of excitement as to what the day may bring. The water was smooth and flat and it was going to be a beautiful day.

Was only a short trip on the ferry from Airlie Beach, taking just 25 minutes from departure to arrival.

With out feet firmly on shore, the biggest question was… “what now?”

First things first we needed to change into our bathers which were still wet from the afternoon spent swimming in the caravan park pool the day before. We headed to the resort reception where we managed to find a toilet in which to change. We also managed to find a resort map and after studying it, the closest beach was Mermaid beach.

As we left reception, we passed some of the “living Reef” that flows through out the resort. A man made reef filled with tropical fish, stingrays and sharks!

We even managed to find Nemo, small though he was!

I was most impressed by the Dolphins leaping out of the water, the water wasn’t even deep!!!

I dragged everyone away from the reef and headed for the Mermaid Beach. As we finally arrived at the beach and settled on some lounges in the shade as goanna wandered by to say hello.

Mermaid Beach wasn’t much to write about given it was more coral than sand and not at all friendly to our feet. I even tried to go for a swim, but it was so rocky and sore on my feet I could barely stand, and gave up before I was waist deep! The girls did like this beach though, and I guess we could make it into the next Disney blockbuster… “The Princesses and the Mermaids!”

The view of the water was beautiful, but there wasn’t enough shade for us all to sit in, and man was that sun hot! I managed to position myself mostly in the shade, but had my bum sticking out, and after a few minutes it felt like someone was shooting me with a laser beam in the butt!! Poor Zac whose lounge was in full sun tried to hide under a towel, but he might as well tried to hide in the oven! If we had stayed too much longer we would have been eating roast Zac for his Birthday!

So, crappy beach and not enough shade we checked the map and decided to head to the other side of the island to see if the beaches were better there. Was a good trek, about 1km in the blistering sun as the smart people in Golf carts wizz’d on by. We really should have figured out how to get one of the free carts that would shuttle you from one side to another… oh well. As we neared the other side, we stopped to look at the tale of the three brothers that were turned to stone in that very place by Medusa. Jess, our champion reader, read the tale to everyone before the girls tried to wake the brothers with a kiss in the hope they would tell us where the buried treasure was. No luck unfortunately. Hopefully you can read the tale for yourself in the below photo.

Just around the corner from the three brothers, we found a great playground with slides and tunnels and without waiting, the kids dropped their stuff and disappeared inside. I think they would have liked to play a little longer, but after 10 minutes in the heat with the water in sight through the trees, we dragged them through to the beach. Unfortunately what we found was more coral! Seems all the beaches on Daydream were not sand but washed ashore coral. Resigned to the fact we wouldn’t get to the beach, we retired for a swim in the nearby pool.

Now here was when I started to get a little edgy. You see I am not a person who likes to just sit and laze around the pool all day. Especially when you are on a Whitsunday Resort Island… lazing around the pool could have been done in the caravan park! I headed to the water sports stand to see what they had on offer. There was a glass bottom boat tour that interested the older girls… bah can’t think of anything more boring. Been there, done that and really as a scuba diver, staring at the reef through the bottom of the boat just doesn’t do it justice! Me, I wanted to hire a self drive boat and go exploring the islands.

Everyone started to get on edge, especially me as I watched the day tick away with nothing planned…

We had a great feast of a lunch at the Boathouse Bakery using the vouchers from the tour, then returned to the pool to re-screen before I cracked it and said I’m hiring a boat from 1pm to 4:30pm and taking Zac out exploring, while the rest can go do the 1 hour glass bottom boat tour. Finally with a decision and just before 1pm, Fi, Mark and I went to book.

Well, as it turns out I was right… on an island (not a theme park) you cant wait until the last moment to book stuff… The glass bottom boat tours only ran at 10am and 11am each day due to the tides and the afternoon hiring of the boats started at 12:45pm for the briefing and were all booked out anyway!! Grr…

Deflated, we headed back to the pool to tell everyone, agreeing we would hire some snorkelling gear and see the reef up close ourselves. As everyone jumped into the pool, I commented to Mark… “we wont get to snorkel”. “Yes we will, yes we will” he replied, but I just shrugged and pointed out the clock was ticking… guess who was right again!

So, I resigned myself to the fact the most exciting thing this thrill seeker would do on the island would be laze around a pool 🙁 Oh well, at least the kids still had a ball!

After a few hours of pool play, Jess studied the map and found the rain forrest walk back to the other side of the island which she thought would be exciting. We packed up and headed for an easy stroll through the rain forrest. What we found was more of a trek!

Confronted by steep stairs and a sign warning of steep ascents and rough terrain ahead, a few of our party started to have second thoughts. Jess was still keen, so I said I would do the trek with anyone that wanted to go, and everyone else could take a buggy back where we will meet them on the other side.

While Zac was the most vocal for the buggy, slowly everyone came around and we began our climb into the rain forrest. The track was single file, steep and rocky with tree roots sticking out to catch the unweary. I did crack it at one stage as Jess took a tumble behind me. The girls were all jostling to be first up the track (not something you can do on a single lane path) and walking so close to each other it was only a matter of time before someone had a serious accident. Also, I was sick of everyone standing on my thongs! “Spread out” I growled at everyone.

Now nature walks are fantastic. We saw some amazing views from the back of the island and the wild life you can see if you are quiet and listen for rustling in the bushes… or at least could have if the noisy ones up the back yapping away didn’t scare it all away!!! Luckily we did manage to see a few of the local rock-wallabies that must have been deaf!

I enjoyed our nature walk through the rain forrest, and I know at least Jess did, but back on the other side and finding Lovers cove closed for a wedding, we made our way to the pool to cool off again before heading for the boat. Managed to see a few more rock wallabies sunning themselves on the grass of the resort.

We made our way to the pool for what turned out to be the shortest swim ever. As the parents didn’t feel like getting wet again, just wanting to sit in the shade for a moment, we told the girls they couldn’t go in the deep pool with Clare and must stay in the shallow pool. Well, I didn’t see exactly what happened next, but somehow Tara and Jess had a fall and Jess landed on Tara’s head. With the twins screaming at each other, and Emma slapping the water yelling “No… I don’t want to swim in this pool…” we made our decision. Get out and get changed… we are heading for the boat.

We did make a short trip past the shop for a few souvenirs before heading to the dock to wait for our boat. The kids all posed for a few photos… I even managed to get one of Matthew smiling!!!!

Back on the boat, it was smooth sailing back to Airlie Beach. I even managed to get a great panorama just before we pulled into the mariner…

Being Zac’s birthday, he got to choose what we had for dinner, and it seems “The burgers are better at Hungry Jacks”, so it was HJ’s for tea. Afterwards, we returned to the caravan for cake, and to sing Happy Birthday. As you can hear, it was a little subdued after our long day.

PS – I was so tired I even fell asleep in my chair watching a movie!! Woke up all alone outside as the others just left me and went to bed!!!