As the 6:30am alarm went off I awoke panicked, realizing that I was about to leave my Melbourne life behind for 2 months. My belongings prepared, I donned my backpacker’s bag and my aussie brimmed hat (to protect me from the fore-warned harsh Australian sun and to reassure everyone of how much a dork I am) and prepared for take-off. 
Part of me was excited to be on my own and independent again, venturing off into the unknown. The other part of me was reluctant to leave behind my happy, comfortable relationship lifestyle. In the four months preceding, Sean and I succeeded in winning over and building a cozy dream home in our neighbourhood of choice and I managed to find myself one of my favourite jobs to date, working as a waitress/bartender at The Corner Hotel. My new lifestyle still fresh and continually exciting, I found it hard to feel motivated for this departure… nonetheless, knowing that I was leaving so as to prolong this experience, I kissed my love goodbye and we hit the road toward the airport.
I found a 200$ flight on Kayak.com to the Proserpine Airport, just outside of Airlie Beach where I was staying until a working hostel in Bowen had room and work available for me. It seems the nature of fruit-picking is that people come and go at the drop of the hat, so it was recommended that I get to Airlie Beach and call in daily and make my way to Bowen (40 minutes away) as soon as any openings became available.
I flew with Virgin Blue, checked in online before leaving, dropped my bag off quick and easy and enjoyed two smooth connecting flights that took off and landed as per scheduled. I made sure to book myself window seats, knowing that we would be flying up the eastern coastline of Australia – the sights were awesome.
I had never had the pleasure of debarking on a tarmac and doing so for the first time into sudden humid heat was awesome. 
And just like that, I went from being in the cold of Melbourne to the tropical warmth of Queensland!
I boarded a 15$ coach to Airlie Beach and despite the overcast weather, I was so happy to find the beach town I would call home for a few days.
I had made reservations with Backpackers by the Bay, based on reviews I found on BUG. When I arrived it was quiet and I was ever so happy to find I had a 4 person dorm room all to myself, so I settled in and made myself comfortable.
The hostel has an all purpose kitchen, a pool table, a dining room, an outdoor patio with pool, hammocks under a canopy and a bar with free trivia every night where you can win a bottle of champagne. Everywhere you go there’s a view of the bay (unfortunate timing for me, they are also mid-construction on a huge resort on the bay… personally, I don’t mind, there’s much else to enjoy around me!). 
I walked around Airlie Beach to familiarize myself with the area and finally found myself excited to be on a sort of short holiday in a Summer beach town!