Location: Hamilton Island and Airlie Beach

Weather: Warm day, cool night, blue skies with a few clouds. 26°c

The usual busy days have left us for a while as Bre and I finally have a couple of days to relax and settle into a more normal routine back at Blue Pearl.

First job on the list though……a visit to the dentist! I lost a filling in my first week of being here so took the chance to get over to the mainland or ‘Australia’ as the islanders call it.

We haven’t even been to the Whitsundays mainland yet, whisked about from place to place since arriving so we decided to catch the Fantasea ferry across to Airlie Beach for a familiarisation session with the town nearest to us, on the big island.

Danielle met us at the jetty and delivered us straight to the surgery for my early dental appointment. Sam Wong was my man for the job, a Malaysian who’d been living in New Zealand and now works in Australia – quite a travelled chap!

Loved the technology filled room – they even have a minicam which shows pics from the inside of your mouth so you can see the problem, none of that at my surgery in the UK. The photo showed the obvious problem, half of my previous filling was gone, eek.

It was a simple enough procedure with just one decision for me to make, injection or no injection?!? I’ve resisted the temptation to have one for the last few visits, but there was some serious drilling to do here to remove the last parts of the filling and I gave into Leanne’s (Sam’s assistant) recommendations – and I’m damn glad I did!

After having the injection firmly planted in the side of my gum, its effects kicked in; the usual fat lip feeling, and then the whirring of that lovely drill thing started. Away with the last parts of the filling and then came the slip…right into the side of my cheek!! Arrghhhh – except with the injection numbing the side of my mouth I didn’t feel all that much, not yet anyway.

There you go, one replaced filling, (Ooo and it’s a white one for a change – I like these Aussie differences) one hole in the cheek but also now the ability to eat on both sides of my mouth again. Result.

The balcony at Blue Pearl is awesome, probably one of the best things at the house. It overlooks the Whitsunday Passage, which has a great tidal surge producing a strong current, and is popular with pleasure craft and apparently later this month even has migrating whales passing through it!

It’s probably 50 metres from the waters edge so to gain a better look at these amazing creatures as they cruise by I’ve decided to invest in a telescope…I feel like a real geek now. Ha, but when I got home I was rewarded with another sighting of our latest arrival (and what I’d almost consider a pet now) – a turtle! I like being a geek when the rewards are so immediate.

Biggest social function of the year on the island tonight – The Kindy Ball (aka The Best Ball in the World). It’s been running for 8 years and is a chance for all of locals to get together to have a good feast, drink and dance whilst raising vital funds for the causes. I’d been to meet Emma, one of the organising committee, the day before to discuss my involvement as I’d have to give a speech at the event.

The school have been running a project for the children where they had to paint a picture and create a video of the job they wanted to do when they’re older. The choices ranged from swimmer to stuntman to doctor and I decided to base my speech around this – what did I want to be when I was younger??

I’m getting better at it but still don’t feel 100% confident when it comes to addressing 450 people and so the nerves were jangling just a little as I sat awaiting my turn. Glenn Bourke, the CEO of Hamilton Island was before me and talks in such a natural way – one day I’ll do it that well! All in all though it went pretty well, I raised a couple of laughs, covered all the points, thanked the right people and left them all thinking about how damn lucky they all are to be living somewhere as stunning as the Whitsundays.

With the fundraising auction and raffle out of the way the serious job of dancing and making merry started in earnest…this lot know how to party. But in all seriousness it was a great night with $21,000 raised for the two causes.

End of day location: Blue Pearl, Hamilton Island

Distance covered: 30kms by ferry