We made ourselves a nice breakfast and packed our gear ready to take another longer drive, this time to Airlie Beach where we would spend a night before heading out onto the reef.

Half the day passed quickly and we found ourselves checking in for the boat around noon.  Somehow tired, we walked along the promenade for a bit before deciding to head over to the Airbnb a bit earlier.

As we took off, the car next to us made some really unhealthy sounds.  Poor buggers, I though, and continued on.  At the next traffic light I got a bit suspicious though, when another car next to me sounded weird.  By the third traffic light I pulled over and took a look.  I couldn’t see anything but the front left tyre was DEFINITELY making weird sounds.  We parked ourselves just outside of Airlie and called Hertz, who promptly arranged for another car to be ready for us at Hertz in Airlie beach.  Just one issue, I really didn’t want to drive far.  So we googled where we had to go….  And it turned out to be almost across the street.  Somehow the car just seemed to know where to die!

We arrived and they swapped the car, no issues, no fuss and an upgrade to an SUV because that’s what they had.  Gotta say, love the customer service!

The car we had was a small car, so driving the SUV seemed like a Tank for a bit, but it suited me well because our next airbnb was in the nearby hills….  Where the roads were somewhat steep.  We stopped by a supermarket because, for the first time on this trip, we had a kitchen and wanted to make dinner ourselves.  This turned out to be a really good idea, because the view from the Airbnb was just stunning.  Rainforest, Airlie, Ocean.  And a swing-seat out front to enjoy it from.