Hamilton Island
A few days after getting home from New Zealand, I was packing our bags for our next trip to Hamilton Island in the Whitsunday Island chain about 20km from the Great Barrier Reef. Thursday morning we woke up early to catch a 3 hour flight across Australia to the east coast. Our co-workers and friends here in Australia spoke very highly of Hamilton Island (or as they call it “Hamo”) and we were excited to get to our tropical oasis. Unfortunately, the forecast called for rain the entire 5 days we were planned to be there. UGH. We hoped and prayed that we would luck out and that it wouldn’t be too bad. Sadly, the rain did not stay away.
About one quarter of the island is covered in hotels, townhomes and a small village – the rest is lush forest. The interesting part is that everything is owned by the same developer, so it’s almost like you’re on a cruise ship because everything is accessible to you. We rented a two bedroom town home that had a golf cart with it, which was fun because that was our primary mode of transportation. Our first afternoon, we went to the activities desk to book our trip to the Great Barrier Reef, sailing trip and kayak rental but to our complete dismay, most water activities were cancelled for the next two days. WHAT!! I kind of freaked out and told everyone that I didn’t care if there were 9 foot seas, that I was going to the Great Barrier Reef no matter what (I mean you don’t travel within 20km of one of the seven natural wonders of the world and not see it due to 9 foot seas). Come on people, get out your Dramamine!! We booked the Great Barrier Reef trip for Sunday and said a little prayer that the seas would calm down in three days. We also booked our kayak trip for Saturday (though that ended up being cancelled :- ( )
It was hot, humid, and rainy so we went for a big lunch and beers to get us in the island spirit.
The first night we had a GORGEOUS sunset from our apartment on the side of a hill overlooking the ocean. Out in the distance is mainland Australia (and a few islands in between). That night we read and soaked up the dusk symphony of crazy sounding birds, frogs or whatever was out there (as loud as monkeys) - it was almost too loud in a fun way:- ) These pictures were our view from the deck at our apartment.
