Hamilton Island - A Holiday Before the Holiday

On December 20, 2010 we took off to the beautiful destination of Hamilton Island.  While my pictures are terrific, they do not do it justice and I would highly recommend this island as a place to visit especially if you are going to make the trip to Australia.  We only had 3 ½ days to enjoy the remarkable destination, but you will see we made the most out of our time on the island.  I will first start off with a little history on the island.

Hamilton Island is and island located in the Whitsunday group off the coast of Queensland, Australia.  It is the largest inhabited island of the Whitsunday Islands and is one of 74 islands in this subtropical paradise. 

Hamilton Island is one of the icons of Australia's top tourist holiday destinations. It is on about the same latitude as Hawaii in the northern hemisphere and consequently has a most attractive climate all year round. Average year round temperature is 27 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).  Two major movies were filmed here, Muriel’s Wedding and Fool’s Gold.

The first European to explore the area was Captain James Cook who travelled through the area on his journey up the eastern coast of Australia in 1770. He passed through Whitsunday passage, a narrow channel which lies between the mainland coast, South Molle and Daydream Islands to the west and Dent, Whitsunday, Hook and Hayman Islands to the east, on Sunday 4 June which happened to be Whit Sunday (the seventh Sunday after Easter) - hence the name of the area.

After our arrival, check-in and retrieval of our golf cart (pretty much the only form of transportation, excluding buses, on the island) we hit the beach and the pool.  While lounging by the pool, Santa even made an appearance.

We shared a snack with a few feathered friends and were forced to abandon our balcony for fear of being invaded by these Lorikeets and Cockatoos.  We were warned to not feed them and to keep our balcony doors closed, but as you can see Gary did not heed the warnings.

We enjoyed a Yellow Submarine Snorkel Excursion, which took us on a jet boat ride to Bali Hai Island where we then boarded a yellow submarine and took a tour of the inner reef located just off the Great Barrier Reef.  After the sub tour, we donned our bright yellow stinger suits and snorkeled the reef.  The stinger suits provide protection against the Irukandji jellyfish. It is deadly and only measures 2.5 centimeters across making it almost impossible to detect.  It is found in the waters off the coast of Queensland from October to May.  

We saw beautiful corals and fish.  It was definitely an amazing and unforgettable experience.  One of which we hope to repeat at a later date and hopefully do the actual outer Great Barrier Reef.

We went on a Night Safari Barbecue where we were transported via 4 wheel drive on a dirt road through an undeveloped part of the island to arrive at a secluded beach paradise.  We played cricket on the beach, went looking for oysters, taught a family from India how to skip rocks, ate a steak dinner (we think it was kangaroo because it sure didn’t taste like beef), sat around a campfire, sang songs, played a didgeridoo and played games. 

We drove around exploring the island, enjoyed our lunch of fish and chips (a staple in Australia) at a beautiful look out,  raced gokarts and Gary and the kids sailed a catamaran.

All of this was packed into 3 ½ days!  WHEW!!!   WHAT A HOLIDAY!   We loved it so much that we hope to visit again before we leave Australia.

DISCLAIMER:  All of the historical data was obtained and totally plagiarised from www.about.com, www.wikipedia.com and www.smh.com.au.