If it's school holidays, we're off exploring somewhere new. This time we ventured up to the Whitsunday Islands, a group of 74 tropical islands just off the Queensland Coast. Most of the islands are uninhabited but the area draws loads of tourists due to the stunning scenery, proximity to the Great Barrier Reef and outstanding sailing. We opted to stay on Hamilton Island, the most developed of all the islands. Hamilton Island, or Hammo as it's known, has its own airport so it was a quick 2 1/2 hour direct flight from Sydney. The weather, while not too warm, was sunny and beautiful for most of the first 2 1/2 days. We took advantage of it and headed to the Great Barrier Reef our first day (post to follow) and to Whitehaven Beach the next day. Whitehaven Beach is a gorgeous 4 mile long beach with bright white sand that's 98% silica. The next two days were overcast, cooler and sporadically rainy. The resort offered lots of activities though so we had no trouble entertaining ourselves with golf cart (no cars just "buggies") touring, kayaking, swimming, squash, ping pong, soccer, and a bit of wildlife (post to follow). We thoroughly enjoyed our getaway and I can imagine that with sunny days and a bit warmer weather, it would be torturous to leave!
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| Catseye Beach, just in front of the hotel, at low tide. |
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| View of Whitsunday Island, the largest of the islands. It's all protected parkland and is completely undeveloped. These islands reminded us of the San Juan islands near Seattle/Vancouver - except for the tropical part! |
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| Great view from our "cheap" Garden View room. Huh? Not complaining though!! |
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| Whitehaven Beach |
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| The sand is so soft, squeaky and powdery, you can't help but play in it! |
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| Hotel, other accomodations and Catseye Beach as seen from boat. One of the highlights of the trip for us, believe it or not in this huge hotel, was sleeping. It was incredibly quiet, as compared to our noisy "tent" bedroom in Sydney! |
More posts to follow soon!
2 comments:
Aaawww, so gorgeous! I could not help but feel a tiny twitch in my heart for not being there with you... it would have been so great. Glad you enjoyed it in spit of the non-perfect weather. It is a beautiful location. Your photos are so good! Loves the one of Mia running on the beach, her writing and the one from the "cheap" hotel room :) Oh, and that close up of the sand is nice too! Looking forward to the other posts from the trip.
What a great way to spend winter! I'm glad you are getting to experience so much and thanks for sharing it with the rest of us. All of your photography is amazing!
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