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Published: November 3rd 2007
Hayman Island
Leaving Hayman Island Resort by HelicopterWell I mentioned that today was going to be a bit special and it certainly has been. I woke early with the sun streaming into my room looking out over the still Lagoon at Hayman Island Resort. A delicious buffet type breakfast overlooking the Lagoon in the Azure Restaurant was a perfect setting to begin another exciting day
At 8am I met my other two guests for the day, Craig and Melissa (another honeymoon couple from Derby) as we headed over to the Helipad (I am getting rather used to this type of travel!!) for our initial flight to Fantaseas Reefworld on the Great Barrier Reef. Jacko was our pilot and guide for the day and made us very relaxed for the 30minute flight. Such a clear and calm sea as we headed over the Whitsunday Islands on the Great Barrier Reef to the pontoon at Fantaseas. The best part was that we were some of the only guests on the pontoon at this time in the day and virtually had the place to ourselves, brilliant! The other 300 guests were arriving by boat in a couple of hours!! Thanks to all my friends who contibuted to my Fantaseas Voucher for
Hayman Island
More views of Hayman Island my birthday so I can enjoy this day!
Jacko landed the chopper expertly on a nearby pontoon and a motor launch came and fetched us over to the main pontoon. After donning our swimmers, rather fetching lycra stinger suits, flippers and snorkel we had about an hour in the water snorkling over the shallow waters watching and studying the reef. It was wonderful and even better than my experience at Port Douglas I think. The water was calmer and even clearer here and we saw some really big fish, a huge wrasse and turtles and even had the chance to feed some of the fish too. The waters are teaming with so many fish and different types of coral, it was stunning!
After the snorkling it was time for short trip in the underwater craft along the edge of the reef. Another chance to see some more of the reef without getting wet! Then it was time to head off before the crowds arrived in our helicopter again. By now the tide had gone out thus exposing more of the reef This gave us some fantastic views including the famous Heart Reef (A coral reef in the shape of a
Hayman Island
The Great Barrier Reef heart see photo) I took so many shots of this area I hope you will enjoy them.
Next we headed over to Hill Inlet and Whitehaven Beach. How cool was it to fly over this amazing Beach and Inlet before landing on the beach itself! Not only that, but then to enjoy a delicious Champagne luncheon supplied by the Resort with out own individual tents to keep off the blisteringly hot sun (about 32 degrees today!!) on this famos Whitehaven Beach, reckoned to be the best in Australia I would have to agree. It was a truly magical time with hardly anyone about on "our" beach just enjoying the moment....
Sadly it was all too soon before we needed to leave and head back to the Hayman Island Resort again so we packed up our picnic, put everything in the helicopter and took off from the beach like you do!!
Good to get a birds eye view of Hayman Island itself on our return. Apparently the swimming pool contains enough water to fill 9 olympic sized pools! Nice to cool off this afternoon around it before taking a walk out to a special place on the waters edge to catch
a magnificent sunset. Night night to all my friends at home........
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Charlotte
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Breathtaking....
Hiya Keith. The pics are absolutely breathtaking, so I can't imagine how amazing it is actually being there. I'm so pleased you're having such an amazing time and thanks for sharing it with us. It's great to see such beautiful parts of the world like this that haven't yet been ruined by us. Lots of Love xx