Weekend in the Whitsundays

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July 3rd 2009

Published: July 11th 2009

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The Big Mango in Bowen (which apparently cost $90,000 to build incase you were wondering...)

Another one of Australia's "Big" things. Along with the Big Prawn, Big Banana, etc...

Another couple weeks have gone by again... And it has been pretty much the same; working hard for Brett, some work for Kara, great weather... Brett's boss Simon, came up for 2 days from Melbourne for work (or more likely to escape the cooler weather down there)... but it was great to see him again and we had a good night with him with a few drinks and some really good Chinese food (one of about the 5 choices for dinner in Bowen...), but at least it's good!

Then this past weekend, Brett took 2 days off (in a row) and planned a trip over to Hamilton Island for my birthday. Hamilton Island is one of the 74 islands of the Whitsunday Islands, which are part of the Great Barrier Reef. Hamilton is the 2nd largest inhabitated island in the Whitsundays and is also now the home to the guy that won that "Best Job In The World" contest to be the island caretaker. Only wish that had been us after visiting the island!

We took one of the earliest ferries over at 8am from Shute harbour in Airlie beach, since we were only going for one night we

Me and part of my birthday package from my parents in Canada - Cheezies!

Don't really even know why I like these now... I never ate them back in Canada, and then my brother and Maggie brought some over when they visited, and I am hooked! Plus the fact that you can't get them here makes them a prized possession that needs to be rationed...

figured we better make the most of it. After the half hour ferry ride, we pulled into the harbor at Hamilton and couldn't believe some of the yachts in the marina. Huge! We would have even taken some of the boats on the back of the yachts, but don't know if we could have even afforded that. A shuttle picked us up and took us to our hotel, which we had an amazing view of the water from our room on the 9th floor - only wish we were staying longer than one night! You can use any of the pools in the area, although a few were a bit to chilly for our liking... Maybe we have been up this way too long?! Brett is always putting a sweatshirt on when it's 26 degrees out, think he is turning into a Queenslander. Only people in the cool pools were Melbourne-ites and maybe Canadians!

We spent most of the morning on the beach and by the pool, and then rented a golf cart to get around the island which is a bit hilly, and is a good way to check out all the big houses. They are only a

Simon and Brett having a few pre dinner drinks and watching the sunset. And don't worry, I was there too, so it wasn't just the 2 of them enjoying a romantic sunset.

few cars on the island and all the rest are golf carts, and peoples driveways and garages are built specifically to that size. We checked out most parts of the island that we could get to, and since there is 70% of the island is bushland, that took all of about half an hour, then it was to the pool for a beer, then back to the room for another and some wine and cheese (and cheezies!) to watch the sunset. The island also has a free shuttle that services most areas, so we used that to catch into the main part of town for dinner. There are about 7 or 8 restaurants, a bakery, fish and chip shop, a pub, grocery store and a few touristy type shops in town. After not making a reservation for dinner (which seems to always be quite the thing in Australia, even when restaurants aren't busy, we still laugh every time we get asked if we have a booking and restaurant is maybe a 1/4 full), we finally got a table 2 hours later at Romano's Italian Restaurant. Remind us next time we are here to "make a booking". At least the food

Another sunsest shot in Bowen

was worth the wait. The restaurants are all a bit pricier than what you would normally pay in other areas, but then again - look at the view. Can't really complain!

We spent another full day on the island the next dat before unfortunately it was time to head back. We caught the 3pm ferry back to Airlie Beach and it was back to work for Brett on Monday. And off to Vancouver for a quick 10 days for Kara. But we are definately making plans to return to Hammo (as it is called here)...

*There are quite a few photos so if you want to see them, scroll down and then click on page 2, or you can click on any image and then go through them all larger in a separate window.

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