Blogs from Hamilton Island, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

We left Sydney along with Luke and Dana in the morning and took a few hours flight to Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays. The Whitsunday Islands are a collection of continental islands of various sizes off the central coast of Queensland, Australia, situated between just south of Bowen and to the north of Mackay, some 900 kms (560 mi) north of Brisbane. The island group is centred on Whitsunday Island, while the group's commercial centre is Hamilton Island. The beautiful sunny weather of Sydney has quickly changed to very cloudy and rainy weather up in Queensland. We knew that the area of Whitsundays is currently in its rainy season but we clearly underestimated, as you will read later on. We landed on the smallest possible runway that a jet-liner can land on; it was fascinating to ... read more

We woke early and packed up our bags to make our way over to Hamilton Island! We (Jo) got the directions for the ferry to Hamilton Island mixed up and thought that we caught the ferry from the same place that we boarded the sailing trip, but we actually had to be at a harbour about a 20min drive away. It was a very hot day again so carrying our luggage around wasn’t much fun, but with Jo’s direction we happily trekked down to Schute Harbour only to realise the mistake and then call a taxi to take back in the direction in which we had just walked and across to the Harbour where we could catch the ferry to Hamilton Island. There was a ferry leaving just as we arrived and as it took a ... read more

Friday 26th February - Thursday 4th march Hamilton Island, part of the Whitsunday group. Hamilton Island is used almost exclusively for tourism. Hamilton Island is the second largest inhabited island of the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, Australia. Hamilton Island, like most in the Whitsunday group, was formed as sea levels rose creating numerous drowned mountains that are situated close to the east coast of Queensland, Australia. In 2003, the Oatley family acquired the resort and expanded developments to include an expanded Marina precinct, a yacht club and a luxury resort known as qualia which opened in 2007-8. The Oatleys own and run Hamilton Island Enterprises which operates the majority of accommodation and businesses on the island. A golf club has just been completed on nearby Dent island. The region spans from the beaches of Bowen in ... read more

9:07PM, the 'resort' Saturday night we had our dinner cruise. We all got dressed up and walked down to Darling Harbor and waited for our boat. It was very snazzy. We had the whole upper level to ourselves, and as soon as we sat down we were served Champaign. Almost right away we were able to go out on the deck to take pictures of the bridge and of the Opera House. However, since it was pitch dark outside, a lot of my pictures did not come out. After coming back into the warm boat, we were served bread. I asked the lady if they had gluten free bread, and she said she would check. I guess the bread everyone else got to eat was not good at all. The lady came back with a plate ... read more

It's time to live and love life alongside the Great Barrier Reef in beautiful and amazing Australia. Queensland Tourism needs someone special to share Hamilton Island and the Great Barrier Reef with the rest of the world. Let's go for a boat ride, snorkel with the exotic marine life, and grab some aerial video footage of a majestic wonder of the world. I've got the enthusiasm, passion, skills and sunscreen... Your tour guide is ready!... read more