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Published: February 13th 2012
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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 few mins to sort out the paperwork for our tickets we just missed that one but there was another one in 30mins so grabbed a sandwich at the café in the Harbour and caught the next ferry over to Hamilton Island. The sun was shining in force on our journey over to the Island so we got some beautiful views on the ocean and
Islands as we passed. The ferry was also very quiet and we had the top deck of the ferry pretty much to ourselves. We pulled into the marina at Hamilton Island which was clearly the parking lot of billionaires with lots of beautiful boats… this was when the 2 Jo’s launched their plan to find a millionaire on Hamilton Island! (Will was ok with this as long as he could reap some of the rewards)
From the moment we arrived in Hamilton Island the luxury started as the staff from the ferry off loaded our luggage onto the waiting coach who then drove us up to our accommodation. We had booked the ‘Palm View Bungalows’. It was the kind of Island where you could be sure there was no shabby accommodation, it felt almost as though the streets should be lined with gold, but we were still happy to accept when the receptionist offered us an upgrade to the ‘Reef View Hotel’ with views over the beach, ocean and coral reef.
The room was probably double the size of the whole boat that we had just spent 3 days on and we had an incredible view from our
balcony. Our only regret was that we were staying here for longer! It was about lunchtime by the time we had checked in so we dropped off our bags, picked up our beach towels and headed out to check out the Island. We walked down to the beach, which was only a few minutes walk from our hotel, and found the perfect spot to spend a few hours reading and enjoying a few rays. There were a couple of rain showers while we were on the beach but it was still sunny and hot so we braved out the rain, like only the British can, and it passed in 10minutes or so. Later in the afternoon Jo went exploring to find the swim up bar in one of the 7 pools on the Island… she was successful in her mission… so we picked up our stuff and headed over to enjoy a few cocktails in the pool! Bliss! The best part was that you could pay for anything on the Island by using your room key, we later learnt just how dangerous this was as we became a little too familiar with the phrase ‘put it on the room’!
After heading back to our room to shower and change we made our way down to the hotel lobby where we could catch the Island Bus – this is a free bus that does regular routes of the Island. There are no cars on the Island, only the Island buses and golf buggy’s. You can rent the golf buggy’s to get around the Island yourself or you can use the Island buses, which only take about 30mins to do a full tour of the Island. You can tell those who live on the Island and have invested a little more money in their golf buggy’s with flashy wheels and leather seats!
We caught the bus up to the viewing point where they set up a temporary bar to serve ‘Cocktails at Sunset’. The views were beautiful with 180 degree views of the ocean and nearby Islands – we shared a couple of bottles of Prosecco whilst we took some photos and Jo (Will’s sister) made friends with a Canadian couple. The weather turned a little cooler and we had a rain shower whilst we were at the viewing point but we huddled under the covered viewing area until the
shower passed.
We then caught the Island Bus down to the Marina which is filled with restaurants and bars. We had one more pre-dinner drink overlooking the Marina before the girls were getting giggly and clearly needed to have dinner. We chose a steak restaurant on the Marina for dinner and we all very much enjoyed our steak and baked potato and Jo even fund room for Pecan tart for dessert!
After dinner we took a walk around the marina which was very pretty with all the lights from the restaurants and boats against the night sky. We caught the Island bus back up the hill to our hotel, where we were pretty much asleep before our heads even hit the pillow!
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