Australia here we come!

HAMILTON ISLAND

DAY 1

The plane journey from HK to Brisbane was 8 hours. Daisy slept for a lot of the journey again and woke just as we were coming in to land at Brisbane. She said “Daddy, I thought you said Australia was a long way, it only took 10 or 12 minutes!” (I wish it had felt that way for us!)

Our first experience of Oz was a very friendly one! The customs lady was very friendly, even the sniffer dog (a lovely beagle) was trying to rush to fuss the kids!

From Brisbane we took a smaller plane for the 2 and a half hour flight to Hamilton Island which is one of the inhabited Whitsunday Islands on the Great Barrier Reef. The airport was really small and the cases came off the plane on a truck with a trailer attached whilst we waited for them.

We were then assigned a golf buggy which is one of the main ways to get around the island, apart from a regular mini shuttle bus. The golf buggy was great, the kids loved it! 



The apartment we had was nice, it had 2 bedrooms so Oliver slept in the lounge area (although there were no curtains so he awoke early every morning!)


The views from the balcony were really nice, trees, mountains and the Coral sea in the distance. We immediately had our first visitors, some sulphur crested cockatoos which landed on our balcony in search of some food!

We decided to explore the island as it was time for the sun to go down. Oliver was fast asleep, having no sleep on the plane so we left him and set out to explore the island. We went up to One Tree Hill which is where everyone (tourists and locals) gather to watch beautiful sunsets. People take up drinks or you can buy a cocktail from the makeshift bar up there every night – only $14.40 (about £9 for one!) – didn’t bother doing that!

DAY 3

We had a boat trip planned today to Whitehaven Beach but it was really windy and you could see how choppy the sea was from our balcony! It wasn’t boding well for a boat trip but we rang the office and they told us it was on – eek!

On the boat, Em and Daisy felt a bit sick, it was very choppy. It took about an hour to get there. Whitehaven Beach it on the Whitsunday Island and is National Park and not inhabited.


The sand is made up of white silica and is stunning. We stayed there for about 1 and a half hours.

Stinger suits were recommended if you were going into the sea because although its at the end of the season, there could still be some Irikundai jelly fish which are very small, transparent and one sting can cause breathing difficulties and an overnight stay in hospital.

 

DAY 5 – BARRIER REEF SNORKELLING TRIP

None of us slept very well, probably because we knew we had to be up early for the snorkeling trip. We checked with a Fantasea rep the night before what time we had to be there and he said 8.45am. We drove to the harbour in our little buggy, feeling a mixture of nervousness and excitement only to see the boat disappearing into the distance! The lady at the office said it left at 8.45am, so we were a bit annoyed. Luckily though she said that we were able to re-book it for another day, so we booked for tomorrow seeing as that was our last day!

So - we had a hard day around the island and on the beach instead.......

DAY 6  -  TRY AGAIN…BARRIER REEF SNORKELLING TRIP

This time we made it onto the boat! The trip out to Hardy Reef took about 1 hour. We were really impressed with the company Fantasea. It was all very well organized. This company have a permanent pontoon out on the reef so you don’t have to swim out onto the reef from the boat which is a lot easier and all the areas are roped off so you can hold onto the ropes and not drift to far in the current. We had coffee and hot cross buns on the journey out there. As the children (and me!) were a bit nervous we decided to buy a guided snorkeling trip. We are so glad that we did, all 5 of us floated around on 2 rings with ‘Emily’ our guide who gave us talks on the marine life, corals, etc. ‘We saw a wrasse, parrot fish and we found Nemo! 

We then went in for the lovely BBQ lunch and felt a bit more confident about going out in the sea again on our own. We had booked Daisy into the kids club for after lunch, she was insistent she wanted to rather than come back into the sea with us so as it was just for half an hour, we let her do that then at least she could come back in with us for a bit at the end.

Oliver was adamant that he wasnt coming back in. He had been a bit nervous and was cold and the thought of putting a wet, cold stinger suit on didn’t appeal to him one bit, no amount of persuading would change his mind! So, he went back for some more buffet, whilst we went back to snorkel some more. During this time we spotted a turtle which was amazing. Daisy then joined us again, but not Ol.



We then had time to just fit in a ride on the semi-submersible which went along the reef, before getting back on the boat for our journey home where we had more coffee and chocolate cake!

 Teletubbies say Hello!

A lovely way to end our time in Hamilton Island and tomorrow the 3^rd leg of our journey begins…….