Hayman Island - the only transport once there is by foot.

I'll drive the launch!
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After a week in the city, we were ready to pack up our things again and head for Brisbane airport to catch a Jet Star flight (Qantas’ low cost airline) to the Whitsunday Islands, an hour and three quarters north. Bit of an extravagance, this, but we were persuaded by a great guy in a Manly travel agent who’d emigrated 9 years ago from Manchester (another typical Aussie then!). The guy has turned out to be a star, as we’ve been upgraded along the way and had bottles of champagne delivered to the room from him too! Not bad service eh.

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The Whitsundays are a collection of 74 separate islands on the Barrier Reef, only 9 of which are inhabited, and we booked to spend some time on two of them - 3 nights on Hayman and a further 5 on Hamilton – both well-known and heavily marketed in the UK as luxurious resorts.

We landed at Hamilton airport in the rain, needless to say, and then waited 15 minutes or so while they found the steps to let us off the plane. Seems we were a bit early and the man who’s in charge of steps was in the dunny or something. The single runway spans the width of one end of the island and runs parallel to the local driving range. Good job John Daly wasn’t practicing when we landed – the temptation would surely have been too great!

A friendly welcome at Hamilton Island Airport
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We were met by a couple of Hayman Island reps who escorted us to the waiting motor cruiser (also at the end of the runway!) - a large sleek catamaran where we were served non-stop champagne during the 50 minute trip to the island and whilst they did the formalities regarding check-in etc. We then realised that we hadn’t actually collected our luggage at the airport, but found that they’d done this for us and it was already on the motor cruiser on our behalf. Could get used to having one’s own staff you know … In the meantime, Jackie chatted up the pilot and ended up sitting in the co-pilot’s seat for much of the journey.

Another friendly Kookaburra on Hayman
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Our three days on Hayman was great, although sadly the weather wasn’t. However, the final day was beautiful and we saw the island at its best. It’s small enough not to need motorised transport of any kind and you can walk to various bays for snorkelling, picnics etc. If you want to go to any that are inaccessible, they’ll happily take you by motorboat. The package we were on included breakfast and dinner (for a small island they have four restaurants in the resort) and suffice it to say the food was the best we’ve experienced ever.

Hayman Island Resort
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Even after three days we still found it fascinating to see seaplanes coming and going and indeed were so lost in our awe when watching one of the island’s helicopters arriving that we hadn’t realised we were standing on the great big H – the helicopter landing pad!!!! We genuinely thought he was just waving at us – stupid poms again.

On Tuesday we came back to Hamilton Island on the launch again – more champagne, but this time not with Jackie in the co-pilot’s seat. We met a really nice couple from Glasgow who had been in Sydney for a wedding, and shared a few beers and stories on the boat on the way back. Shame we hadn’t caught up with them earlier on the Island.

Back on Hamilton, we were personally met by the staff from the hotel who had already sorted our luggage and took us by golf buggy (the only form of transport on this island) to the hotel for a personalised check-in over cocktails by the beach! At this point it was still only lunchtime and we were ready for a snooze to recover from the over-indulgence of the day so far.

The buggy trip from the airport to the Beach Club where we’re staying took us via the marina, local shops and some very expensive property, all of which was pointed out by the girl who’d collected us … turning around and explaining everything in great detail as she was driving along! More about the habits of driving golf buggies to follow later!!

The weather’s picked up considerably; the place seems great and we’ve got a few things booked to do – will update again in a day or two. NB: It’s 14^th December and we are pleased to report that we have not once heard ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’, ‘Last Christmas’ or Slade’s ‘Merry Christmas’ however the hotel seems to have an exclusive collection of the Kings College Choir Cambridge – particularly enjoyable over breakfast!