Whitsunday Islands

Still in Australia.  The Whitsunday Islands consist of 74 islands off the northeast coast and close to the Great Barrier Reef.  The stop at Hamilton Island was billed as a beach day (actually, a beach half day.) 

Hamilton is a privately owned island resort.  Rooms go for about $450 per night, at the lowest.  We were entitled to use the resort's facilities including pools, beaches, shuttle buses etc.  The resort wasn't prepared for this influx of people, already full of Chinese vacationers celebrating the Chinese New New Year.  The shuttle buses that only held 20 passengers had a 45 minute backup.  We chose to walk the 10 minutes over the hill, but a lot of our fellow passengers are not fit enough to handle the steep hill in this heat.  As we pass through the resort we see other choices of activities, most for an additional charge (breakfast with koalas, bowling, kayaking, sailboarding, table tennis, shopping, restaurants, movies, etc.

By the time we arrived at the beach, I just wanted to find some shade and cool off in the pool.  The crowded beach wasn't calling out to me.  We paddled around in the pool for a while and then headed back to the ship where our pool was empty and the pina coladas are free.

We could have taken a 20 minute plane ride over the Great Barrier Reef and, after seeing these photos, I wish I did.